We arrived here on Thursday to grey and rainy weather, today is Sunday and........it’s still grey with showers. The bay here at Espalmador would be lovely if there was some sun, it’s a broad bay with a nice beach surrounding us on two sides, good shelter except from the south and plenty of space for anchoring (out of season). There are also some buoys set up by the local organisation ‘Posidonia’ (intended to protect the sea grass from anchors). The first night we anchored and then on Friday as the wind was due to change around a lot we picked up one of the buoys as its rated for a bigger boat than us and we can rely on them (where as private buoys of unknown quality are a risk). In the season there is a charge for these, but at this time of year they have only just been placed and we haven’t been asked to pay so far.
We have been walking on the island twice, once around the beach to the south and then the next day across the island to a tower on one of the higher cliffs where you can see across the channel to Ibiza itself. It’s all a bit vague as to whether you are supposed to walk inland. The island is privately owned but the main signs are asking you not to intrude in the dunes and not to kill the local lizards! We walked past a closed up house and onto a track and followed the paths to the tower. There were one or two no entry signs painted on stones by side paths or other buildings but nothing to say keep off the island, so we didn’t. It was good to get off the boat as the weather has kept us mostly inside reading, doing puzzles and cooking/baking or doing bits of maintenance. We didn’t see anyone other than other cruisers on the beach, so we concluded the two or three houses on the island are empty at present.
We have chatted to other crews, there are three other English boats here and we met the skipper of one, Dave from Emmabella who came and asked us about the buoys and the crew of El Arden, a French flagged cat that had been on the same pontoon with us in Cartagena came on board for a chat. We were never both in the marina at the same time before so it was nice to meet the owners, Isabelle and Bruno. We also talked to a German couple on the beach who were admiring Fid. We’d just been commenting on their inflatable canoe, a model we have considered, so information was exchanged!
We have had two tries to bake bread, the first was a brick but the second using new dried yeast has turned out rather well, our first edible bread on board. Lesson one – throw away old yeast, you’re wasting your time and effort.
Our supplies are running a little low now (don’t worry there’s plenty of beer) but the weather is still creating easterly swells making it tricky to anchor off any of the local towns (and we don’t really want to pay the high cost for a marina) so we are considering a run up to Mallorca from here rather than trying to stop on the more exposed east coast of Ibiza. As we write the conditions tomorrow, either starting early for a 12 hour day sail or maybe overnight into Tuesday, look suitable.
We would recommend the anchorage here though we are told it gets very busy in summer. One cruiser told us he’d seen 200 boats in the bay (now there’s about 9) – that would be very crowded.

Photo: The bay at Espalmador, Splice on a buoy 3rd from left.