1 June 1993 Mahon, Menorca
We went over to the quayside and filled up with water. Dave and Sue Marks are over here for a week’s holiday, so I went to find the villa that they are staying in. They dropped me back at the boat and we had a beer.
We all went to Dave’s villa for a swimming and barbeque party. The boys had a great time playing with Christopher, Steven, Jonathan and Hanna - we got very drunk with Dave, Sue, Clive and Shirley.
2 June 1993 Mahon
Nursing our hangovers! Dave + 7 people arrived and we all went for a sail to Cala Punta Prima. We had lunch, snorkelled and visited Ile De Aire in the dinghy (which was very brave with our dodgy outboard). There are loads of unique black lizards everywhere. We motored back to the harbour entrance and then sailed right into the centre of the port – went alongside at the quayside (£5/night). It was a really nice day, but total chaos with 6 adults and 6 children on board!
3 June 1993 Mahon
I installed the new ignition switch and Adverc controller. It all seems to work OK, but the ammeter oscillates between 0 and 30A very quickly. We went out to a buoy to escape paying for another night. We went out for a meal with Dave + 7, got a bit drunk and had a nice time.
4 June 1993 Mahon
We went into town to look around (it’s not very interesting). We moved the boat to a mooring nearer to town, which is free!
5 June 1993 Mahon
I went on a diving course in morning at S’Algar. We had my birthday party in the afternoon complete with cake and candles. Neville and Margaret came to dinner in the evening.
6 June 1993 Mahon
I went on diving course all day, Neville and Margaret had lunch with Glenys and the boys, then we all went to “Bonnie Day” for dinner.
7 June 1993 Mahon
I did two dives today and bought a set of diving gear for £300. Glenys and boys came to S’Algar to play in pool.
8 June 1993 Mahon
I did the novice diver test and passed it. We visited the Gin factory - there are some very exotic flavours of Gin that look and taste revolting. We got drunk with Nev and Margaret again.
9 June 1993 Mahon
We tidied up and I found somewhere to stow my diving gear. I found a small pedal car floating in the harbour and fished it out. Brett repaired it and they had fun playing with it. It was very hard to get them to throw it away afterwards!
10 June 1993 Mahon to Arenal D’en Castell
We spent about 1½ hrs messing about getting fuel and then water. We got the water from a small island pontoon (8 ft long) in front of Club Maritimo. I had to put 50 pence in a machine to get 50 litres of water. It was a really dodgy approach and departure from the pontoon with strong cross winds.
I’m glad to leave Mahon after 9 days even though it is the prettiest harbour we have stayed in. We motored and sailed to Cala Tamarells west of Ilas Colom. I went snorkelling with the boys in a small rocky bay. It was a really nice downwind sail with jib and mizzen to Arenal D’en Castell, which is a lovely, almost circular bay with a large sandy beach spoiled by apartments and hotels.
11 June 1993 Arenal D’en Castell to Fornells
We messed about on the boat until eleven o’clock and then went to the beach. I rang Rob at Feedback and he told me that he received my fax and they will pay me £49K at the end of August - as they say “better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick”.
We were going to stay the night, but a north swell started to get into the bay and a chap working at one of the bars advised us to get out in case a strong north wind was on its way. We motored around to Fornells against a 2-3 metre swell and anchored in the tranquillity of this beautiful natural harbour.
12 June 1993 Fornells
We walked up to the watch tower outside town in the morning. I had a windsurfing lesson in the afternoon.
13 June 1993 Fornells
Glenys, Brett and I had windsurfing lessons. Craig went snorkelling with no armbands.
14 June 1993 Fornells
We went windsurfing again. Brett was released and went solo! I swapped the engine and domestic batteries. I ran the engine for 1½ hours.
15 June 1993 Fornells
Windsurfing again. I bought a windsurfer, two sails and a harness for £400 (good old Feedback!)
16 June 1993 Fornells
We played with our new toy. Glenys finds the 5.5m² sail hard work – I must admit I find it heavy in light winds! Brett and Craig spent most of the day paddling around on boards. Ramone and Mario at the windsurfing school have made our stay here very pleasant. John and Rosie from “French Mistress” came for a drink in the evening.
17 June 1993 Fornells to Cala Addaya
Ramone very kindly came over and gave us two t-shirts. I spent most of the morning working out where and how to stow our new windsurfing gear. We then had a gentle downwind sail to Addaya. It’s a very interesting approach into the Cala, winding between rocky shoals that are partly submerged. We started to sail in, but bottled out because we would have had to gybe around a port buoy with rocks only 30 metres to starboard.
We anchored in beautiful surroundings with about fifteen other yachts. We went exploring in the dinghy – the far end of the Cala is very shallow, isolated and lovely. I finally persuaded Brett to jump into the water from the deck level – his swimming is coming on great guns.
The log is under reading very badly now. We logged 4.9 miles and by dead reckoning we did 7 miles i.e. only 70% of the true mileage. Addaya is mosquito city – I was bitten 3 times in 5 minutes while taking a picture!
18 June 1993 Cala Addaya to Cala Binibeca
It was hard to break out the anchor this mooring - really sticky mud. I tried to find the passage between Llosa D’Emmig and Isla Petita D’Addaya, but couldn’t see the “awash” rocks at Llosa D’Emmig and back tracked when the depth got to 7 metres. We went into Mahon to the town quay. I went and picked up our mail from the Club Maritimo (digital voltmeter and the Calvert School Grade 2 course for Brett). Glenys went shopping for meat, which we haven’t had for a week because it’s difficult to get in Fornells. We then went to Club Martimo for water.
As we were leaving Mahon, we saw Guy and Marie on in “Sahara Blue”, an Oyster 435, which was in Ipswich while we were fitting out Glencora. They are going to Turkey and then St Lucia in December, so we will probably see them again. We motored round to Cala Binibeca where we had a bit of trouble anchoring – too near a power boat, then wouldn’t hold, etc! We opened the package containing the Calvert Course to find that we only had half of it!
19 June 1993 Cala Binibeca to Cala Santa Galdana
We stopped off for a look around Cala Covas on the way – this is famous because there are still people living in the caves. It’s very tight and I wouldn’t want to stay there overnight. We went past Santo Thomas where we had a holiday 3 years ago, continued past Cala Mitjana which looks nice and went into Cala Santa Galdana which is packed with pedalos, motorboats, swimmers and windsurfers.
We sat on the beach in the afternoon. It’s very crowded and noisy (yuk!). Brett had his wish granted and Glenys hired a pedalo for him – he’s been asking for about 3 months!
20 June 1993 Cala Santa Galdana to Cuidadela
It was a bit rolly last night. We motor sailed to Cuidadela, which is a beautiful harbour and city. The Fiesta De San Juan started today and we went out in the evening to watch lots of drunken Spaniards dancing to brass bands and throwing nuts everywhere. We bought a large carrier bag of nuts (coffee or hazel?) for £1 - Brett and Craig had great fun throwing them around. We went to a fairground from which it was difficult to pull them away!
21 June 1993 Cuidadela
Shopping, bank statements and tax (groan!) It was a really muggy day with thunderstorms at night. I took a film to be developed and, as I suspected, it didn’t have anything on it. I’ll have to take pictures of Mahon, Fornells etc again. I rang Carol and she told me that the missing half of the Calvert Course had arrived 1 week later and she has sent it to the Club Maritimo, Mahon. Bless her.
22 June 1993 Cuidadela to Cala Algayerens
Another really muggy day. The wind picked up as we rounded Cala Bajoli and we had a very pleasant sail upwind to within 2 miles of Cala Algayerens. Lots of thundery-looking clouds around, but they didn’t cause us any problems.
This Cala is perfect. Lovely beach, lagoon with lots of wildlife behind the beach, rocks at the edge of the beach which are good for snorkelling and no hotels or tourists! I got the windsurfer out because the winds were 15 knots – still not enough for me to plane, but enough for me to swim when I gybe! Brett and I went snorkelling over the rocks for 10 minutes – his swimming is very good now. “Bonnie Day” turned up with some friends on board.
P.S. The Cala is perfect until the swell is from the north which it was all night!
23 June 1993 Cala Algayerens to Fornells
We were going to stay for the day, but we were hit by a 25 knot squall under a thunderstorm, so we decided to sail on to Fornells. It was a nice downwind sail to get there. We tried to anchor twice, but kept dragging, so we asked Ramon if we could use his buoy. “Bonnie Day” followed us in to the Lagoon and picked up another buoy. I went windsurfing in the afternoon. The wind had of course decreased by the time I had rigged up. We went for a meal with Neville and Margaret in the evening.
24 June 1993 Fornells
I did a few jobs on the boat until lunch time then went windsurfing. “Bonnie Day” went aground overnight, but got off OK.
25 June 1993 Fornells
I did a few jobs on the boat until lunch time then went windsurfing. I’m starting to get the hang of gybes now! Mario’s wife brought us some mail that had arrived at the Club Maritimo De Mahon (where she works). I opened it with some excitement, expecting to find the missing half of the Calvert Course – it wasn’t! We hope that the “missing mail” is at the Post Office awaiting collection. We’ve had another wonderful day in Fornells.
26 June 1993 Fornells to Mahon
We had good wind this morning. I wanted to go windsurfing for a “few” hours, but Glenys wouldn’t let me. We motored for a few hours to charge the batteries and then we had a great sail into Mahon harbour. We picked up a buoy opposite the town quay next to “Bonnie Day” (again!).
We went to the Club Nautico and found a form saying that there is a package at the post office for us. We went to “French Mistress” for drinks.
27 June 1993 Mahon
We went to S’Algar by bus then taxi. I bought a mask and snorkel and some fins for Brett. Glenys and the boys played in the pool all day and I went for a dive.
We went for dinner on “Bonnie Day”. I am absolutely in awe of Neville’s ability to understand morse code. Before we moved onto the boat, I did a course to try get my Ham Radio license. For the practical part of the license you have to be able to read 10 words of morse code per minute and transmit at 6 words per minute. After doing 30 minutes of practise every morning for three months, I was able to read a pathetic 4 words per minute - I gave up...
Neville used to be in the Navy and used morse code all the time. We were sat on “Bonnie Day” tonight having a glass of wine and chatting. In the background, Neville had his short wave radio tuned into the morse weather service. I was vaguely aware of it quietly screeching away. In between the normal banter, Neville was listening to the weather forecast and later told us the weather forecast for tomorrow. I guess it’s like learning any language - you must get to a point where your brain just thinks in Morse.
28 June 1993 Mahon
We spent the day getting Glencora ready to head East to Malta. We went shopping, put water in tank, filled up with fuel, bought gas, picked up the laundry and picked up the mail from the Post office - the second half of the Calvert Course at last! After lunch, we tidied up to get ready for the five day passage. “French Mistress” left this morning, but turned back because of easterly winds. It doesn’t bode well for us tomorrow!
29 June 1993 Mahon to Cagliari, Sardinia (Day 1)
It was windy (SW20) during the night, but this morning there was hardly anything. We decided to motor until lunch time. Then we had a nice SW20 wind from lunch time to half past four when the wind decreased and suddenly went northerly. An hour later it was back to SW10. Rock and Roll.
A swift came to visit us, landed on the spinnaker pole five times, but couldn’t hang on. Eventually it fell into the sea and I saw it struggling to get back into the air as we sailed away. Poor thing. By half past nine, we’d had enough of sailing at 2 knots, so I dropped the main, rolled the jib away and turned the engine on. We’ve had a 2-3 metre SW swell all day.
30 June 1993 Mahon to Cagliari, Sardinia (Day 2)
A NE10 wind appeared just after midnight. I waited for a bit to see if it would stay. (I was feeling a bit queasy – too long in harbours!) I started sailing with the genoa and mizzen on a 5 knot reach with a 10 knot wind. The wind dropped to nothing at nine o’clock this morning, so we put the engine on. At least the annoying swell seems to be going.
We decided to do a slight detour and call in at Sardinia to get more fuel because there is no wind. We motored all day with the awning up – we would have fried if we hadn’t. It was an “exciting” day at sea today – we saw 1 ship, 1 light and loads of swell.