09/26/2009

Formentera is a lovely island. The north part of it is a nature reserve, and we took a long walk out there, with the sea to our left and a huge lagoon to our right, with loads of birds in the middle - black-throated grebes, the notice board said. Mon and Keith hired a moped, and roared off round the island to explore it. Mopeds are everywhere here, it is the sensible means of transport, and businesses hiring them out are on every street corner, it seems. Of course this is September, so most of the mopeds stay in their serried ranks on the pavement all day. Yet a vast number of ferries ply through the harbour all the time, mostly across to Ibiza town, but some to Denia, on the mainland.

We spent Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in the harbour there, a lovely marina with excellent facilities. The weather was poor however, with lots of thunder and lightning still, and rain that soaked within a minute if you were caught out in it. I inadvertently had two showers, one in the shower block and another cold one on the 20 metre dash back to the boat!

We found a small supermarket and shopped for food and drink for the next four or five days. A procession of four trolleys, we wheeled the stuff throught the streets to the boat, and I volunteered to take the empties back! I suppose the locals are used to the sight of people from boats doing their shopping this way!

On Tuesday evening, we set off north towards Ibiza Town Marina (where they allegedly charge 400 Euros a night for a yacht this size) to pick up Dave, our fifth crew member, before sailing overnight to Denia on the mainland.

We tied up free of charge at the (closed) diesel pontoon, and Dave duly arrived just after we had finished eating dinner. So off we sailed in a blustery north-easterly wind, to make the passage to Spain overnight. More anon.

Check out the new photo album, Sailing with Keith and Mon

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09/21/2009, Formentera, Balearic Islands

Spain to Ibiza

Our three day trip to Calpe was followed by a two-day stay there, marvelling at the tons of Brits who turn up and throng the beach for suntans, and the local hostelries for British food! However, we went out for a meal on Thursday evening in the best Chinese restaurant I have ever been in, apart perhaps from that great one in Byres Road! The wind had got up to Force 7, so we had tied more ropes on to the boat for security, and tightened up the lazyline at the bow as we were swinging to the right beacuase of the wind angle. While we were in the restaurant suddenly a downpour of rain began. It was of biblical proportions, and when we emerged an hour or so later we had to ford flooded crossroads and pavements on our way back to the boat. But by then the wind had died away completely, and the night was calm after that. The boat had been thoroughly washed down by the fierce rain, and all was clean and peaceful.

From Calpe we set sail for Sant Antoni in Ibiza, on a lovely sunny day with a wind on the starboard quarter, and went along very nicely. The chartplotter told us there was a very strong current setting us to the north. Keith reminded us that the Med doesn't have currents, and we all said 'Aye, right!' Before long we could see land, and spent the rest of the day discussing whether it could be Ibiza or Formentera. The pilot book told us that Formentera is a low-lying island and what we could see were mountainous areas. Eventually we agreed it was Ibiza, and realised that it was the two small islands off Ibiza's south-western tip.

The cross-current was so strong that our heading all day was 100 degrees, while our course over the ground was 66 degrees. In other words we ferry-glided, all under sail, from the mainland to the island!

We docked in Sant Antoni, stern-to as usual on the remotest quay from the office and toilets/showers! Glad to have arrived, we settled down and had a meal on board, then fell into our bunks! That was Andy's last sail with us, as he left on Sunday to get back to work on Monday.

We went for walks on Saturday round the bay, and noted that just like Calpe, this place is geared almost exclusively to tourism, and bars, clubs and restaurants crowd out everything else.

On Sunday morning we said goodbye to Andy and sailed for Formentera. Keith decided to go through the shallow gap between the two islands in the bay, and we counted down the depth under the keel dramatically to the lowest reading of 0.9 metres, before the bottom fell away from us again! Dry mouths all round!

Soon after the weather went pear-shaped, and the thunder and lightning came back with a vengeance. We sailed south and through the gap between the two mountainous islands and Ibiza, struggling to control sails and direction as the wind alternately rose and fell and rotated as in a spin-dryer. Inevitably as the wind fell we turned on the engine and completed the short 25 miles to Formentera in good time. We moored up at a lovely town quay, and decided we liked this place much better than Sant Antoni!

We'll stay here another day or so, before going to Ibiza town marina to pick up a new crew member for the return trip! More anon.

Photo shows Keith and Andy on the crossing to Ibiza, with Mon sitting on Andy's left..

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09/16/2009, Calpe, Spain

We left Melilla on Monday afternoon, after a pleasant two-day stay. It is Spanish the way Gibraltar is British, and is surrounded by Morocco. Recent history brought about the building of a 33 million Euro barrier wall to keep the two separate. It had a spectacular fortress and the most efficient police force imaginable.

We celebrated Mon's birthday with a meal out in one of the marina restaurants, having watched the Italian Grand Prix in a tapas bar in the afternoon on Sunday.

Anyway we set off around 3pm, and immediately started a watch system of 3 hours on, 6 off. Keith took the first watch alone, then Ju and Andy, followed by me and Mon. The trip took until today, Wednesday, and was 277 nautical miles of wind, no wind, thunder, lightning, sun, a waterspout, and lots of shipping, as we were heading north west across the main shipping lanes east from Gibraltar into the Med.

We got into the rhythm of sleep and wakefulness better on the second day than the first.

Dawn this morning brought the sight of the Costa Blanca, including Benidorm, on our starboard bow. We came into Calpe, after crossing the Greenwich meridian, refuelled and berthed stern-to to a mooring in the very expensive but well-ordered marina. We are therefore due south of London! As the only nights we have paid for up till now were very cheap, one or two expensive nights sort of even themselves out.

We will set off for Ibiza/Formentera on Friday morning. More anon

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