To Fornells

Altea
Sat 12 Jul 2014 11:59
40:03:05N 04:08:27E

1 July 2014

Minorca is only 25 miles long and we are guided by the wind in deciding which way to start a circumnavigation. The wind is staying in the south, so we stick to the northern coastline. After a late start and another day of strong winds of around 20 knots, which begin to head us with an easterly component, we decide not to venture to the east of the island and run into the outstanding natural shelter of Fornells. Here you can see why Minorca has such a strong naval history. It has changed hands between French, English and Spanish through the 18th and 19th Centuries, as each fought to benefit from the natural refuges here in Fornells and even more so in Mahon to the east. You can easily imagine great square rigged men of war at anchor in this bay, sitting out a storm.

We have to pick up a buoy rather than anchor. Buoys have been layed in a number of the bays now, to protect the sea bed from countless anchors cutting up the weed, and also to fit more boats in, as they swing less.

We dinghy into town, where the fresh whitewash on the town houses makes the place seem like a new development, when in truth it has been here a couple of hundred years at least. A three course menu of the day for €12, a couple of beers, and home to bed before the looming clouds burst.

2 July 2014

In the morning, we dinghy the girls to town for provisions, and plan to service the outboard. We have to do this with the motor hung from its usual parking place on the bracket that sits on the aft rail or "pushpit" as it is called - being the opposite of the "pulpit" which, for reasons that should now be obvious, is at the front.

Because of the clear risk of dropping the drain plugs and screwdrivers overboard, not to mention the horror of spilling oil, which is to be avoided at all costs, we use the Gibson Booth umbrella. During our time at Sant Carles, preparing the boat after our winter layup, the GBU had come into its own as an ad hoc antifoul spray booth, keeping the wind away as we sprayed the prop and exhaust. Now it was rigged upside down, underneath the outboard, to provide a catch net. Everything goes pretty well. Gear oil changed, engine oil changed and only a tiny drop spilled on the deck, which is soon swilled off with Bilgex. Although the process went well, we have resolved to do the next service on dry land. Without 100% vigilance it would be too easy to spill oil on the deck and even worse in the water.

We had planned on leaving and radioed the Marinero on channel 9 to come over and collect the fee for the night's stay. When eventually he comes, he seems quite edgy, asking us if we have been listening on channel 16. Apparently in Cuitadella on the west of the island there have been three sudden drops in depth that morning; dropping 75cm in only a few minutes. Not only does this involve a lot of water rushing out of the harbour, with a current to match, if you are tied to a quay, or in shallow water, it is also potentially very damaging and dangerous. After a few misunderstandings due to our embarrassingly poor, to non-existent, Spanish - and his entirely more excusable limited English - it seems this sudden loss of depth is a purely local phenomenon in Cuitadella, and if we are not going there, we can safely leave.

However, after all that, we scan the mouth of the bay with our binoculars (the new Nikon 7x50s that we are using at every opportunity, as they are so much better than our old pair) and see some pretty impressive teams of white horses galloping across from the east. It is not a good time to leave and we decide to stay another night.