Having almost rounded Ibiza we sailed to Mallorca in a nice breeze with Sunriser reaching ocasionally the 10 knots.
The bay of Santa Ponsa will be our base for the coming time from which we undertake trips both inland and to other islands. Very well sheltered it also has everything we need a short dinghy trip away.
While Beatriz was in Madrid visiting her parents, I went with our friends from our buddyboat Dreamreacher to visit Palma. Apart from the beautiful catedral I learned about the concept of a ‘snelfie’. Basically somebody says ‘snelfie’ and then takes a picture of all people in the group.
The next trip took us to the northwest to the villages of Deia, Soller and Fornalutx, which have beautiful views, castles and churches. The solitude and charm of the sierra Tramontana has attracted artists for already more than 100 years, among which the most famous are the musician Chopin and the writer George Sand who stayed in the monastery of Valldemossa the winter of 1838 to 1839, inspiring Sand’s book A Winter in Mallorca. Also the chilean poet Ruben Dario, the catalan painter Joan Miro… and in another category the actor Michael Douglas, resided in Mallorca.
We then sailed under gennaker for a three-day trip to the small nature reserve island of Cabrera (goat island).
Because of the sensitive nature here you need to apply for a permit and reserve a buoy as anchoring is not allowed. The walks here are stunning, especially the view from the castle overlooking the island was special. We stayed 3 nights and then sailed in some days back to our homebase in Santa Ponca.
Back in Mallorca we visited Talaiot Capocorb Vell, a settlement from the Bronze age, not very known but a small treasure in the middle of nowhere.
But the highlight of the day wasBotanicactus, the largest botanical garden in Europe, with many thousands of cactuses (cacti?) and other plants.
Another highlight was the trip to Sa Calobra, where you walk through some tunnels completely in the dark to appear on the huge open space of a large gorge surrounded by spectacular rock formations very popular among rock climbers (Jos also gave it a try). Although this was the first overcast day in a month we still walked around in awe of the wonders of nature.
With these trips it still looks like we are on holiday, but we are now seriously settling down, having been here for 3 weeks and probably staying longer. We use Santa Ponsa as the base for trips, but often we just stay on the boat, do our yoga, swim in the morning and enjoy the sunsets and sunrises.
Beatriz is, as she has always done, cooking very nice meals and has joined a group ‘cooking on board’ where recipes are exchanged.
Cruising is fixing your boat in exotic places
I am doing the more technical chores, like trying to fix a broken watermaker…in which I did not succeed. As they say: ” cruising is fixing your boat in exotic places”.