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