Sailing? Yes, Sailing!

As gastronomically inviting as was Valencia, the now core crew of the Escapade really hit their stride arriving in the impossibly cute (that means Americans' romanticized visions of European port towns) Mallorcan town of Puerto Soller, a perfect natural harbor lined with restaurants, bars and other waterfront shops with a classic wooden train to take you up valley to the main town of Soller. Many ancient Spanish towns were built inland rather than on the sea as a first defense from pirates. Soller has been around since the Arabs ran things here on Mallorca due to first its being the only really good port on the northwest part of the island and second due to the "hidden" town site up the gently sloping valley situated behind the mountains ringing the port.

Actualizing dreams one has in their 20's doesn't happen everyday. Especially when that vision is as grandiose as sailing around the Mediterranean in love with your wife and your boat. But that is what happened in Puerto Soller... I for one had no need to go ashore, happy to sit on the boat watching the ever changing landscape as Escapade swung slowly back and forth on her anchor.

Practicality intruded by early evening and we dinghied into shore to off-load the garbage and pick up supplies. Not able to resist the call of a romantic waterfront restaurant we enjoyed a pretty good meal at a very good price in what would be considered a typical open air waterfront tourist restaurant. Note: wine is seriously overpriced in restaurants in the US.

The next morning we motored 5 or 6 miles down the coast spending a leisurely day swimming and otherwise enjoying the spectacular Cala de la Calobra with 2-300 other vacationers enjoying their summer holidays on this narrow beach set between two impossibly steep cliffs. Not to worry...our Summer 2015 mentality is generous and allows for others to enjoy the same wonderful places we are enjoying. This generosity paid off handsomely as finally the sun vacated the beach and our neighbors all went back to their hotel rooms and villas leaving this impossibly dramatic setting to us and a few other boats anchored for the night.

Here comes the good part... Motoring out of the deeply indented cala the next morning and continuing east down this mountainous coast of Mallorca toward our destination of Puerto de la Ciutadella, Menorca what better could have happened than a southerly wind allowing us to finally SAIL in the Mediterranean. Yea! Finally moving the boat for free (sort of) we sailed close hauled the 30 miles to the west end of Menorca in about 15 knots of wind in reasonably flat seas.

Puerto de la Ciutadella is located at the head of an impossibly "cute" (remember?) long narrow cala on Menorca's western shore. Once anchored in the adjoining cala we dinghied into town to off-load the garbage, pick up supplies and of course have dinner. We picked an out of the way restaurant that was listed in a Spanish online restaurant guide in which we were the only tourists and suffered through another amazing Spanish meal with yet another undervalued (sh!) bottle of fantastic Spanish wine...this one recommended by our waitress/owner that was grown and produced on Mallorca.

Overcoming the urge to stay in Ciutadella for another day and night we took advantage of the second day of wind in a row for a wonderful flat water sail south then turning east around the tip of the island searching for the perfect anchorage for the evening. We happened upon Cala Mitjana...a picture perfect small cala with two white sand beaches set amongst tree lined limestone cliffs from which some of the many beachgoers were diving and jumping into the sea.

Now that the sun has left the beach the 25 or 30 last sun worshippers are packing up and trekking out. The heat wave broke with the evening offshore breeze and the temperature is now perfect. I think we will stay here for another day before pushing on east and readying ourselves for the 200 mile passage to the South of France - to do what? Work on our boat in a foreign country in someone else's language, naturally. Escapade desperately needs a little TLC and more after all the miles we have put on her since leaving the Caribbean. For this we will go to the Catana service facility east of Toulon.

Today is another perfect day weather-wise so we decided to try our luck finding an anchorage with wifi (weefee). Once we are finally satisfied that our anchor is holding we can see this is another even more impossibly beautiful cala, Cala Porte with a small tourist town set adjacent to the beach and a bar/restaurant/disco clinging from the cliffs about 80 feet above the water. We'll probably take advantage of one or two of those offerings closer to sunset when it cools down enough to climb the 150 stairs to get up there. It looks really special with several different seatings set in different caves all linked together by narrow walkways carved from the cliff.

The beach bars were a bust as far as wifi goes so we have returned to the boat to take a swim and wait out the afternoon heat. Just for the heck of it I tried Escapade's internet booster and here I am...sitting in the cool of the boat posting our latest blog...luck!