Mallorca pit stop

I do hope Dave didn’t tell his friends and colleagues that he was going on a sailing holiday because that would have been a fabrication and the prospect for tomorrows overnight to Barcelona doesn’t look as though it will yield a rally in our sailing prospects. The upside is that we have plenty of time and can accommodate a slow passage only having the constraint of Dave’s departure for the airport for his flight home on Tuesday afternoon.

We departed early on our passage to Mallorca deciding to target the SW corner and anchor. Reading the comments on the CA app, it seemed that the buoys I was targeting which I remembered as being free, were now controlled by a marine conservation ministry and should be booked (and paid for) in advance and that anchoring in weed in the area incurred a fine. On our approach, several buoys were vacant so we picked one up having established on the web site that if you had not booked the day before, it was only possible to stay if there was availability and the roving warden sanctioned it and took the fee there and then. It being the Spain vs Russia football match (we could hear the whoops from ashore) we were doubtful the warden would be operating so we were a little dismayed to see him ‘doing his rounds’. Hoping to ‘blag it’ we donned the Spanish colours face paint gifted by a previous marina, feigned our support for Spain and were duly awarded a permit to stay for a princely 43 Euros.

Running the generator to operate both AC systems was welcome in the stifling heat and it also topped the batteries for our schlep across to Barcelona. The location was really rather picturesque with the sun setting behind Isla Dragonera, it was to be our only (pseudo) contact with Mallorca on this trip but our brief experiences of the Balearics reminded me that they are overloaded with yachts and very pricey.

Dave Wright writes for the last time:-

Just a final thought to round off our motor trip round the Med. I hope the following does justice to the trip and the rich history of literary gems laid down by former crew members:

Down the coast we dash,
Drinking and spending cash,
It’s the good life we’re seekin’
Fun, if you don’t weaken
And like sodomy, the whip and the lash!