Koinonia Sailing and RVing

After Linda's departure and safe arrival back home, Doug Rosen joined the crew in Rome and we began heading west on the heel of an approaching low pressure system with an overnight leg to Corsica where we found a safe anchorage in Porto Vecchio to wait out the weather.

We continued on to Porto de Bonifacio where we spent several great days enjoying this natural harbor and quaint town as well as an excursion driving around southern Corsica.

We left Corsica for Sardinia Italy where we spent a few days anchored in Porto Conte waiting for a weather window to cross to the Spanish Balearics islands where we spent a couple of weeks exploring.

We made for the port of Mahon where we spent 4 days sightseeing and waiting for the Mistral winds to abate. While in our anchorage, which was a 2 mile dinghy ride to town, we had an exciting night when the winds peaked at over 30 knots. Several boats dragged their anchor and one of them just picked it up and motored out of the anchorage until daylight. The other boat motored around the anchorage with their anchor apparently hanging low in the water if not bouncing off the bottom as the went back and forth through the anchorage. They came very close several times to Koinonia, but each time I put the spotlight out on the water to show them where I was sitting. Each time the had to make drastic course changes and one time, they rammed another boat nearby. Another time, they wrapped their anchor chain around another boats anchor and after some anxious moments where both boats were moving right at Koinonia, they stopped there forward motion and settled down onto the other boats anchor which amazingly was still holding! Okay, no sleep for me that night...

One other bit of excitement as Doug and I finished our last shore excursion to the nearby fort, we returned to a missing dinghy. Apparently, the surf was enough to dislodge the dinghy from the beach and it floated out with the tide. After a frantic search along the shore while the sun was setting fast, Doug spotted two dinghies hanging off of a boat in the anchorage and one looked like ours. So, I swam across the harbor at night and eventually got to it and sure enough it was ours. The good captain had rescued it from its seaward drift. Whew!

We left Mahon Minorca "small island" and made the long leg across to Mallorca "large island" with the intentions to anchor off one of the beautiful beaches on the east side. However, the east winds were making the seas miserable, so we headed north to hide behind the western side of a rocky spit, but when we arrived, we found the wind and seas coming out of the north! So we headed back south for a couple of hours and was able to get into the marina at Porto Christo. It was a nice town, but turned out to be the most expensive marina I had experienced. Oh we'll, we got some good sleep.

From Porto Christo we left to find an anchorage in the large bay of Bahia de Palma. However, after checking out the Marinas around Palma, we decided to stay in one which put us up in a slip normally used by large yachts. It was reasonably priced and made it easier for shore excursions to this large town with the 3rd largest cathedral in Europe.

From Palma Mallorca, we made the long crossing to the island of Ibiza where we anchored in one of the lovely calas "coves" on the northwest side. The next day we sailed down to the port harbor of San Antonio where we spent several days anchored in its pretty, but very busy waters. We made several excursions ashore to eat, shop, and watch the crazy nightlife that exist here!

From San Antonio, we sailed an hour down to the most beautiful beach on Isla Esplamadore where we went ashore for a long walk on the nature trail and along the beach. Being late September, the normally crowded beach was more subdued, but still active. Later in the day, the winds and sea picked up, but we rode it out through the night okay. The next day, we stayed at this anchorage until we decided to move 3 miles south to the lee shore on the island of Formentara.

Again we had to wait out some weather anchored off of the island of Formentara before crossing to the Spanish mainland of Costa del Sol, "the Sun Coast".

While waiting, we had some good excursions ashore which always consisted of a long dinghy ride in the open seas that resulted in an exciting surf ride through a narrow and twisting channel to reach the protected waters of a very shallow interior bay. Of course, once we finished our activities ashore, we knew we would have to face the surf and seas on the nose as we headed back resulting in a wet and bumpy ride.

Finally we left the Baleares islands very early in the morning and made the coast of Spain early evening. After much consideration we chose to make our first port of call in Calpe, where we spent a few days exploring this quaint town and its impressive rock that rises high above it. Both Doug and I climbed up the rock over slightly groomed and prepared paths until halfway up you were own your own to climb the rugged hillside. This was my most difficult hike in all of my Mediterranean experiences!

From Calpe we made port in Cartagena and Malaga, as well as an anchorage along the way.