By the time May came I was getting impatient to get going. 8 months was a long time to spend in one place although my time at Aguadulce was very enjoyable and the time went very quickly.
I had made contact with Harry and Sylvia with a boat called Our Sunwood 2 who I had met in Gibraltar and who had wintered in Almerimer. We agreed to join forces for the trip to the Islands.
My gratitude goes to Bob & Liz on MY Heaven for keeping company with me and showing me around the islands.
My impression of the islands was very good, although we did have some wind. It was however warm and Lady C is good at anchor as the wheelhouse provides a good wind shield. This also worked well for the BBQ. All the marinas were pretty full but once the day boats had gone from the anchorages there was plenty of room. The cost of marinas was high with Sabina at over £100 per day during August. £40 per day was typical.
There is a lot to be said for this life as, unlike England, nobody has to hibernate for the winter and I have made so many new friends.
Gradually learning what I want from a boat. One thing is a quiet generator the other is a washing m/c. The boat needs some feminine input but this is not readily available as a single male is treated with suspicion by husbands and there are not many single women of my age. The young ones do not want to be lumbered with an old fogy like me. There have been attempts to ‘match make’ by some boats but without success so far.
Diary of my travels.
Chart showing the journey attached, hopefully.
May 17th
Departed Aguadulce. Harry was delayed a day but having got wound up to leave I couldn’t wait .The first stop was in a small Caler called San Pedro. This turned out to be only accessible by water or a one-hour walk and was inhabited by a hippy type commune where they lived in caves and under the trees. I got talking to a journalist who was on holiday there and the next thing I new I had two nude girls swimming from the boat. They stayed on board and came with me to Aguilas. This seemed a good start and if the rest on the summer was to be like this I might not survive to get around the Islands!! Met a Canadian couple here on a yacht called Two Step who did a programme for American TV and ran a web page on there boating adventures as a living. Quite a good life.
May 20th
Sailed to Aguilas. Not the calm sunny day I had hoped for and the anchorage was very rocky with a lot of swell. Everybody got very wet.
From Aguilas we went to Torrevieja and stayed there for 9 days while Sunwood repaired his generator and I got a pipe fabricated for the engine. It is a very large port with plenty of room to anchor. It is known as the salt cellar of Europe as large cargo boats fill up with salt here. Met Bright Star, MY heaven, Blue Bass and Baroness there and had my first of many BBQ’s on the boat. All went very well.
May 30th
Next stop was Calpe. Had a meal ashore with Harry and Sylvia.
May 31st
Across to Espalmador. Anchored alongside a German boat ‘Wanofor’ who I was to meet several times again. This is a well known spot generally called paradise. It is a beautiful expanse of sandy beach with beautiful turquoise water. It is generally nude. Getting used to this now. It saves on washing and wearing out cloths. There were 5 or 6 boats here that I knew from Aguadulce so I had another BBQ on the boat. Two Step did a lot of videoing here and I got interviewed and filmed in the mud bath with a Norwegian family, Anette, AlfGunna, two children & Anette’s sister Tonje on ‘Maraton’. The video is supposed to be going out on American TV. Their web site is www.searoom.com/shard. Spent a week here and then a gale was forecast. It is a bit exposed so some boats went up the west side to St. Antonio but as the winds were coming from this direction it did not seem a good idea so I went up the east side to Ibiza with ‘Two Step’, ‘Maraton’ the Norwegian boat and Alex in a boat called ‘Sven’y’ Two’.
Lost my macho image when I went ashore in the tender and misjudged the water depth. Jumped overboard near the shore with the anchor and disappeared under the surface and had to swim with the boat to the beach.
June 9th
In Ibiza I made a mistake and moored onto the Club Nautica pontoon. The swell was very bad, making the boat surge towards and away from the pontoon so I was afraid the cleats would pull out. I learned later that it would have been better to anchor in a Cala just outside Ibiza.
Survived the gale and met up with another boat ‘Nina’ with two doctors a nurse and friend. The boats who went to St. Antonio had major problems with boats loosing and damaging props, dragging anchors, and getting blown onto the shore. Ibiza town was nice with an old walled part complete with castle but there are a lot of gays and transvestites.
June 11th
From Ibiza to a small Cala was called Cala Llonga for 2 or 3 days with Alex who had trouble with a broken rudder and a duff starter motor . Left him there to sort his troubles out but was unhappy that I could not help him. Another boat from Aguadulce, ‘Checkmate’, was here.
Next stop Cala Mastella were I met up with the doctors again and we had a superb fish lunch at a restaurant where the tender could tie up almost alongside the tables.
Carried on up to the top of Ibiza to Portinatx where as I was turning into the Port, Bob & Liz on MY Heaven arrived. Very nice here with clear blue water. Talked to Bob & Liz about Alex and decided to buy two of his moisture meters and if he brought his starter motor Bob would try and repair it. This he did and Alex went back happy. Do not know how he got on but his boat ended up in Puerto Sabado on Formentore. From here I went in company with MY Heaven around Mallorca and Minorca.
First stop in Mallorca was Puerto Andraitx for a few days. Anchored alongside a German boat ‘Wanofor’ again. Met Eileen and Richard on a catamaran called ‘Bagheera’.
June 20th
Then up to Puerto Soller. The trip to Soller was spectacular with high mountains dropping shear into the sea. Soller is a delightful port with an old tram ride to the town of Soller which goes past peoples back gardens and orange and lemon trees. An beautiful old train goes from here to Palma through a tunnel in the mountains for a short distance. A spectacular ride which I did. Met Pam and David on ‘Pulsar II’ and an Joe and Jeannie on ‘Madrigal’. ‘Bagheera ‘ arrived. Another BBQ party.
A half hour up the coast is a spectacular Cala called Calobra. It is one of the sights in Mallorca. The water is that beautiful turquoise. A party of us went there for the day. Pam used to be an art teacher and did a delightful sketch in my log book.
One Saturday morning I got a call from friends of mine, Mike and Diana, asking if they could come for a week as the weather was so bad in England. They arrived that night. We had some pleasant walks into the mountains and had a delightful birthday party meal for ‘Madrigal’ at a restaurant in the hills overlooking a valley. On one of the walks we went to an old farm house where they did fresh orange squash, home made orange and lemon marmalade, which was out of this world. They also had the old machinery for pressing the olives which was still used.
July 5th
The weather was forecast as a period of calm so we and ‘MY Heaven’ left for Pollensa hoping to spend a night at Calobra if there was not too much swell. Calobra was flat calm and we sat on the deck in the warm sunshine drinking and watching a goat with it’s kid come down what looked like a vertical rock face with no foot holds. Suddenly from the VHF radio came the sound of music from a squeeze box. It was Liz on ‘MY Heaven’ playing it.
Departed for Cala Formentor outside Puerto Pollensa. The coast was again shear vertical rock into the sea with the occasional open Cala with pine forest on top. Quite spectacular. A lot of boats will not come up this coast as in a 50 mile stretch of rock there is only Soller as a port of refuge. That’s why it’s nice to have two engines. Formentor there was a bit of swell so we went into Pollensa.
Pollensa is a pleasant port and a nice town. ‘Bagheera’ was already here. We met up with Sandy and Liz from ‘Rendezvous’, Joe and Jeannie on ‘Madrigal’ and Peter & Nicky on ‘Pearl Fisher’. We all had some good evenings in the town square with the local music.
Mike and Diana shared a taxi with some friends of ‘Madrigal’ to go to the airport for home. They had had the best the islands can offer in company, port’s, Carla’s, scenery and weather.
Next stop Minorca. Called in Cala de Son Saura for lunch and spent the night in Cala Santa Galdana. A beautiful Cala but like many in Minorca spoilt now by to many to high hotels. Difficult to get out of the swell here.
July 21st
Cala Taulera just in the entrance to Mahon with a stop for lunch at Cala Binibeca. On the way called in to Cala Covas but it was very narrow and full of boats so we did not stop. Mahon is a delightful old town with a realistic outlook. An lovely old church in the centre of the town had been converted to a commercial centre with a supermarket underneath. ‘Bagheera’ arrived. Several boats we knew stayed in the harbour of Mahon itself. With a 2 mile trek into the town the 15 HP engine on the tender was invaluable. With just two people it will do 20 knots!
Went to a fiesta in one of the local towns with horses and riders all dressed up. The horses were made to stand on their hind legs much to the delight of the crowd. Giant figures of people in various old style costumes were carried around with someone inside.
The anchor winch had been giving trouble so checked this out and found that a bearing on the gypsy pulley was badly worn. After great difficulty I got a phone number of a bearing supply company and we found a friendly waiter who spoke English. He kindly rang the company, who had a bearing, and he got their address in Alaior. It was only a short bus ride so Bob and I went to collect it.
As the sea water was getting warmer the port engine temperature was getting too high. The calorifier was fitted to this engine and it was incorrectly fitted so that it restricted the cooling water flow. I disconnected it and refitted the original pipe, which was thankfully still around. This solved the problem and for the first time both engine temperatures were the same. The calorifier still has to be re-connected in the correct manor.
August 1st
To the north of Minorca, Puerto Fornells. Stopped at Addaya for lunch and found ‘Baroness’ there. Fornells is a very large harbour but with a narrow entrance. It is a sailing and surfboarding centre and we found out why. The wind blows a lot. I think it is because we are now on the edge of the Gulf de Lyon and this summer there has been nothing but gale warnings for the Gulf. Tested my anchor out here in a force 7 Gale. I put a second anchor out to be safe although deliberately did not use it. Then went diving after the gale to find out what had happened. With 60 meters of chain deployed the anchor had not moved or even dug itself in and the holding is supposed to be bad. During the storm a lot of boats had problems with dragging anchors and you could see red and green navigation lights sailing about the harbour all night. The main problem is that people do not put out enough chain. Sailing boats seem not to carry much chain, probably due to the weight.
Blue Bass was here during our stay. They were doing a scuba diving course. Bob got his RTTY weather forecasting set up nearly working.
August 9th
A patch of good weather so we left for Ciudadela. Decided not to go into the port, instead went into a nearby Cala called Santandria. This required a line to anchor the stern to the rocks. My first effort at this. It went all right but I would not like to do it alone in bad weather. We took a bus ride into Ciudadela. A very nice old town.
Weather is holding so we did the run across to Mallorca, Puerto Molto. This was a large bay with a rocky peninsular in the middle forming two smaller bays. We stayed in the smaller northern bay. The first day was calm but the swell got bad the second day so we left. The southern bay had an enormous sweep of beach which got full very quickly. When we went into the town it was full of Germans and the signs were also in German. There must have been a lot of towels left on the beach.
August 12th
Puerto Colom. A large well protected port where you could anchor or go onto a buoy. I chose a buoy as the anchor winch was still not right. Striped the winch motor down and found it partly burnt out. Got it rewound locally in 2 ½ weeks. MY Heaven and I had been together since Pollensa. They were here for a party with the two gay girls who were working as brokers in Taiwan and sold Bob his boat. The girls had a yacht called ‘Palma’ and had sailed from New Zealand working as they went. One boat coming to the party came all the way from the Canaries, 1000 miles.
‘Bagheera’ and ‘Maraton’ were here for a short time. We went out for a Chinese meal and they were surprised when I turned up with a 25 year old Norwegian girl for company. She was on holiday on ‘Maraton’ and the younger sister of Anette.
Taffy, a friend of Bob and Liz’s came to stay with them. He was OK but did not make life easy for anybody. Enough said.
Justine and Tim came out for a week on the 2nd of September and I hired a car and picked them up at Palma airport. Justine’s bag got lost but we managed to get it delivered to the port the day following her arrival. They thought it strange delivering it to a boat in the harbour and not to a hotel. The weather did not give them a good reception as it rained and how. However after a couple of days the sun came out again and all was well.
September 5th
Left for Puerto Petra and had lunch in Cala Mitjana on the way. Petra is a pretty port but not one to spend a long time at. Left the following day for Cala Pi. left MY Heaven at Colom for the party.
September 6th
Cala Pi was too narrow for me to anchor in and very open so we went on to Cala Portals on the outer edge of Palma bay. Stopped for lunch in Puerto Colonia de Sant Jordi on the way. Nothing for breakfast so Tim and I went to Puerto Portals to get supplies. I have never seen so much money in one place before. The place was simply dripping with it. At least 6 super yachts and dozens of big yachts. Porches, BMW’s and pretty cars abounded. It was frightening.
September 8th
Justine and Tim had to leave on the Saturday so we went into Palma port. Palma was most impressive and very old. We found a cocktail bar in one of the original houses so you could look around it. It was beautiful with arched ceilings, beautiful ornate fireplace etc. and had overlooked a large courtyard which unfortunately had now been built in. We had a very good meal at a restaurant in the courtyard of the cocktail bar. It was very atmospheric.
September 10th
On my own again. Left Palma for Cala Portinatx in the north of Ibiza. Getting used to long trips on my own. I used to make flasks of coffee and sandwiches but now I just go below and make drinks and soup etc. One can pee over the side but as most ‘man overboard’ alarms are caused by this I have to be careful. I can set the radar to alarm if anything comes within a certain range so it is pretty safe. I have now got two black balls on a pole which I can out in a holder on the bows to signal ‘NOT UNDER COMMAND’ if I have to sort out a problem below for any length of time.
September 11th
Heading for Puerto Antonio, stopped for lunch in Puerto de San Miguel. In the entrance to San Miguel is a rock which looks like a statue of Queen Victoria. Did not like the place. Full of English on holiday getting drunk and going to parties which start at 6am and finish the next day at 6am. This was the only place where I lifted the tender out of the water and locked the boat. Everywhere else I had left the boat open. Stayed one night only. Could not wait to get to Espalmador again.
September 12th
Espalmador again, hooray paradise again. Planning to meet up with MY Heaven here to go back to Aguadulce together. They have been very kind to put up with me for so long but we seem to get along OK. Dropped anchor only to find I was next to ‘Wanofor’ again.
After 5 days MY Heaven arrived having been down the East side of Ibiza. Unfortunately they brought the bad weather with them. Up to then it had been calm and sunny.
September 17th
Left to go back to the mainland. We had heard that Alex was in Puerto Sabina so we went to find him. His boat was there but it was all shut up. I still have not made contact with him to find out how he got on. Anchored in El Rinconet (Puerto de Moraira). Spent one uncomfortable night here due to the swell then went into Calpe Marina. Tried to walk up the rock, only 1200 meters but it was quite a scramble and my leg gave me trouble. Bob and his son made it to the top.
September 21st
Bob’s Son had to fly back from Alicante so we headed for there. Bob got in with his smaller boat but no room for me. So I went on to Torrevieja and waited for him there.
September 25th
Went into Tomas Meastre marina in Mar Menor, a big inland sea. A very nice marina but very quiet. Some ex Aguadulce boats were here who we had a meal with.
September 27th
Left to return to Aguadulce via firstly Aguilas, then Garrucha and finally deciding to do it in one go. 16 hours non stop arriving at 3 am. My longest trip so far.
Time away 19 weeks (4 ½ months).
Total mileage 1100 miles.
Fuel used 533 gallons.
Consumption 3.65 gallons/hour (including fuel used for the generator).
Time in marinas 6 days, all the rest at anchor.
Future plans.
Work on boat this winter;
Fit a 4kw 230 volt generator.
Install 24V 50A battery charger.
Install 12V 30A battery charger.
Fit 12V battery instead of 24/12V regulators.
Finish re-caulking the deck.
Recover the saloon roof.
Build new awning frame.
Repaint superstructure.
Reconnect the calorifier.
Put new bearings in the winch motor.
Antifouling and get boat surveyed.
Travel;
Corsica and Sardinia wintering near Rome, going via Spanish and French coast or from Minorca.
or Madera and the Canary islands. Anybody interested in crewing for this? 600 miles into the Atlantic.
Tony Cobb
M.Y. Lady Coppelia
Aguadulce
Spain
01 December 2000