Sunday August 25th.

Since our last post two weeks ago we have been continually on the move.  Angela and Graham Bush joined us on Sunday August 11th. and we had a night at anchor in Santa Ponsa, a delightful bay to the west of Palma.

An Indian feast in Palma with Angela and Graham Bush.

From here we set off for the island of Ibiza, about 50 miles south west of Mallorca.  We departed before dawn and had three hours of darkness in which to dodge brightly lit fishing trawlers, then treated to a magnificent sunrise over the distant Mallorcan mountains.  Sadly, the wind was light and we had to motor nearly all the way but were happy to sight our destination Santa Eulalia, a large resort on the east coast of Ibiza.  We anchored in the outer harbour and collected Catherine Bush to join the crew. During the night the wind dropped completely and the boats at anchor turned sideways to the swell from the sea giving us a massive and uncomfortable roll.  It was our worst night by far, although our guests thought it was perfectly normal.

Santa Eulalia, Ibiza. A most uncomfortable anchorage.

Terry spent most of the night in the cockpit watching an old wooden boat which was rolling uncomfortably close to us.  We now know why people spend hundreds of Euros to tie up in the local marina.

Since then we have spent every night in a different anchorage in Ibiza and Formentera. Most of them in small protected coves with sandy beaches, marred only by jelly fish of various species appearing in two of the bays, only in the afternoons however, mornings one could swim in the crystal waters without fear.  August is the European holiday season so it is extremely busy with many yachts in all anchorages, both Ibiza and Formentera are most popular destinations for French, German, Italian and British sailors at this time of year. Super yachts (enormous motor boats) abound, Exotica was very small fry!

With Catherine and James at Ibiza.

Our son James joined us for a few days at San Antonio and from there we sailed to the island of Formentera, south of Ibiza.

What you do in Formentara.

There we anchored in Cala Saona, off a fabulous and very popular, golden sand beach.  There must have been five hundred craft of all shapes and size in this wide bay.

James and Catherine leave in the early morning.

The next day we dropped off Catherine and James in Ibiza town to take their respective flights home and then the two of us sailed back to Mallorca.  This was the best and longest sail we have had so far.  The weather over the past six weeks has been sensational, warm and sunny, day after day, but not much wind so the motor has been used frequently to get us from place to place and charge the batteries. Our water maker has allowed us to be independent of marinas so we have anchored every night. We did, however, sail all the way back to Port Andratx on the southern tip of Mallorca where we had two nights on a mooring in the bay and a run ashore in the dinghy for dinner.

Exotica on a mooring in Port Andratx

We returned to Palma yesterday, via a stop for a swim in Palma Nova, for a big clean up.Two weeks of dirty washing will give our onboard washing machine a good workout!