Grand Slam

Friday 8th May, Marina Cala D’or (still)

God this is getting boring. Another day dawns, another blue sky and 25 degrees of warmth! I hear a force 10 is forecast for the Clyde today. Bad luck.

As Pam now can’t moan about the cold, she has turned her attention on the the Chavs that seem to inhabit the town nearby. Now the marina isn’t too bad (but what is the German word for Chav?) but once you get up into town and look around the restaurants then it goes from bad to worse. I mean, if you spend 50 Euros for the two of you to eat, you don’t expect families from Essex to let their 5 little brats (2 families) roam the restaurant creating mayhem. ....BBC – can you let me go on “Grumpy old men”. I do agree with Pam on this one though, the tourists here are quite a few rungs below what we had in Lagos. This really is a place to be avoided. If Greece and Turkey are like this then we will be back to Lagos in pretty short order. Pam got here ribs tonight but the experience was hindered by the other clientele. “Oh Really” - I say.

The local supermarkets are also pretty awful, selling predominantly British food at extortionate prices with not a lot of choice. At least we have managed to find a bread shop, a butcher and a greengrocer shop not too far away. Beer stocks have been seriously depleted over the last 3 weeks.

Back on the boat for a wee dram before bed and it was heavenly. The cool breeze that had been blowing all day had died down. All the German charter boats had gone – and even more importantly not come back. We watched a boat full of Brits demonstrate that they were no better than the Germans the night before at parking. Great entertainment. We are trying to think up witty comments to throw in to help the skippers like “what qualifications do you need to charter a boat”. Anyone think of any better ones? Leave a comment at the end of this post.

Before Rob left he donated his copy of “Collins Bird Guide” to the boat. I have been studying it hard but the only things I could identify was a sparrow having a bath in the yacht club pool and a bat last night and that is not in the book. Not surprising as it is a bird book not a bat book. There are no wooly mammoths in the book either so it was a good job I didn’t spot one today. I am still looking....

One thing missing from the blog this year is a purpose. Last year the readers may remember we had the “best pub in the world contest” which was won by the British bar in Lisbon – and also by Lazy Jacks and a highly commended for the bar in Kilmore Quay which was so memorable that I have forgotten the name (after a night’s sleep I remembered it was Kehoes). Well we can’t do pubs again can we? For now then I think we will have to with the “best place to park a boat in the world” although I may regress to pubs if it gets boring!

Port Adriano gets 1/10 on the basis that one can’t get in or out without going aground. That is pretty fundamental and deserves an “Oh Really” award. Good access and no mobos and it may have got 6 or 7. This marina (Cala D’Or) is pretty good except for the high pricing, the charter boat (with crap helms) overload factor (who get a 20% discount on the berthing fee) and no free internet so rates a solid 4/10. It could have made an 8/10 if these issues were sorted. Cala Bala where we anchored in Ibiza wasn’t bad so I’ll give it 5/10 (nothing too special) but I will give Cabrera an 8.5/10 – that will be a hard one to beat. It’s got everything and nothing and is free.

No update from the following boats. I guess Tony and Margaret on China Blue are now 5.5 light years behind. Speak to me Tony!

Thursday 7th May, Cala D'Or

Pam’s stopped complaining it is cold! Another blue sky day with wall to wall sunshine. There is a rather brisk wind to cool us down but this marina is very well protected with zero swell.

Last night the two German charter boats kept the noise going till almost midnight when I politely asked them to button it!....and there are more in today. The boat two down is from Norway – Stavanger in fact and the owners were involved in the North Sea race in the late 80’s and 90’s. We didn’t get too much time to talk but we will try and see them this evening. I do like Trevor’s (Balchis) comment from the last post but I would hate anyone to think we are racist (which we are not). ... so let’s settle with over krowded. ....anyway the German boat who gave us the longest display of how not to park a boat yesterday, managed to excel that performance when he took the boat out this morning, parking it against the string of bow lines. How he didn’t get a line around his prop is anyone’s guess. I just hope if he comes back tonight he is a long way from us.

Here is another pic from last week. This one is an action shot from Rob feeding the pigeons (Auduains Gull actually) when we were on Cabrera.

Trevor and Lesley on Kishorn called us on the radio from Porto Petro (1 mile overland!) and came over to see us for lunch. We went up the yacht club to show them what we have to put up with. Actually it is quite good value for food and drink – its just the membership fees that seemed high. Also it has great entertainment. While (or should that be whilst?) we were sipping our beer on the sun terrace we noticed a guy trying to set up a beer tap and barrel outside in the garden. Something didn’t quite go to plan and a small projectile spat out of the barrel just missing his ear followed by at least half the contents of the barrel. I think it was the assistant manager who came over and had a chat before rushing off to clean off the beer shampoo.

Last night Pam and I went out for a drink and ended up in the Jolly Roger – a brit themed pub- showing the Chelsea v Barca game. I was astonished a pint and a glass of red wine was 7.50 Euros. The yacht club was 2 Euros cheaper with nicer wine! I know where we won’t be going again. Maybe they put their prices up when there is footy on – but still. ......and Chelsea lost, letting down us Brits. Now if Liverpool had been playing it would have been a different story – but then I think Barca have a better chance of beating Utd in the final (pause awaiting a deluge of comments).

Going back to some pictures here are a couple of the moorings in Cabrera. The first one is taken from the castle. Grand Slam is sort of middle-ish towards the back. This was on Sunday night when only 20 of the 50 moorings were taken.

The second one is taken from the top of the 2nd highest hill on the island on the Monday evening when almost everyone had gone home.

 

Grand Slam is second from the left.

Where was I? Oh yes the main plot, Martin emailed to say he will be with us around 4pm on Saturday (that’s a day ahead of what I was working to) so we have decided to stay in this expensive marina Friday and Saturday night (no surprise there then!). Pam hasn’t had her ribs yet (that’s where we are going to eat tonight). It looks like there are a lot of south easterly winds through to next Thursday at least so we may have to change our plans and head for Menorca on Sunday and then over round the north side of Sardinia and down the east side – after I’ve spent two days reading the pilot book for the west and south sides (I lie – it was only 2 minutes). We have a couple of days to go before we need to decide. Trevor and Lesley are adopting the same strategy so we will probably catch up with them middle of next week (they are moving north tomorrow).

We heard from Steve and June that they were leaving Lagos to go to Faro. I’ll believe it when I see it. Tony and Margaret are probably 4.5 light years behind us now as they head for Cartagena. More tomorrow.

Wednesday 6th April – Marina Cala D’or

Cabrera was a great place. We spent two nights there, had some great walks and Rob saw 5 all time new birds including Auduains Gull and a Bee eater. Rob and Anna however had to leave for an early flight Wednesday so on Tuesday we headed back to Majorca to find a marina to drop them off. As the next part of trip is over to Sardinia, we decided it would be best to find a marina on the east coast of Majorca and have a couple of days there.

 

A rare pic of an even rarer Auduains Gull that came and sat at the back of the boat on Cabrera. You can even see his green legs!!

From the pilot book, Marina Cala D’or in Cala Longa looked to be the most attractive with promises of reasonable depths (unlike many marinas here). We sailed a bit of the way but once away from Cabrera, the clouds built up, it got quite cold and we ended up motoring into 15knts of cold wind. The sun managed to put in an appearance once we got to the marina – we radioed and they said they had space and were met by the marinier who told us to go right to the end of the river (er...Cala)! Now – the pilot book shows not a lot of water right down the end but that is where he took us, past hundreds of the obligatory motor boats. It did however open out into an area with a visitors pontoon and lots of big sailing boats. Grand Slam was dwarfed by all the other 50 footers. Depth up the cala was around 3 metres with 2.5 metres the shallowest.

Prices are going up by the day and although this is a really nice marina with great showers, it came at a price of 66 Euro per day. We’ve decided to stay for 3 nights and then come back to pick Martin up on Sunday. Loads of restaurants and bars serving every imaginable type of food at not too bad prices. We tried the local delicacy last night – roast suckling pig. Very nice!

We spoke to Trevor from Kishorn on the phone and he is somewhere near Magalouf in Palma bay and had been offered a marina berth for 64 Euro a night. His response was “oh really” – an “in” joke which I must tell you sometime.

Now I know I keep going on about high costs but we went into the local “club nautical” to see what it was like. Very nice modern building overlooking the marina. The plebs can go in and eat but to use any of the facilities (swimming pool, sauna, internet(!!) etc), one has to join the club. Membership was 20 Euro per day or 7,500 Euros for 3 years. Family membership was 600 Euro per month. It wasn’t very busy!!! There must be some rich people about.

Reading all this text must be boring so I thought I would catch up on some pictures.

Here is Bogey helming the boat into Cartagena. He really was on the helm - honest.

Bogey also caught up with his mum (that’s Lesley) when we got to Ibiza.

We’ve also heard from China Blue who are now 3.5 light years behind us so not sure they will make it to Majorca before we leave. Sounded like they had a lot of wind at times but have been doing shorter hops than us.

So it has been a lazy day today after seeing Rob and Anna off at 8.00am (along with one set of our boat keys!!!) ....duh!!! A bit more sleep, off to the washing machine to wash the ever increasing pile of dirty stuff, then to the posh sailing club for a late lunch and then off to the tourist dis-information office which of course was shut because it was after 2pm (and not opening again until tomorrow at 8.30am when there is bound to be a queue of tourists waiting at the door). What a great country! The guy in the chandlers was moaning about business being slack but then he tells me they are open between 9am and 12 noon and then again between 5pm and 7pm. Great business model!!

One final topic for today, seen as we are moaning about the Spanish is the number of Germans around here...... and they are all on charter boats. They seem totally incapable of parking their Bavaria 47’s even when the space to get into is twice the size of their boat. I did mention the war once but I think I got away with it. We recognised at least two of the crews from people in the bar in Cabrera. Doubtless there will be more comment on our Germanic friends in the next post.

Monday 4th May - Cabrera

Today we are bobbing up and down in one of the nicest places on the planet, the isle of Cabrera just off the south east point of Majorca. Cabrera is a national park with a very protected natural harbour. There are only mooring bouys here for which you need a permit – which Rob obtained before flying out. The sun is shining, the sea is blue and the beer is cold. Pam and Anna have gone off to a near by beach to try and swim (if they can avoid the thousands of jellyfish) and Rob has gone off in search of some Sullidae.

We got into Majorca a few days back – don’t ask me to remember how many – and tied up in Port Adriano. This was a marina occupied by 98% big motor boats. We managed to shoe-horn between two and there we were for 3 days whilst we said goodbye to Murray and Alan and hello to Rob and Anna. We did have a day overlap so had a good meal that night. The marina had all mod cons but I don’t recommend it to any other yacht. As we came in I was rather concerned that we only had 0.2 of a metre under the keel. I thought it was because we were swept towards a moored work boat (perhaps dredging). On the way out though, following the line advised by the marinier, we went aground. One minute it was 1m under the keel – the next zip!! It was only light sand silting up the entrance with all the new development work but I reckon 2.2m is about the max depth coming in. We got off with a bit of help from the marinier in his RIB but I don’t want to do that too often.

The weather on Friday was crap (rain and wind) so we went into Palma for a look-around. Now remember last weekend when Cartagena was closed for the weekend. Well this was hardly any better. Friday was a bank holiday as it was May 1st. I mean, what country would have it’s May day holiday on May 1st. Surely the first Monday is more logical .....err maybe not! So everything was shut again including the tourist disinformation office. There was a boat show on the harbour so we did that for a few hours to find some dinner plates (at vast expense) for the boat. The tacky green and yellow ones have now been consigned to the bin. Saturday (back to wall to wall sunshine) was a quiet day on the boat making sure the holding tank divert valve was working (another smelly job for me), which it is now and Murray went up the mast to fit the new Tacktick wind transmitter when it arrived with Rob and Anna. First thing Sunday, Alan and Murray departed by taxi and we filled up with fuel, ran aground and then headed off to Cabrera with a 12 knt following wind. We managed to get the Spinnaker up for a few hours.

Cabrera is a fantastic place. Nice and quiet. Free moorings. One of the few places to find Auduains Gull – which we spotted this morning – although Pam and I had seen them on Ibiza a few days earlier. We took the dinghy a couple of miles round the coast to see some caves and had the odd beer or three in the local army cantena (not unsurprising not the cheapest of bars). It must be warm because Pam has not complained about the cold at all for 48 hours!!!! There are 50 moorings here and yesterday (holiday weekend Sunday) about 20 were occupied. Today (mid afternoon Monday) there is only us on a mooring!!! The forecast is for some rain tomorrow though! Can’t recommend this place strong enough!! A “must see” place.

Rob and Anna are only over for a few days so we have to get them back to the mainland for Tuesday evening for a flight the following morning. We will either go up to the South East coast or back to Palma depending on the wind direction but we have now decided to try and get to the South East coast by Saturday to pick up Martin who arrives on Sunday for a two week stay – and passages over to Sardinia and Sicily. This means only a few 30 mile sails this week and quite a few nights away from marinas for a change. It was starting to get expensive with the prices rising all the time as we headed to Majorca. I’ve managed to miss the radio sked with Trevor the last 3 nights (beer, food, walking etc) so not a clue where they are – and we are out of mobile phone range so no texts. It has been nice though to chill out a bit and relax.

We’ve been keeping an eye on the weather west of Gibraltar to see if Steve and June on Piper manage to escape from Lagos but strong easterlies seem to have put paid to that (and probably for a while to come). Will they ever catch us up? I have to remind you though of how nice it was, sitting outside the army cantena, sipping a cold beer and looking out over the bay in 25 degs of sunshine. So that’s why we came south!!!!

Today is Thursday so it must be ....

...I haven't a clue. Usually one has some degree of regimentation in one's life but this trip to Majorca is far from that. I mean....you get into a new port and the capitaneri guy asks which port you have just come from and where you are going next. How the frack do I remember!! In the past few days since leaving Cartagena we have stopped in marinas in Santa Pola and Moraira on the Spanish mainland and anchored in Cala Basa on Ibiza. It was a tough call to make Majorca in 2 weeks and it's been hard work. Thankfully we can have a weeks rest in Majorca and chill out.

The last four days have been a lot of motoring although with some strong winds at times. Usually directly up the backside. We had 35knts as we arrived in Santa Pola which made for interesting berthing. Similar to Cartagena marina with big solid finger berths and the best shower block this side of Scotland (come to think of it, they are probably the best we have seen - ever) including a washing machine. Just over 30 Euros per night and they only wanted 5 Euro deposit for the access cards rather than the 20-25 Euro usually demanded. Good supermarket nearby but expensive restaurants - but that's what we have come to find. Spain is much more expensive than Portugal. I'd give this one 8/10 except it was expensive and 3 of us got mild food poisoning from a rather expensive restaurant ...... oh and no free internet ....so 7/10.

Tuesday we left at 9am to head up for Moraira and another marina, this time along side berths for visitors. We arrived at 7pm and left at 7pm so that was a waste of 33 Euros.... and no internet, no potable water and a toilet block door designed to skin your knuckles. The town was small so not much to see - and the obligatory expensive restaurants. Probably only 5/10 on the strength of the good easy berthing with little swell.

Wednesday was another early start to head offshore over to Ibiza. Lesley and Trevor (on Kishorn) had caught up so we headed for the anchorage in Cala Bala. We were around 10 miles ahead so arrived in time to anchor and have an evening meal before watching Trevor have 3 tries at dropping the hook before he was happy. Nice anchorage, well protected with good holding. While we anchored, we were visited by a couple of gulls who sat patiently off the stern of the boat. Nothing unusual in that then I hear you say .... but these gulls had red beaks. Now I may be wrong but they could have been Audouin's Gull (they are quite rare for those of us not into watching birds) which are found only on Cabrera and a few other places. However the Mediterranean Gull also has a red beak. I got some pics so will check with the Oracle (that's Rob). Audouin's gull though has green legs. How one is meant to spot this is beyond me when they are sitting in the water! Two years ago in Cabrera, a pair of Audouin's came and sat behind the boat just as these did. It must be in the genes.

Today was another early start at 7am for the last leg of the trip from Lagos to Majorca - to get Murray and Alan to the airport for their flight on Sunday and to pick up Rob and Anna for their few days break. As I write we have 15-20 knts behind us so we are making good progress without engine. It's a 65 mile sail so aiming to get in around 7pm. We are heading for Port Adriano near Palma which the pilot book describes as a good marina. I wonder 3/10 or 8/10. Now this ranking system is totally arbitrary and the judges decision is final. We cant have a 10/10 as there is always one better somewhere. 9/10 is pretty difficult to attain as it has to be the "best". Lagos in hindsight was I think an 8/10, let down only on how tight some of the berths were.

......anyway, we have done 650 miles in 2 weeks. That is 1/3rd of the way to Turkey. Overall impressions? It's been expensive! Food, drink and Marinas (except for Gib and Almerimar - both 6 or 7/10 - which were very cheap). It's been cold with a fair degree of clothing required for sailing except for mid late afternoon. Pam is still complaining of the cold. What's new.