In Palma we were fortunate in some ways to be at the La Lonja marina which is as close to the old CBD as one can be. The lovely cathedral is only 500m away. Also there is excellent access to the vast network of bike paths that lead through the city. Naturally, there is an endless selection of good restaurants as well. Our main task in Palma however was to get some rigging work done and who better to do this than Angus who works for A Plus Rigging company! Of course we didn’t just put him to work but met for meals ( in between World Cup rugby matches). We also took the opportunity to get some fitness on the bikes and did three good rides into the beautiful countryside of the island. Another big thrill was the arrival of Southern Star and Stormvogel, yachts that had done the Indonesia rally and then shipped to Turkey with us. They had taken a different route across the Med so we had not seen them for months - a good reunion. The other item on the agenda was the diesel engine. Again. An oil leak had been dribbling away for some time and I had no idea where it was coming from. The mechanic identified a failed oil seal on the crankshaft and then told me that with the engine so close to a fixed steel bulkhead, it would be impossible to remove the crankshaft pulley to replace the seal. We would have to lift the engine out, and while we were doing that we should do a full overhaul or better still replace it altogether! Ker-ching. Robbie from Southern Star suggested that if a hole could be cut in the bulkhead, then there might be enough room for tools to take the pulley off. So, after a trip to the hardware store to get lots of new steel cutting devices, and after re-routing a lot of electrical and gas lines away from the work site, it was time for David to spend 8 hours in the cramped bilge hacking out a very irregular piece of the 5mm steel plate. This proved successful in allowing enough access for the mechanic. A cover plate was fabricated for the defect.
Leaving Palma was a bit emotional for us as we knew we would not see Angus again for 6 months but Diomedea had to get to her winter berth at a hardstand near Barcelona (Mallorca being way too expensive in this regard for us). A very pleasant 130nm trip was had in board-flat seas with a mix of sailing and motoring, bringing to a conclusion 2400 incredible miles of voyaging since leaving Fethiye, Turkey in June. For us it was still somewhat anticlimactic as it was now just work to winterise the boat, for Andrea to visit family and for David to attend a conference. Back to the real world.