After all the boat jobs that we have done in Sant Carles it was time to head to Vancouver for a quick visit. Spent time with family and friends. Played a little squash. well, me more than Jacqui. Small injury took her away from it, but I carried on and had some good doubles matches. Great to get back on the court. We hadn’t played for quite a few months.

When we arrived back to the boat in early April the remaining boat jobs took precedence. We only had till the end of April to finish everything as our berth contract was up and we needed to move along. Biggest job on the list was installing the water maker. It had arrived before we left for Vancouver but there was no time to start the project. The only thing that we did was get all the parts that would be required for when we returned. Overall it probably took a week to get done and Voila! water on the go! Now we don’t have to worry about finding fresh water supplies as we travel around.

Other jobs were to replace the gear morse (gear throttle) cable as it was getting difficult shifting from neutral and whilst we were at it had ordered a new shifter to replace the 20 year old for aesthetic purposes, after sourcing a nice stainless plate for the shift and many thanks to our good friend Jeff off Belvedere everything was replaced fairly easily. Not going to bore you with all the other little jobs but they were a few that needed doing. The cockpit table went through numerous iterations, sanding, filling and sanding again. Settled on a leather stick-on . Looks pretty good!

Finished with cleaning up the dinghy and discovering the transom bolts had seized. Got one unseized but the other post just snapped off. So we are using the dinghy engine with just one bolt holding the engine on the transom. On the hunt for a replacement.

Beginning of May we said goodbye to Sant Carles marina. We had been in the marina for 6 months and the bottom of the boat told the story. Before we left we got a 2 hour lift and clean at the marina. The growth on the bottom was like a forest (she was growing her own eco system down there). After the cleanup we were good to go. We had done as much as we could in order to get the boat ready for the season and beyond. Of course at this point we were at a little bit of loss as to where to go. In the end we heading out of the marina to an anchorage around the corner and waited out the weather so we could do our first overnight crossing in a while to Majorca.

Pollença

Pollença is a small town on the north end of Majorca. The main town is a tourist stop and was getting full in May. We anchored well out in the bay and every trip in took a half a tank of gas in our little 2.5 horsepower Suzuki outboard with one missing bolt for holding the engine on the transom. Needless to say we never locked the dinghy when we ventured in because who in their right mind would want to steal it. A very safe and orderly town.

We managed to find a squash court. We had it in mind to see if we could master the traditional sport of Padel so we were wandering around to the community center to have a look at the Padel courts and there in front of us was the sign that listed squash as one of the included sports at the community center. Eureka! We spent the next couple of weeks on the court. Not the best court, but a court.

Found a hike as well out to the north end of the island to a bay called Camino de Bóquer. This led out to a very private picturesque cove. Overall we had a good first stop in Pollença. And a visit to the dentist.

Got to visit the Old Town of Pollença. Walked the 7km out to the old town because of course we don’t get enough exercise. Found a local artist painting at Casa Museo Dionís Bennàssar.

Stopped before heading back to have a beer and they brought us a treat of liver and olive. Good combo. Took the bus back.

Menorca

After 3 weeks we figured it’s time to move on. There was some nasty wind coming but it probably would not have bothered us much in the bay but we needed to start moving anyway. Off we went to Menorca. Stopped in a sandy bay on the coast for the first night. A little rolly but not horrible. Time to look for a better anchorage as the weather was coming. Do you think that we could find anything descent. Stopped in one as we had some friends in there and with the roll we abandoned that one. Up and down the coast we couldn’t find anything. Even tried the port at Ciutadella. No room at the inn. Discovered one around the corner that was listed as good protection in the conditions, however a very deep anchorage. Tried it and the roll was horrible, but we toughed it out and managed to be in all the tourists photos that had placed themself of the cliff to watch the west facing sunset, felt a bit bad ruining their photo shots but whatever it wasn’t the best sunset because of the cloud cover. Some fellow sailor on Navily sent us a pic of the boat in the anchorage and had a quick Navily chat. We moved on from there first thing in the morning, as the sea state was picking up even more.

We knew we wanted to try to get back into Cales Coves where were last year on the way through Menorca. Had one of the best sails down the coast of Menorca to Cales Coves. Glad we left when we did. We were only the second boat to come into the anchorage at that time. It filled up soon after and we had prime spot to watch all the other boats coming in trying to stern tie to the rocks. It’s a very private little cove and with the wind blowing hard from the north a great spot to be.

So here we sit for a few days and then maybe over to Mahon.