Balearics Ibiza Majorca - Nics diary part three

Nics Diary – Part 3 18/7/12

We had fun in San Antonio, Ibiza. We anchored in the bay for a few nights, and I got really drunk and enjoyed a wee boogie on the Saturday night. Poor Stevie had to stay sober whilst I enjoyed myself, so he could help me home (on and off the dingy) Thanks xx. San Antonio is pretty much what you would expect – full of young ones partying all night (terrible!!). Not as big as I expected though.

San Antonio bay Ibiza

We are pretty much self-sufficient these days with regards to power and water. (I have also planted my little herb garden on board, growing parsley, basil, and most importantly mint for my mojitos!). To save a fortune on marinas, we now live at anchor and only go to that ‘hot land place’ on occasions. Unfortunately we haven’t really met anyone at anchor – It has tended to be rich people with their fancy big power boats, or charter boats with a million Spanish squashed on them. The Balearic islands seem to lack cruisers and sea gypsies (like ourselves). The charters have given us a good laugh though. Just watching how little they know about boats  - in particular anchoring (says nic the sailor!!). We had a good laugh at one particular charter boat that squeezed 9 people on their 3 man dingy. The top of the dingy sat about 1 inch above the water level. We watched and waited for one of the power boats (tidal wave makers as we now call them) with a lot of wake to come along and capsize them, but lucky for them it didn’t – gave us a good laugh though!

We bought ourselves 2 lilos (lazy and lilly) with arm chair backs and drink holders – a perfect way to spend the afternoon. Stevie tried to tow me on mine with the dingy but I kept going under – haven’t giggled so much in a long time. We must have looked like we were having fun as a nice neighbor took a photo and emailed it to us.

After a few nights at San Antonio, we moved around the corner to Portanatx in Ibiza, then crossed to Majorca and stayed at Santa Ponca, for a couple of nights. It is a wee bit bigger than San Antonio and caters more for families and couples – but still really busy. I was looking forward to a beach BBQ and a nice fire, but both islands were far too busy. We stayed a few nights in a couple of different anchorages at Majorca, and found Magaluf a little more fun than expected. A power boat advertising Bombay Sapphire anchored near us and 2 girls on a dingy came over and offered us a couple of free promotional gin and tonics. Very posh! It was funny though cos when they came over I was in the middle of shaving Stevies head as we had bought some clippers.  I think they got a bit of a shock!

The free G n T's

Bombay Sapphire Boat

Bush fires appear to be quite common on Majorca, and I spent a good part of a day watching a wee yellow plane scoop up sea water then dump it on the hill side. (yes it’s a hard life on a yacht watching the world fly by!)

Crazy Diamond has developed a wee problem with her rudder. Apparently one of the bearings is going and it is starting to make a ‘clunk’ noise. Stevie spoke to a company about fixing it, but they were unsure exactly what is wrong and it could take anything from 1 day to 3 months to get the part and fix it, depending on which bearing it is. This isn’t very good news, especially when we could not live on the boat on the hard in this particular place, and the cost of renting an apartment in the height of holiday season is a bit much when you are on a budget. So after much consideration, the captain (Stevie) made an executive decision to continue to Sardinia. In Sardinia there is a Dufour dealer, who should have a better idea of the problem, and timescale to fix it. So, at present we are more than half way to Sardinia, and so far so good (fingers crossed)!

Yesterday, when we left Majorca, we participated in (gate crashed) a yacht race. We were doing over  8kts in 25kts of wind. We really should have reefed the sails, but we were having fun, and Stevie was determined to beat a couple of the other yachts. We were so heeled over that my hair was almost dangling in the water when I turned the winch – great fun! (Don’t worry mum – we won’t go that fast when you are here – I promise!)

The Yacht Race in Palma Bayadk 0 xxx????? .,;'[]-

There hasn’t been much in the way of wildlife in the last week or so. We are thinking that dolphins don’t like the med as much, or maybe they have fallen out with me cos I was so scared the last time I saw them (Nics Diary – Part 1). Although today we did see a turtle in the water. I was busy giving it ‘aww how cute’ then Stevie pointed out that it was dead – maybe not so cute!

It’s really dark and spooky on my watch tonight – no idea where Mr Moon is hiding, anyway I will not let my imagination run wild tonight. Approximately 21hrs to Sardinia – think I will occupy myself with some star gazing for the rest of my watch. Still having a ball – miss you all millions, talk soon, luv nic xx

Good Night xx

Ibiza - Finally Nics diary part two

Below is Nics entry.

So we left albufiera, got to Estapona , filled gas tanks from a friendly german, next Mar Menor, then Torrevieja, now Ibiza, Jamie would miss the girls here, lots of scantily clad young females for him to hit on, so many he could not fail ;)

Nics entry below, hope to get a new camera soon...

Nics Diary – Part 2

We had a pretty rubbish first day in Mar Menor. Mar Menor is an inland sea that is entered through a small canal and draw bridge. The bridge only opens every 2 hours, and we just missed it after our 48hr sail to get there. We entered the sea when the bridge opened at 12 noon, hoping to find a nice anchorage and rest a little. No such luck – it was very windy and Stevie didn’t feel that our anchoring was safe. I hoped to get a wee hour rest, but it was far too hot in the sheltered sea. We would have loved to jump in to cool ourselves down, but Mar Menor is well known for being full of stingy jelly fish – so we waited another 2 hours, and left at 6pm. Really tired, and tempers a little frayed! We anchored in a quiet, secluded part of the canal, but not next to the other anchored boats, as we felt it was a little too close for comfort there. I now wish we had squeezed in, as our secluded anchorage resulted in us being mugged! We stupidly left 2 cameras, our hand held radio, and a chart plotter outside in the cock pit. The really annoying thing is that it took 3 days before we noticed! On the bright side – I am kinda glad we left such nice ‘gifts’ on the deck, as I could not even begin to imagine how I would have felt if they had entered the boat whilst we were sleeping! For the last couple of days we have been having a laugh – any time we see something nice we say ‘quick take a photo!’ he he!! Well you have to see the funny side!

So, Mar Menor was ok apart from the jelly fish and the mugging, we stayed four nights and then did a day sail to Torrieveija,  where we rested before heading overnight to Ibiza.

Funny things – snap, crackle and pop! Apparently there are little things like cray fish that eat all of the crap of the bottom of boats when they are at anchor. You lie in bed at night, and it’s like the boat is floating in a bowl of rice crispies – really weird!

Other funny things – on our sail to Ibiza we saw a bright orange flotation device in the water. We approached it and lifted it out of the sea (incase it was better than ours and we wanted to keep it!), but never guess what was written on it Costa Fortunia (the cruiseliner that sank recently). Pretty small sea this med!

I cooked and tried to eat my tuna that I caught, but it was very disappointing as it tasted really salty – nothing like the fresh tuna steaks you buy in the supermarket. We think that they must be treated some way before being consumed, and plan to google it to see. In the meantime fishing is on pause.

I have decided to occupy myself on my 4 hour watches by starting to plan my menu for the 3 wk atlantic crossing.  Stevie likes meat for every meal so weeks 2 and 3 of the menu may be a challenge as we don’t have a freezer so any suggestions would be appreciated.

Anyway nearly at Ibiza, so time to go and party! Luv to you all xxx