May 2016

 In which we blast through the Balearics and have a short sojourn in Sardinia.

We woke to a beautiful morning in Cartegena on the Sunday 1^st May, just lacking a little sleep from the music playing into the not-so-small hours.  We had our usual shopping etc. to do but also wanted a good look round.  Our timing was, once again, a little off.  Museums and galleries have Monday as their closed day but many are free on Sundays.  Every Sunday except the 1^st May, when they are closed.  We did manage to walk round the old Roman amphitheatre and have a look round the town on Sunday and the site of the Roman Forum was open on Monday, but that was it.  While the centre of town and the harbour are thriving, just a few streets back things are crumbling.  The planners have to applauded, though, as the fascias of derelict buildings are propped up and preserved against the time when money permits their restoration.

Tuesday 3^rd started with light airs and the promise of afternoon sailing so, as we didn’t have far to go, we went round the arqueology museum, which gave a good insight into the preservation of underwater treasures.  We let go at 1215 and, after a motor to the head of the bay, had a fine sail 43 miles along the Coast to Torrevieja which has a huge harbour.  There is some confusion as to whether one is permitted to anchor inside it but we did and had a fine, undisturbed night.  Up anchor at 0915 the following morning and close hauled the 48 miles up to Campella which was our launching point for the crossing to the Balearics.

We expected to be anchoring for our first few nights in Ibiza, so took the opportunity for a big shop before departure and also topped up the diesel tank.  The distance across is too great for a daylight hop, so we left at 1430, to ensure a daylight arrival.  The wind on departure was NE3-4 but forecast to back to Northerly to give us a beam reach across.  This shift never happened and we were close hauled all the way and had to beat up the coast of Formentera to our chosen anchorage at Isla Espalmador.  This is an almost completely enclosed lagoon, giving protection from all wind directions.  It also gives a good view of the bay to the South, which is the haunt of Mega Yachts.  The owners of the 2 X 200 ft+ motor yachts no doubt felt inadequate next to the 300 ft monster but our eyes were taken with the 150 ft sailing yacht which obviously had a new suit of sails and was giving them sea trials for our entertainment. 

Sea trials

We stayed here for 2 nights before heading NW round the coast of Ibiza.  Next stop was Cala Castella, a pleasant but small bay with room for only one in comfort.  As we approached, we saw a couple of flotilla boats heading in for a late lunch, so full speed and drop to get prime position.  Once they had left, we laid a second anchor, to limit our swinging radius and dinghied ashore.  On the cliff above is a modern stone circle, aligned with the setting sun at winter solstice. This was erected by the boss of Circe du Soliel, who has a nearby mansion.  We were getting short of water so planned a short stop at San Antonio the next day.  On mooring we were informed that we would be charged 12 Euros per 30 minutes!  Elsie was left topping up the tanks while I did a quick dash to chandlery and supermarket.  We did overstay our half hour but only because it took them 10 minutes to process the payment.  Out again and on to Portinax, a nicely sheltered cala on the north coast.  From the sea, the tourist development looks rather up-market but on going ashore we found it to be otherwise and our snobby selves crossed it off our list. 

Ibiza stone circle

A further hop the following day took us round to Cala de San Vicente.  Again good shelter with some gorgeous looking villas on the surrounding cliffs but the centre was a little disappointing.  As was our arrival in the dinghy: I mistimed a wave going in and we got swamped so we walked round in dripping clothes.  As we were planning to cross to Mallorca the next day, we wanted provisions but the shopping was sparse.  On the off-chance, we asked for mushrooms and the owner popped through to the attached restaurant and fetched some.  Same with fresh meat.  We left before Elsie had the chance to order a bottle of wine.

An early start on Wednesday 11^th for the crossing to Mallorca.  Downwind under cruising chute most of the way, although we had to motor for an hour when the wind died.  Our destination was Porto Vells, just 2 miles south of Magaluf but a world away.  A large triple cala, well sheltered from all except NE winds and with some very nice houses overlooking it, including one with an elliptical infinity pool with blue glass facing – nice!  The anchorage was a little crowded when we arrived but once the lunch-stoppers had departed we were able to re-position to a prime spot.  The following day we rowed ashore for a look at some caves.  Obviously natural in origin, they had been seriously squared off inside.  A huge effort to no obvious purpose.  Elsie had been involved with a Facebook group where the topic of ‘anchor privilege’ had been discussed.  This is an invention whereby the first arrival sets the rules including personal space.  ‘Cobblers’ say us.  If we need a safe haven, then we drop our hook and if the sight of our washing or the sound of our wind generator offends – tough.  On our second full day here, we had a slight re-think.  The German who anchored 15 metres away was just about acceptable but the Russian who dropped his anchor, went ashore for lunch and was swinging within 2 metres was definitely not.  We were sufficiently concerned to delay our afternoon trip ashore until after they had left.

This is too close!

House with infinity pool

After a couple of days of light airs, we had the forecast of a sailing wind on the 14^th and set off for Cala Pi, about 18 miles away.  The conditions proved much better than we expected, so we carried on round to Cala Dor, a further 22.  The perfect anchorage has now been deemed out of bounds, so we had to go around the corner to Cala Gran.  We anchored between picnicking motor boats and, once they had left, laid a second anchor to limit our swing then dinghied round to the marina for a few supplies.  The following day the wind was not so kind and instead of the nice reach up the east coast, we had a beat to Cabo de Pera.  Once round there, we had a broad reach in strengthening winds across Bahia de Alcudia to Cabo Pina in Bahia de Pollensa.  Our chosen spot was just round the point and we were concerned that the building swell would follow us round.  We were also disappointed to see that 3 other yachts had beaten us to what would be a very confined area.  One of them, however was still manouvering and, seeing a fourth arrive decided to move on.  The other 2 were Dutch yachts, transferring fuel and once they had completed this, they also left, leaving us to pick our spot.  The bay is bouyed off as a military area, though all we could see was a beach house and a pedalo, so we decided that it was some Spanish admiral’s holiday home.  Outside the buoys was largely weed but we managed to drop 2 anchors in two areas of sand and settled for a comfortable night.

Admiral's beach house with pedalo

On the 16^th, we motored across the bay to Pollensa itself.  We had managed to book a berth for one night on the slightly arcane Ports IB website but found on arrival that there was space to spare and decided to stay 2.  Ashore for shopping, food and chandlery also booked a hire car for the following day.  The mountain roads along the North end of this island proved an interesting drive, especially coming up from Cala de la Calobra where we were against the flow of traffic, largely consisting of tour busses.  My reversing skills were tested.  Into Soller for lunch.  In Spain, under a law dating to Franco’s Republic, all restaurants have to provide a reasonably priced menu option and we decided to test this at a harbour front café.  The waitress obviously disapproved and provided extraordinarily slow service, but it turned out to be very good, both in quantity and quality and very good value at 15 Euros for a 3 course lunch at an establishment where many of the main courses were priced at 20.  The only problem was that it took over 2 hours of our day of sightseeing, so we travelled back on faster roads.  Stopped at a Lidl on the way back and stocked up on essentials.

It was time to move to a new island and on the 18^th we headed off towards Menorca. Light winds meant that we had to motor to the mouth of the bay but a building southerly then gave us a stately reach across.  I never cease to be amazed at the effects the islands have on winds.  Menorca is quite small and flat but, as we approached Cabo Nati, the SSW 4 turned in the space of 200 metres into a NE 3, making us close hauled up to Cala de Algareyens. The following day, similarly, what was forecast to be an easy sail back round the coast with a following wing proved to be, after the first 5 miles, to be a beat.  Algareyens had a huge area of sandy bottom of suitable depth and, as there was only one other yacht, we were able to get an ideal spot for the night.  Another beautiful bay.  On the 19^th we sailed, working harder than expected, back down the west side and into Cala San Saura, once again having a lovely spot all to ourselves.

On the 20^th, we continued our circumnavigation of Menorca to Cala Taulera on the approaches to Mahon.  This is an almost completely land-locked lagoon with a heavy mud bottom – ideal for anchoring except for the cleaning up afterwards.  Again, we repositioned after the lunch-stoppers had left.  The crew of a neighbouring yacht, Carousel, joined us for a beer and a chat and told us of amazing car hire deals to be had.  They had booked one for a week at a total price of 4 Euros.  After they left we looked and managed to find one at 12 Euros, but took the cancellable option for an extra 4.  On rising, the weather forecast, which had been dubious about our next leg, looked good, so, with 10 minutes to spare, I cancelled the car and we prepared to leave.  It was only later that we realised that we had not set foot on Menorca.  Definitely somewhere for a return visit.


We have been discussing future plans.  It is our definite intention to cross the Atlantic this winter and are reasonably satisfied that we can manage the trade-wind sailing with just the 2 of us.  Returning is another matter as we would be on a more northerly track under the influence of the North Atlantic weather systems.  To build confidence, we decided to do a 'virtual voyage' in real time, using the forecasts that we would have for real and on the 15th set off from the Virgin Islands on the first leg up to Bermuda. While we could not, of course, experience the actual weather, it was good to see how advanced forecasts changed as the days passed.  The system seemed to work well and we 'arrived' in Bermuda on the 22nd without experiencing anything frightening.  We decided that we would want to have at least a week before moving on, so will look to move off at the start of June.

Our passage across to Sardinia went well.  We had a beam reach for the first 18 hours but, owing to a misreading of times of windshifts, ended up North of track which meant being close-hauled for the following 12 and ended up with 4 hours of motoring in almost flat calm.  We anchored in the north end of Cala del Bollo, a few miles west of Alghero.  A Mistral wind blew up in the night but we sat comfortably.  In the morning I decided to load our new navigation data card into the chart plotter.  We would need this on heading East from Sardinia.  It would not load – disaster!  Phone call to the supplier, Navionics.  Is the software on the plotter up-to-date? No.  Then that’s why.  Downloaded latest software from Raymarine onto CF card and tried to load it.  Failed.  Spoke to Raymarine.  It seems that the biggest card the plotter will accept is 128 Mb and the smallest that I had was 2Gb.  We needed to get into port and find another card.  We picked up anchor and headed towards Alghera before common sense prevailed – we were leaving a secure, comfortable anchorage in near gale conditions to head for a strange port, with entrance exposed to the prevailing wind.  About turn and wait it out.  The next morning, the wind had dropped so we started again, only to discover that the anchor windlass kept cutting out.  We now had 2 urgent jobs.

We were met at the entrance to Alghero by 2 RIBs from different marinas competing for our custom, which enabled us to practice our haggling skills.  Once tied up, we searched ashore for a small capacity CF card but it was definitely 10 year old technology.  We worked through the windlass problem and discovered that the contacts on the relay were badly pitted.  The following morning we chatted to the owner of the boat next door, a fellow Cruising Association member.  ‘Electrical problems? You need Ricky' – telephone number supplied.  Sure enough, 2 hours later Ricky was there, quickly agreed that we needed a new relay and, on Thursday morning supplied and fitted that and produced a 64 Mb CF card the he kept purely for the job we needed done.  Chartplotter updated, try again with Navionics card and – failure.  This time I used on-line chat and, after 2 hours of expensive internet they finally discovered the problem lay with their servers producing corrupt data.  Problem on the way to being solved.  It just needed several more hours to reload all the chart data over a slow internet connection.

Alghero by night

We had had a few forays ashore and had liked what we saw, but finally had time for a relaxed stroll through the old town and along the city walls in the gloaming.  Truly stunning.  We decided that Sardinia should be added to our list of favourite islands.

We had wasted 2 days of good sailing weather and now had the prospect of a couple of light air days.  We filled them by first sailing / motoring South to Bosa.  This has a new breakwater round the entrance to the river, giving us a perfect anchorage and the opportunity for a dinghy trip up the river to the old, picturesque town.  On Saturday, we made the reverse trip back to near our original anchorage.  This time, as the wind was forecast to shift to, light, southerly we went round the corner to Cala Tramariglio, which would give better protection from this direction.  Mooring bouys were available but we prefer to anchor when we can.   We had to drop the hook in an area of weed, which we try to avoid, both so we don’t damaged the weed but also because it is poor holding but, as winds were not forecast to exceed 10 knots, we made and exception.  The day had been muggy and there were dark clouds to the West, which should have been sufficient clue.  2 hours later, we were hit by a squall and dragged the anchor, fortunately towards clear water.  A French boat, ‘perseverance’, dragged also, headed for the last remaining mooring buoy, then changed his mind and went back to anchor.  As the air had cleared, I convinced myself that a front had passed and we were now safe, so found a small patch of sand a re-laid the anchor.  At mid-night we heard the wind rise again and this time, there were 4 of us dragging, including ‘Perseverance’, which was upwind of us.  To our consternation, we saw that their entire crew was at the bow, struggling with the anchor, leaving no-one at the controls.  I had to swing Ruby clear of them as they dragged past, fortunately without contacting our anchor chain.  Enough being enough, we picked up and backed up to the remaining mooring buoy and made fast for a settled night.

Bosa from the river.

Sunday was forecast for good sailing, and so it proved.  Up past the NE tip of Sardinia and Isola Asinara.  We were kept company for the first part by a yacht out of Alghera who kept changing his sail plan but couldn’t keep up with us under genoa, then cruising chute as the wind decreased. He gave up and motored through the narrow passage between the islands.  We rejected this as it is quite shallow and there was a good swell running.  Once round the top of Asinara we continued to sail well but, rather than continuing to our original destination of Stintino, entered Cala Capone and picked up a mooring buoy.  This beautiful bay could easily be mistaken for a Shetland voe – just 20 degrees warmer.  As we were alone, we took the time for some mooring practice on Monday morning before setting off East towards Capo Testa.  A slow run to start with but as the wind veered and increased we got a great broad reach past Testa and into Baia Reparata.  As we approached, Elsie got a message that our friends on Carousel had leap-frogged us and were already there.  Reparata is another great anchorage, protected from all except NE winds and with plenty of room.  We were invited over to Carousel for a barbeque and had a good, though early, evening as we planned an early start.  The forecast showed a tongue of wind to the East of the Bonifacoio Strait, strong in the centre but decreasing to almost nothing on either side.  We elected to go south, but must have overdone it as, after a couple of hours of F5, it died to almost nothing and we had a slow passage, alternating motoring and goose winged sailing.  At midnight, we had made 85 miles with nearly 100 to go to our destination on the Pontine Islands.