Porto Colom was a nice place to visit for 2 nights. It is a small town with very friendly people and a decent port for pleasure craft. We spent time buying Spanish SIM cards, did laundry at the coin laundry, and bought more groceries. We had shopped at one of the small markets near the marina but then did a good shopping at the large supermarket next to the electronics store that was selling the SIM cards. Of course we had sensory overload in the supermarket, it was big and had many specialties from Spain and other nationalities.

On 21 Aug we headed to El Arenal to meet our son, Ben, and his wife, Ugne, for a few days. We made the trip a 2 day one and anchored overnight off the beach at La Rapita. El Arenal is located at the opposite end of Playa de Palma but is still a touristic beach town. One day we took the public bus into Palma and visited a cavern near there. The other 2 days we went out in the boat, anchored and swam and spent a relaxing time together. We also saw the new largest sailboat on record called the Black Pearl anchored in the bay. This thing is 106 meters long and has solar panels built into the sails. A Russian owns it and its value is $200 million.

We are currently sailing along the NW coast of Ibiza on our way to Alicante. We started out downwind and are currently on a reach. The boat has been performing well. We have seen a lot of other boats the past few days in Mallorca and today. It is a very nice sailing area with many places to anchor if one doesn’t want to stay in a marina. We find that the boat cools off in the evening a lot quicker at anchor than in a marina.