Ibiza - Calle Basse 38:58.094N 001:14.571E
Monday, 23 June, 2014 Calla Basse, Ibiza. Our trip out from Denia went as planned except that the wind vanished after about 2 hours and left us wallowing in a calm sea under a hot sun. Time to try out the watermaker? It had worked well in Almerimar but I hadn’t been able to test it with seawater. When I changed the feed from fresh to salt the thing sulked and wouldn’t go. Back to the drawing board! Eventually a breeze filled from the SE as predicted and we made our way on toward the west coast. As we approached our favoured destination we saw yachts anchored in the bay pitching quite heavily – not for us! We turned North. I took the windlass control forward to ready the anchor. Nada, nothing, no life! I had tested it in Almerimar and we used the windlass when we anchored last Friday – no problem. I started checking and found there was no supply to the controller plug. Inspection revealed the terminal for the live wire had corroded and broken off. Having made a sketch of which wire went where I retired to my workshop to consider what to do. I had a vague idea I might be able to drill and tap and fit a temporary bodge but as I drilled the terminal just broke away as de-zinc brass! Bugger. Maggie asked if we had a spare in the inventory that came with the boat – and guess what, in the bottom of the box was a little packet…..why some previous owner would buy one is a mystery, but I’m very grateful he did. As evening was drawing in we anchored in the shelter of the land in Calle Basse, just eight days after leaving Almerimar. Having located a reasonable spot, I knocked the brake off and we anchored the old way – sans windlass and in 11m of water. I was really hoping to be able to fix the xxx windlass in the morning as that is a lot of chain to recover by hand! Sunday morning was spent completing the fix. Relief all round, particularly as the wind changed and freshened at lunch time and we had to move anchorage as we started dragging! Before too long though it was back to the cruising life with a siesta, swim and a run ashore. There is a very busy beach (quite a lot of Brits with kids missing school but mostly Spanish) and two or three bars. Having discretely got rid of our rubbish in their bins, we thought some refreshment might be on the cards. We were both stunned by the prices in the bar we chose– 18 Euros for an antipasta dish (we passed on that) and 10 Euros for two glasses of house wine (we have been buying three bottles for that sort of money), and yes our 3Euro bottles tastes absolutely fine and is very drinkable, in case you were wondering what 3-4 Euros buys! Monday morning was BB work, Charlie has a report to finish before we leave Ibiza, and then time for me to look again at the watermaker. I had been hoping to use the pumps that came with the boat for an (ancient/redundant) Spectra unit and so keep the shiny new pump as a spare. After thinking about things overnight (as you do) I concluded that the pressure was too low with these two pumps. I gave in and this morning, after fitting the new pump that came with the watermaker and renewing the high pressure supply hose, the thing came to life and is now working fine. The capacity of the two old pumps was ok for fresh water when I tested it but not man enough for seawater. We are now in business! Swim, lunch (swordfish fillets & salad), and for Charlie it’s back to BB work, before Maggie prepares the rum punch sundowners at 18:00. How to live! At 19:00 hrs we now nearly have the bay to ourselves, only two other boats remain! The huge gin palaces (with crews) have all gone elsewhere. The biggest yacht (or should we say ship) is anchored way across the bay. Last seen in the marina in Cartagena, she’s 87 mtrs long, with 6 decks above the waterline and comes complete with helicopter. We left ours at home as the rotors kept getting in the way! Curiously, all the really big yachts/cruisers we’ve seen thus far, and there are some very big boats out here, are flying British ensigns!!! |