Wednesday 15 May 2019

The alarm was on to ensure that we were ready to get Henry ashore and back to the UK. We were glad to see that the dinghy was still firmly attached at the stern of Equinox.  We don’t like to tow it, and so usually, once it had been used, it is deflated and put back in the locker. Leaving it out overnight is very rare. After breakfast and farewells, Henry and I got into the tender and headed back off to the landing places we had spotted yesterday. While we were going along was saw that there was a boat lane into the beach right next to us.  We hadn’t seen it previously and I had assumed that the whole beach was buoyed off for swimmers., This gave us a perfect landing spot, without resorting to trespassing in a hotel. We drifted the last couple of metres up to the beach and pulled the dinghy temporarily ashore.  While standing there, we saw a bus go past, just above the beach. No panic, the buses run every 9 minutes, and this was going to be enough time for Henry to plot a route off the beach to the bus stop. We later heard that he had had a very straightforward journey to the airport, and arrived in plenty of time for his flight.  It has been great having him with us, even for only a few days.

There was a temptation to stay where we were, as we have a berth booked in Palma tomorrow for the arrival of more guests and we need to go ashore to buy food. However, the weather forecast says that the wind this evening will be from the east, so our position on the west side of Palma bay is not ideal. We got the tender out of the water and left it to dry for a while, then took our time with getting everything ready, before raising the anchor and heading the 6 or 7 miles to the other side of the bay.

 

Our view of Palma

There is a significant conservation effort going on in the islands, trying to protect the sea grass meadows and consequently the fish that make them their home.  There are several places where anchoring is prohibited because it ploughs up the grass, destroying it.  A conservation organisation advertises mooring buoys near some of these sites, and we set off hoping to find one today. We have not had a great deal of joy with this particular organisation.  We have tried before to book a buoy, and ended up contacting their support line when we got no response. When we arrived at the site, there were no buoys in view so we moved up mile of so up the coast towards Palma, and have anchored off a 2.5 mile beach. We are not sure if the buoys are only put out for the high season, or whether the organisation is in some sort of financial difficulty.

Distance covered today	10	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	466	nautical miles
Distance covered 2019	466	nautical miles
Steve (and Tricia)