July 1, 2019
We spent one more day in our lovely cala on the north side of the island, doing odd jobs on the boat and reading Dickens in the hammock. I wished we could stay longer, as I was feeling semi-relaxed for the first time in a while, but we had places to be. Stephen's parents were on their annual holiday the next island over in Mallorca about to celebrate their 48th (!) wedding anniversary, so we thought we'd sail over and crash that. But first, a final goodbye to North Ibiza. I was hesitant to leave the boat that final day given the state of my face post-jellyfish attack. However, when I was finally brave enough to attempt washing it, the whole left side of my face just sort of slid off, which trust me was as gross as it sounds. Layers of red, crusty skin slid away to reveal, miraculously, somewhat normal-looking fresh skin underneath. Who knew? Making out with a jellyfish might just be a cheaper alternative to a chemical peel (Note: I would not recommend you try at home). To celebrate the fact that I no longer looked like Freddy Krueger, we decided to go check out my favourite little gem of a town on the north side of the island called Sant Joan.
The town is essentially one street built around an 18th century church, with a handful of cafes and shops. It has a distinctly hippie vibe and seems the type of place everyone knows one another. You can walk the length of the town and back in about 15 minutes, soaking up its charm and wondering why anyone bothers to go to any of the mobbed places further south on the island. The town is home to one of my favourite restaurants called the Giri Cafe. It's a small place set in and around a low-lit garden where they grow most of their herbs and produce. I just love their philosophy: "Eat seasonable. Eat locally and sustainably. Shop at the market. Plant a garden. Conserve and recycle. Cook simply, engaging all your senses. Set the table with care and respect. Eat together. Food is precious. Made with love." I am half hoping I can knick that if I ever open up a restaurant in the future... We enjoyed some local fish by candlelight before heading back to Florence to get a good night's sleep before our overnight passage to Mallorca.
We were up early the next day to prepare for what would be a 14 hour sail to the east side of Mallorca to a large natural port called Port de Pollenca where Stephen's parents were waiting for us. Having learned our lesson from our last ill-planned crossing, we spent a considerably longer time planning this passage. Not only did we wait for a weather window when the wind would be on our beam, we check the sea state - crucial if you don’t want be to pitching all over the place, risking either tossing your cookies and being tossed from the boat. We spent the day finishing boat jobs, including removing the battens we had broken and securing those remaining, filling the tanks with water, tightening the V belt on the engine, etc. We weighed anchor around 4 PM and headed out to sea. The mainsail snagged a little bit as we tried to furl it out, but with some TLC we managed to get the full sail out and furled the genoa out as well. The next several hours were perhaps the most brilliant sailing we’ve had to date on Florence. She was just loving the wind on her beam, making 9-11 knots in only 15-17 knots of breeze. We cruised through the sunset, realising how thoroughly enjoyable sailing Florence can be in proper conditions. It was quite a reassuring experience after the disaster that was our previous sail. Only a handful of hours in, I was surprised to hear Stephen shout "Land Ho!" Sure enough, I could see the west coast of Mallorca off in the distance. Wow, at this rate, we would get to Port de Pollenca in the middle of the night, not the ideal time to moor in an unfamiliar area.
We needn't have worried, because the wind completely died once we got behind Isle Dragonera off the northwest tip of Mallorca. We turned the motor on, as we still had about 50nm to go. This was our first overnight sail just the two of us, and we felt ready for it. We decided to do a watch system of 4 hours on, 4 off each in an attempt to get a little sleep. It was a moonless night, which was creepy and beautiful at the same time. Conditions were eerily calm, and I could barely see anything on my watch. The north side of Mallorca is essentially just a shear rock cliff plunging into the ocean, which makes it largely undeveloped. It appeared mostly just as a large dark shadow off our starboard side, with only the occasional twinkling of a light from a house or two. And there wasn't another boat in sight - we had the sea to ourselves, which contributed to the eeriness of the passage. I decided not to listen to my Audible book, as something about the stillness and the darkness seemed to require full attention. The sky started to lighten a bit from around 5 AM, at which point Stephen joined me on deck as we were only a couple hours from our destination. Together on our bow, we watched the most brilliant sunrise we’ve seen yet. The water was almost lake calm, and there was still not another boat in sight. We watched the orange and pink orb slowly crest over the horizon, changing the colour of the sea and sky. A sunrise like that can make even the bleariest of under-slept eyes awake with wonder.
As we are discovering with passages, the final leg always seems to take an age. It took us about 90 minutes to dip around the large peninsula at the northeast tip of Mallorca and into the very large harbour of Port de Pollenca. We ended up arriving around 6:30 AM, which was too early to connect with the man who had arranged our mooring, so we dropped a hook a ways out in the bay and caught a couple hours of shut eye. Around 9, we got in touch with our dude who led us to our mooring ball and helped us tie off. The reason for a mooring ball instead of anchoring was that we had plans to leave Florence for a few days to go to a wedding in Lisbon, and we couldn't just leave the boat on anchor unattended. The little marina in the port had quoted us EUR167 a night plus VAT for a relatively unprotected berth against their outer wall, which wasn't happening, so a sailing friend of ours who knows these parts very well put us in touch with this guy who offered us his mooring ball for EUR60 a night. Sold. We ended up being grateful to not have to anchor, as the sea floor around Port de Pollenca is mostly sea grass, and we heard the Spanish authorities have really cracked down on yachts anchoring on the grass. Even if a hint of your anchor or chain is caught touching sea grass, the authorities can come and ding you for 10% of the value of your boat. That would be an expensive mistake! There was an instance the summer before where a super yacht getting dinged to the tune of EUR400,000. We were not taking any chances.
Once tied up, we looked ashore and saw two figures waving frantically from the end of the jetty. It was Peter and Sue, Stephen's parents, welcoming us to the harbour with open arms. We threw on some clothes and hopped in the dinghy to go see them. Peter and Sue have been without question the 2 people who have been the most supportive of and shown the most interest in our trip. They'd been following our progress religiously on an app called Vessel Tracker that allows you to see Florence's every movement, to the extent they'd get nervous if we turned AIS off and they couldn't find us for a few hours. They had also been our boots on the ground the past several days in Mallorca, as we rerouted our bimini and bimini frame that hadn't showed up in Cascais to their hotel. This proved to be a not insignificant logistical challenge, and Peter and Sue were all over it like a rash, on the phone with the delivery company multiple times, continually checking the parcels' status, etc. The parcels still hadn't arrived, but we were hopeful by the time we returned from the wedding they would be there.
We got to spend a lovely day with the parentals in Port de Pollenca, which is a really bustling harbour town with a long quai chock full of resorts, restaurants and bars. A far cry from our hidden cala in north Ibiza! It seems to be a very popular holiday spot for Brits and Germans. We got to crash Sue and Peter's 48th wedding anniversary celebration, which they insisted was welcome and joked that after 48 years, if we hadn’t been around, they probably would have tried to recruit some poor random couple to join them! To celebrate, we invited them aboard Florence for cocktail hour, and I served up my house specialty, the Florence Spritz (which is exactly the same as an aperol spritz for your guide. I tried experimenting with tweaks to customise it, but they were all pretty disgusting, so I figured if it ain't broke...) Afterwards, we went to a lovely seafood restaurant by the marina and toasted their 48 years with champagne. 3 months in, Stephen and I could take a few pages from their book!
We kept a reasonable lid on things, as we had cheeky 4 AM wake up call the next day to fly to Lisbon for the wedding of one of my dear friends from Harvard. It was a little nervey leaving Florence the next morning, knowing she'd just be bobbing here on this ball for the next few days unsupervised and if something were to go wrong, we wouldn't be there to address it. We also had to empty out the fridge and freezers, as we couldn't charge the batteries while gone so would have to turn all systems off. After unloading our suitcases onto the pontoon, we locked the dinghy up tight as a drum and were in a taxi to Palma Airport by 5 AM. I was a bit nervous to go through the airport, as I was technically an illegal traveller. I still hadn't checked into Spain, as any efforts so far had been in vain. I'd just have to wait and see what they said. Turns out, they said nothing! Nobody even checked my passport on the flight from Palma to Madrid then Madrid to Lisbon. Weird! I guess I'll just have to start getting used to my illegal status.
Trusting that Florence is bobbing safely on her ball in Mallorca patiently awaiting our return, her crew are looking forward to a mini boat break and the chance to explore Lisbon for a few days. OK, time to fix Stephen's tie and to get serious about this open bar at the wedding. Back with more adventures on Florence next week!
Just awesome reading these guys!!!