Hot and sunny in Spain

We're back in Almerimar Marina in southern Spain where we spent a few weeks in 2006.....Bandit was a new toy then....we'd just bought her in Gibraltar.  It's nice to be back in a great marina with excellent facilities, a fantastic supermarket and brilliant weather.....day after day of sunshine.

He's up there somewhere....David up the mast

 It's work time though - we've hauled and antifouled, put in a new anchor winch, new gearbox, sanded and varnished, provisioned and cleaned and scrubbed.

Busy in the boatyard

Now we're both off - David to NZ to visit grandkids and family and Brenda to Thailand to spent a week with youngest son Ryan (can't wait) via Abu Dhabi to catch up with friends.  Back on board October 24 with bows firmly pointed towards the Canary Islands to catch up with the rest of the "team" Caribbean bound.

majorca

Pleased to leave Menorca as a huge thunderstorm swept in behind us – sucking up all the wind, but we still managed to trickle along.  Anchored at Cala Ratjada then slowly moved down the east coast, stopping at Porto Cristo, Cala Baca, Porto Colon, Isola Moltana and into the Bay of Palma itself.  

Anna and Glen

We’d spent lots of time here on Sea Gypsy in 2000, Aschanti in 2004 and Bandit on 2006….so we didn’t linger.  Anna and Glen enjoyed the sights of Palma de Mallorca and we enjoyed tapas at Bar Dia….a favourite from previous times. 

Glen, Anna and David in Palma

Watched the opening of the World Cup at a bar in Palma Nova – what an awful place…..full of package holiday Poms (no offence to any English friends but really…..they should have a drafting gate at the airport!).

Sangrias in Palma

Ibiza rocks!

Our first really good spinnaker run of the season!  We left Majorca at daybreak and by 9am had the kite up and Bandit was smoking along towards Ibiza at eight to 10 knots – fantastic!  We’ve got David’s daughter Anna and her husband Glen on board so great to give them a good spinnaker run.  No fish though much to Glen’s disappointment!   We head for the north coast and discover some gorgeous calas with the clearest water we’ve seen in the Med.

Sunset at Club del Mar, Ibiza

As we sail between anchorages we put a Cafe Del Mar CD on and wonder exactly where the bar is....we’ve listened to the music for years and decide we can’t possibly visit Ibiza and not Café del Mar.  So we google it (what did we do before google?) and find it’s in San Antonio, where we are headed.  Disappointment kicks in as we sail past mid-morning as it doesn’t look like any of us envisaged - a rather stark looking bar on the rocks – not on a sandy beach as we all thought.  Never mind – we head in for sundowners anyway.....along with a couple of thousand others....most of them Paris Hilton lookalikes.  Never have we been amongst so much testosterone, designer clothing, exposed flesh, after shave, make up and hot bodies!  Only thing is we are about 30 years too late! 

Anything goes on Ibiza

San Antonio itself is awful – full of tacky people on cheap package holidays.  Early mornings (when we shop or go to the Laundromat) are not nice – people staggering home from nightclubs, vomit and urine stains line the street, bottles and cigarette butts are everywhere.  We take a bus over to Ibiza town which is much nicer – the old city is particularly delightful.

Brenda, David and Anna at Club del Mar

We leave Anna  and Glen in San Antonio.  They’ve had two fantastic weeks with us and are now off to explore Italy.  We have a brisk sail around to Cala Terida – a delightful anchorage with gorgeous white sandy beaches, amazing rock formations and that amazing turquoise water.   We spend a few days doing chores before heading to Espalmador and Formentera waiting for the right wind to head to Almerimar on the Spanish mainland.

Annie and Glen on the rocks 

Frustrating Menorca

The narrow harbour in Ciutadella

We were so looking forward to Mahon in Menorca, having heard wonderful things about it.  Our first stop  was Fornells in the north – a fairly ordinary town but the bay offered safe and secure anchorage – important for a good night’s sleep after several at sea. 

The next day, refreshed, we moved a few miles east and found a gorgeous bay with turquoise water– just the spot to do a few maintenance jobs.  However it lost its gloss when the wind got up in the night and Bandit started to roll and pitch like a bucking horse.  By 5am we’d had enough so upped anchor and had a fairly brisk sail around to Mahon and into the marked anchorage area.  It was full of boats sheltering and a none too friendly lot they were......wherever we anchored it was going to be close but no one seemed to be sympathetic.  After several attempts and lots of scowling faces we told the grumpy neighbours we just needed to have breakfast and a cup of tea and would then reassess the situation.  So much for the camaraderie of the cruising community!  Needless to say, the wind dropped and we left ASAP.

The lovely old city of Ciutadella

The south coast of Menorca is lovely – white sandy calas (bays) and beautifully clear water but it is very exposed and after several rolly nights we decided we needed a peaceful night so back into Menorca.  We headed into the harbour itself – a massive indented harbour with lots of good anchoring .....so we thought.  Leaving Bandit in a good spot we headed into the town to explore, provision, internet and enjoy our first Spanish cafe con leche.  The Panerei classic yacht race was on so we indulged in a spot of nostalgia wandering the docks looking at the elegant boats – Creole, Mariette etc. 

We returned to Bandit several hours later to find a note on our stern saying we were anchored in a restricted area.  In fact the only anchoring allowed was in the first anchorage we went to which was a good mile tender ride away over busy waters.  The Mahon harbour authority controls all the dock space and, to be fair, have installed dozens of floating pontoons to which you can tie up....but at a cost.  For us to go onto the dock it was 128euros which just doesn’t figure in our cruising budget.

David’s daughter and husband were arriving the next day and we debated at length options for picking them up.  A long tender ride with bags did not appeal so we decided to risk the authorities’ anger (again) and anchor in the harbour.  We left Bandit the minute the anchor was down and on our return a few hours later, found some angry officials waiting for us telling us to move....which we did.

With southerly winds forecast we opted to go around the north of Menorca and had several nights in beautiful calas before going into Ciutadella where we tied up at the wall for 42 euro, power and water included.  Note to Mahon authorities – a slightly more lenient approach would encourage more cruisers to linger in your city and spend their money in your supermarkets, restaurants and chandlery stores.  Your short sighted approach doesn’t work for us.

A very strange looking motoryacht - Russian owned of course.

Ciutadella is beautiful – a lovely old city renovated beautifully after the Spanish Civil War with tons of character.  We enjoyed lingering here – just soaking up the atmosphere and wandering the cobbled streets

Fantastic fisherman

The one that didn't get away!

We’ve towed a line for 10,000miles in the Med and caught a handful of fish, mostly mackerel.   In Greece we came painfully close to hooking some big tuna – but ended up just losing a lot of gear.  In Corsica this season schools of tuna taunted us – swimming alongside Bandit for miles, surfing the waves beside us and even leaping out of the water like dolphins.....but completely ignoring our lures.  Apparently, tuna will only take the lure if they are hungry and this lot weren’t.

But halfway between France and Menorca our luck changed.  We already lost one lure to something seriously big so knew there were fish out there.  At around 4pm on a hot day, as we hummed along at about five knots the line suddenly whizzed and the rod bent at an alarming angle indicating there was something serious hooked.  Thirty minutes later and we had a huge tuna on deck.  I wouldn’t have made a good cavewoman – I desperately pleaded with David to let it go....but the poor thing was pretty much dead.  And...later that night.....after eating sashimi then tuna steaks with salsa verde, any thoughts of pity for the fish had faded.  It provided enough tuna for 10 meals for the two of us – thanks to the freezer.

That was the highlight of a fairly ordinary two day/two night sail from Porquerolles in the south of France to Menorca.  The wind was frustrating at times (usually early morning and early evening) but we managed to sail most of the way.

The crowded and expensive south of France

August was not the best time in the world to visit the French Riveira – the crowds were unbelievable and the prices eye watering.  Six euros for a coffee in St Tropez and two euros for the smallest ice cream in the world in Villefranche.  This was not going to be a lingering visit!

Which tender is ours?  Crowded south of France

Menton was as beautiful as ever (we spent several weeks here in 2004 while working on the classic schooner Aschanti) and it was fun to sail along the coast oogling at the exquisite waterfront villas in the area.  Villefranche was delightful but we skipped Cannes and Antibes (having visited by car previously) to anchor at Isle St Margarite off Cannes.  Our first experience of a seriously crowded anchorage – there were hundreds of boats in the vicinity and dozens of jet skis making swimming a nightmare.

David and daughter Ping in Villefranche

Onward to St Tropez where the skies above were filled with private jets, small planes and buzzing helicopters and the seas with jetskis, small boats, big boats and yachts.  St Tropez was awful – full of people wanting to be seen and others desperate for a glimpse of someone famous.  The quaint fishing village has long gone and the cobbled streets are chock full of tourists.    The waterfront is a decadent mix of ridiculously expensive superyachts, overpriced cafes and bars and botoxed, permatanned designer clad bodies.  St Tropez beach is undeniably beautiful but crowded so, after a walk along the pristine groomed white sand, we moved on to find a quieter spot. 

Showing off in St Tropez

We overnight at Cavalier sur mer and Le Lavandou – both pleasant enough resort towns - and then across to Porquerolles where the bays are beautiful but as crowded as anything we’ve ever seen.  Brenda’s birthday so we celebrate on board with a bottle of French bubbly before going ashore for a delicious meal of moules mariniere and frites. 

Farewell France – the next day we head for the Balearics.

horses, horses and horses

I know, I know, horses have absolutely nothing to do with sailing – but as I have just spent three weeks working on a big stud farm/livery and showjumping yard inWest Sussex I just had to include them for a bit of variety.

The agency we work for in the UK phoned one sunny day while we were in Le Grazie.  The offer was too good to turn down and with so much work to do on Bandit to prepare for an Atlantic crossing we decided it was a perfect opportunity.  I fly to the UK while David works on Bandit.

With his youngest daughter Ping living nearby it was a great chance also for them to catch up.  Ping ended up helping David sail from La Spezia to Villefranche in France – and I met them there after flying to Nice.

It was fantastic to be with horses again.  I was responsible for the livery yard but got to help out in the showjumping yard which was full of beautiful and expensive Dutch warmbloods.

Some of the yearlings

I got to enjoy the balmy late summer weather in the UK, work with some lovely young grooms and make some new friends.

Two of these – Lucie and Taylor – hosted me on the beautiful Petworth estate they caretake when I left the stud.

It was also a bonus was catching up with former Marlborough friends Frank and Maria Nelson who were passing through the UK.

Frank and Maria

Frank and Maria left Blenheim 14 years ago and were our inspiration to throw in good jobs for an unpredictable life travelling the world doing odd jobs here and there.  It was as refreshing as ever to spend time with them – they are so energising and inspiring.