Equinox_2019

I am delighted that we have made it to Soller. We have visited the town before by train from Palma, and thought that it was very pretty then. Now entering from the sea and viewing the port area from the sea just reinforces our previous view. We had a fairly unpleasant first night here.   The bay gives you shelter from all directions except north west, and inevitably this was the direction that the swell was coming from.   Swell is not usually a problem because it is created by the wind, and the boat normally lies with the bows into the wind.   Last night however, the wind dropped to nothing and the residual swell kept coming.   It was fine while the boat pointed into it, but during the night the boat swung round to be side on, and then rocked and rolled uncomfortably.   We were awoken by various noises, including a bottle of Seven Up rolling back and forth and a cup falling of a shelf in a cupboard.   Laurence also had the bucket of flares s...

Although we were a little anxious last night, about the anchor, the wind had changed direction and dropped as forecast, before Steve retired to bed,so we were safe. We knew the anchor had bitten, but it’s always a little worrying when you have significant wind blowing you towards the rocks and the beach. Our anchor buries itself and holds well in sand. It was a beautiful calm sunny morning and so I went in for a swim, off the back of the boat. It was a little less cold than in the cove a few days ago, so I swam round the boat and then used my mask and snorkel to check all was well under the boat, and have a look at the anchor, which was almost completely buried; the chain lying as it should on the sea bed. We set off soon after breakfast and a lovely breeze kicked in as we rounded the headland at the far north east corner of Mallorca, so we were cracking along. By mid afternoon, the wind was dropping and we had to motor the last five miles to Soller. The scenery on th...

Having risked all yesterday, using someone else's boat to go ashore, we repeated the trick this morning. Laurence and I walked up to the supermarket, leaving Tricia working on the boat preparations. As we left Porto Cristo there was a nice breeze and for several hours we had a great sail. We were tacking into the wind but still making good progress.  The weather was warmer than it has been for the last few days, and is gradually returning to what we expect from the Med at this time of year. Over lunch time the wind died away, and although we were still moving, it was sufficiently slow that it would have resulted in a very long day. So the engine went on and over the next few hours, we alternated between sailing and motor sailing. We were making our way to the north of the island. The scenery here seems very different to the south.  The cliffs are higher and with more features. The towns are more remote and there are hills away into the distance.  The south of the is...

We were pretty tired after yesterday and slept in late. It was great to have breakfast on deck, in the sunshine, after the miserable weather during the past two days. The marinaro came shortly after, the say a boat had left and there was a space in the deeper water. We jumped to and moved the boat round into the space, but had the same problem, that we were half way into the space and the boat stopped, aground. We then transferred to yet another space, where we could get in a little further but still too far from the quay to put the passerelle across. No matter. It wasn’t a big problem not being able to go ashore. We busied ourselves with onward passage planning, putting Steve up the mast to check the backstay. Then we cheekily decided we could go ashore via the next door boat, so we could replenish the water supplies. Just too far (again) The wind, which had been forecast to make us decide to stay two nights, died off during the evening and all was peaceful and calm again. ...

We woke up to a grey day and more rain. Poor Laurence is not seeing this area at its best. Slightly disappointed at not having seen the fabled ospreys, whales, etc, etc, we contemplated asking for our money back before we left, but decided that we would not receive a favourable response.  We prepared and left to be followed soon after by another couple of boats, who were obviously inspired by us braving the cool wet conditions. Just like the Solent at this time of year. We motored between the islands, and then put the sails up when it was reasonable to do so. There was a good breeze blowing, albeit from exactly where we wanted to head. Over the next few hours the rain came (mostly when Tricia was driving) and left (when it was anyone else).  We were originally heading 30 or 40 degrees away from the ideal course, but there were a series of changes in the wind which eventually meant that we could head roughly in the right direction.  As we approached a headland, wh...

I spent a rather frustrating few hours, during the morning, trying to make an application for a permit to visit Cabrera, an island to the south of Mallorca and a national park. We had to get a navigation permit to enter the waters around the islands and a mooring permit. The website had a fault, stopping the application from proceeding. I phoned the helpline, to be told that there couldn’t be a fault because they had checked it that morning. I assured them that, not just me, but the lady in the marina office, who had helped me with making the application, were sure that there was a fault on the website. They could not make a reservation over the phone, but gave me another number to call. On two further phone numbers, I talked to a very helpful guy, who offered to get us the navigation permit, with us emailing him the boat details. We just then had to call him, when we had confirmation, so we could pay for the mooring permit. I asked his name and had trouble understanding his reply, bec...

We are berthed in the Real Club Nautico de Palma, the largest and oldest yacht club in the Balearics. The marina is huge, with just under 1000 berths, for boats of all shapes and sizes. As previously mentioned, our berth is not as convenient this week, but we are much closer to the rather grand club house, and the swimming pool, which would be great if it was filled. They are currently performing maintenance work on it and I guess it will be in operation by the start of June.   The club is a proper yacht club, with a substantial fleet of dinghies. There are large numbers of youngsters using the facilities and learning to enjoy the water. I counted a fleet of 16 safety boats to support this activity.   It is great to see yacht club working on every level.   When you look beyond this marina, there are 5 or 6 others, with some very substantial yachts to see. Today was a crew change day for us, with Dave and Sue going home and our friend Laurence arriving later. We were...

We had a very peaceful night at anchor in Porto Petro attached to a buoy. In fact the weather was too benign. Normally when you are attached to a buoy, there is some wind and this keeps the various lines under some sort of tension. Last night there was no wind at all, which meant that the boat and the mooring buoy drifted together, and I was woken several times during the night by the sound of the buoy hitting the hull. Our cabin is in the bows of Equinox, so the noise is very close. I contemplated getting out of bed to try to stop it, but there is nothing you can do. Once day was properly broken, we went through the checklist and got going before breakfast, as we have said before, a mooring buoy is the easiest departure, you just let it go. There are no other mooring lines or fenders to deal with. The water was so clear they we had a great view of the three concrete blocks that the buoy was attached to. We started off with no wind at all, and motored for the morning. A...

No hurry to leave this morning so we ran round the harbour and up to the headland, past the lighthouse. I really struggled going up hill so it was bliss to come back down again. The distractions of the scenery, beautiful houses and then watching workmen putting anchor points in the rock face, we assumed to secure netting, made the time whizz by. Having returned via the supermarket, all the other transiting yachts had left before us. We’ve been fascinated listening to the locals speaking. The Mallorcan language is completely different to Castilian Spanish and sounds almost like a Slavic language. We set off for the cala, that Juan our neighbour, had recommended. Although there were no buildings in this cove, we arrived when the glass bottom tourist boats were going in but managed to anchor out of their way. The beach and headland were quite busy with people, so, I guess it has been discovered. The water was turquoise and crystal clear. Having worked hard at getting in...

After the rigours(?) of the last few days, we all had a lie in today. We were not planning to go anywhere as there was rain in the forecast. We had chores to do, most importantly to repair a delamination in the jib.  This is our oldest sail, and each year when it has been inspected, the sailmakers have suggested that a replacement might be a good idea. We have resisted so far, waiting for it to completely disintegrate, the surest sign that replacement is necessary.  We had noticed a small patch where one surface had come away from the others, so we set to patching it. Fortunately, there was very little wind, as we had to unravel the jib, while in the marina, and then lower the sail. We scoured through our pack of patches to find something suitable. These glue into place like giant sticking plasters, although they hopefully will not be too noticeable as they are white on a white sail. Once done, it was re-hoist the sail and then roll it away onto the furler. Hopefully it will ...

We had a cracking sail in F3 /4 and wonderful sunshine. We had left the anchorage promptly, as there was rain in the forecast for early afternoon. It was going to be much more comfortable to have arrived and settled on our mooring before the rain. We arrived in the narrow channel leading into to Porto Cristo harbour, when there was a lot of traffic moving about. Glass bottom tourist catamarans go in and out several times a day. We were impressed that they slow right down in the channel so the wash wasn’t too terrible. We put the anchor down in the anchoring area, but realised that, with the amount of chain we would have to put out, to keep us stable, there wasn’t enough swinging room from the rocks, the swimming area and the main channel. Steve called one of the two marinas, who, to our delighted surprise, had a space for us, so, after the tourist boats had gone out, one after the other, we could make an easy approach to a berth. It is only just deep enough for us, ...

With yesterday’s storm behind us, we knew that we would be evicted from the marina today, and we wanted to move on in any case. We were up (too) early to get some exercise in before we left, and top up the last-minute provisions of perishables. We went through the lengthy process of removing all of the storm provisions that we had put in place yesterday so that we could depart. However, when we were moving towards the outer harbour we found our way blocked by an in-coming cruise ship, so we had to just hang around for a while to allow them to reverse into their mooring.   A number of boats also waited, but others forced their way past, albeit safely. We were especially glad to get out into the bay when we realised that a large commercial vessel had been waiting in its dock for the cruise ship, and it started moving as soon as the cruise ship docked.   Its sister ship was on the horizon heading in, presumably to take the newly vacated berth. In the open water we got t...