09/27/2009, Spain

We are in Tomas Maestre Marina at the entrance to Spain's Mar Menor, a curious inland lake/sea 12 miles long by about six miles wide, entered from the Med through a short canal and a lifting bridge. We arrived on Friday, and on Saturday we went for a fun sail round the lake. It is really lovely to sail in, with depths of 5 to 6 metres everywhere, and no swell. The sun shone and we had a lovely day.

Sunday morning dawned in the throes of a huge thunderstorm, right over the boat, with accompanying crashes and bangs from on deck. When we eventually got up, our passerelle (the gangplank) had disappeared down into the water, and was on the bottom! Dave and Ju got it back up again, but it must have been a fearsome gust of wind from astern that stretched all four of our mooring ropes so much that the end perched on the dock simply rolled over about nine inches into the water.

We are now making preparations for a 48-hour sail down the coast from here to Gibraltar, hoping to arrive sometime on Tuesday. It looks from the weather prediction sites that most of our journey will be in full wet-weather gear, just like Scottish sailing, only warmer!

More when we get there.

Photo is of the crew in Ibiza.

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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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