Some days the view from the cockpit is less picturesque than others.

We are in Marina Port De Mallorca in Palma, moored right by the road entrance to the marina, the view might not be great but we are entertained by all the comings and goings. One of the first things I spotted was the frequent visits of little vans emblazoned with “British Laundry, we collect and return to your boat”. So the laundry has gone off to be sorted by somebody else, what decadence!

After Penny and Stephen left last Tuesday we went further north. Again enjoying the fantastic scenery but this time with the sails up, yes finally we had some wind. It was a great day, capped off by a night in Cala Gossalba. A gorgeous cove in the very northwest corner of Mallorca, it was surrounded by cliffs, had a small pebbly beach and could only be reached by sea, it was blissfully quiet.  

Evening light Cala Gossalba

The next day we sailed further around the coast to a large open bay with turquoise sea, Cala De Aguila. When we arrived the bay was relatively empty and the sandy beach long enough to absorb the crowds. However within a few hours the motor boats started to arrive. We sat in wonder as one guy put out a minimum of anchor chain, with music blaring his cargo of giggling girls swam and splashed, while he nonchalantly drifted, dragging his unsecured anchor amongst the crowd of boats, miraculously he didn’t hit anything. Ricks feelings about the place were not improved by the beach cafe ashore, it served decent food but accompanied it with loud disco music. That night the swell got up and we had a hot and uncomfortable night. 

We returned to Soller hoping to find calmer waters. Anchoring in our normal spot, in theory we should have been sheltered from the forecasted southwesterly swell but somehow it crept into our corner and we tossed around like a cork all night. The bay was full with boats avoiding the weather but even the Superyachts that had anchored around us looked uncomfortable. To top it all I had a bit of a cold (thanks Penny). Time to find a marina.

We spent Friday and Saturday at Club Velo Marina in Andratx. It was very relaxing and we enjoyed being still for a couple of days. We slept a lot, I think after three weeks, with only one night not at anchor, we needed the rest. As I have said before we love the freedom and relative privacy of being at anchor but you can never really switch off, always with one eye or ear to what is happening with the boat. Club Velo has a pool, a restaurant and a shop selling the Times, all very civilized. We swam, went into Puerto Andratx town browsing the shops and art galleries and in the evening cooked a Thai curry for Chris and Sarah who had just sailed in on their Oyster 56.

Sunday we sailed to Palma where we will be for a week. We are here to catch up on some boat maintenance, Rick has a long list of jobs to do and we hope its third time lucky at getting the freezer sorted. We have a few things to pick up from the Palma Oyster Office who have organized our berth at a good rate and sorted the freezer people to come, certainly living up to their reputation of good service. Hopefully there will be a good chandler and a large supermarket so we can restock. I, as always, have admin to do and we plan to hire a car and have a day exploring inland. Andy from the Stella Maris team is here and we hope to meet up with him and some more Oyster friends. A busy week to come, there will be hardly a moment to appreciate the view.