The weather is finally bringing lots of sun, warm days and cool clear nights. We made the trip from Menorca to Mallorca on Monday the 14th and it could not have been a better day. After a morning power sailing, the winds picked up and we had a fantastic sailing day, with winds ranging from 14 to 20 kts and the addition of our stay sail for the first time, working nicely with the genoa and main. A very good day.

Palma is a very large capital city, with a half dozen large marinas. We are humbled by the size of some of our neighboring boats - from all corners of the world. The historic part of the city is beautiful, clean and filled with truely significant buildings, particularly the cathedral. It is the most prominent structure visible from the sea as you approach. We also toured the rocky, dramatic coastline and visited Valldemossa and its ancient monastery (where Frederick Chopin and George Sand briefly lived after the monastery passed to private ownership), and Port de Valldemossa where we had a fantastic fish lunch as our reward for making it down the hair-raising switch-back, 1.5 lane road.
The Meloy's left us this evening to make their way home to Annapolis, after enjoying a fantastic lasagna dinner created by Marco - and assisted by Tiziano. Phil, Duncan, Marco, Tiziano and I will now finish the trip to Gibraltar, starting early tomorrow heading to the island of Ibiza, to break up our passage to Cartagena and 1-2 other ports along the Spanish coast. And, to tuck in from possible bad weather coming Saturday!

The glass is now less than half full.... the time has gone so quickly, and we don't want it to end!