Ibiza Harbour from the castle walls.

As it was the end of August I was sailing ‘Salara’ back west to her base at Faro, Portugal. It had been a tough decision to make as with a little effort I could have made it to Sicily and wintered at one of the marinas there. I always hate to back track it never seems quite right somehow.

I had left Soller on the north coast of Mallorca and called into Santa Ponsa for a couple of days to fill up with fuel and water and get a new gas bottle. I also stocked up with more food while I was in the mood for shopping. I wanted to leave for Ibiza and I had planned an early start. I was expecting a pleasant north easterly breeze to help us on our way and I left at 0400hrs on my planned departure day. This was only because I awoke at this early hour and thought I might as well make a start.

There was three hours of darkness left and and as ‘Salara’ cleared the coast I was surprised at the amount of traffic that was heading for the nearby port of Palma. A couple of cruise ships, a lot of fishing boats as well as other craft, all aiming to be tied up to unload at dawn.

The promised breeze did not appear and ‘Salara’ motored for the whole trip and as there was no wind from the northern quadrant I went into Portinatx for the night with the intention of going to to San Antonio in the morning. Then as I had made an early start I went for a siesta.

An hour or so later I awoke and ‘Salara’ was bouncing about, the north wind had arrived and was blowing into the anchorage at 20 knots. It was definitely time to go and once again I was glad that I had fitted the electric anchor windlass as we managed to leave very swiftly. I motored ‘Salara’ out of the anchorage in showers of spray and headed east to round the headland of Punta Moscarte and then headed under foresail only down the east coast of Ibiza.
I steered her through the narrow passage between Isla Tagomago and Ibiza and then I was immediately able to turn to starboard and enter the calm waters of Cala Boix where I dropped anchor in seven metres of depth with fifty metres of chain veered, the excitement was over.
As it happened this was the anchorage that I had planned to use had the north wind arrived as forecasted. Next time I shall know better than to change my plans on the assumption that the forecast is wrong.

In the morning after I had slept soundly all was calm and peaceful again so after breakfast I lifted the anchor and motor sailed as there was very little breeze along the coast to Ibiza town. I anchored ‘Salara’ along with many other yachts in Cala Talamanca which is just the other side of the headland from Ibiza harbour and once ashore it is an easy but fairly long walk into town.

Life was pleasant and next day I went into town to replenish my SIM card which I use for the internet. Once that was done I spent a few hours touring the very large castle which overlooks the harbour. I had expected to have to pay to get in but no, it is a living and retail area, it also houses the cathedral. It was, as you would expect, busy with tourists from the cruise ships. I was very impressed and although I have been in the town previously I had never visited the castle.

In the evening when I was back on board ‘Salara’ a large swell started to enter the Cala making life on board uncomfortable. I thought that it would ease during the night but in the morning if anything it was larger. It was coming in from the east and curling around the point into the Cala. I moved ‘Salara’ to a seemingly more protected position but did not achieve much.

I had the dinghy and outboard trailing off the stern so if I moved ‘Salara’ out of the Cala and into the seaway I reckoned there was a danger of it flipping over and creating more problems. With great difficulty later in the day I managed to remove the motor, the oars and the seat and bring them aboard ‘Salara’. All that was left then was a bare and empty dinghy that could come to no harm. So off to sea we went heading for Islas Espalmador and Formentera. To get there I had to take ‘Salara’ through the Grande Canal that seperates them from Ibiza it was rough but not as bad as I had anticipated and once through and behind the sand spit that connects them the sea was calm and ‘Salara’ was no longer being tormented by the swell.

The next day I hauled the dinghy onboard and packed it away. However the following day the wind and swell had gone more to the south and swell was once again making itself felt so I moved ‘Salara’ further along the sandspit closer to Formentera where it was calmer. During the afternoon an unmanned french yacht came drifting slowly by dragging it’s anchor. I called the marina and the coastguard on VHF but only the marina replied saying they could do nothing. However a short time later a large inflatable came out carrying the french skipper and towing his dinghy. They caught the yacht just as it reached the shallows.

The next morning with the wind blowing very weakly from the south east ‘Salara’ left Formentera and the Balearic Islands and I put her on course for Torrevieja on the Spanish mainland about 110 miles away. Although ‘Salara’ had to motorsail all the way it was a pleasant enough passage but I needed to drink several Red Bulls to sustain me during the early hours. It was mid morning when I dropped anchor in the outer harbour at Torreviejo and thankfully went to bed.