Sant Elm to Portals
Altea
Wed 11 Sep 2013 19:14
11 September 2013
We had a great sail round from Sant Elm, heading towards Portals. I sent a text to Robin, on the off-chance he was with his boat in Andratx and by a pretty amazing coincidence he was heading round the coast in the opposite direction. We crossed over between Illa delToro and Cap de cala Figuera and exchanged hearty waves and calls.
We had a race with another boat (who probably didnt realise they were in a race) and we won handsomely. We decided the key advantage was gained when we hit some chop that Altea managed to batter through, and which took the wind out of their sails.
We didn't want to go into the marina at Portals, and opted for the anchorage at Illa de sa Torre.
We were too close to the rocks so we anchored again. We dragged, so we anchored again. A boat moved so we decided to take their place and anchored again. We dragged and anchored again. Eventually we anchored securely but by then the wind was over 20 kn and heavy rain threatened, so the planned hook up with Steph and Sandro had to be postponed, which was a shame.
Meanwhile a large pristine Oyster with a five man crew had anchored further back and sent down divers to check that their anchor was ok. It must be a handful of a boat, as three of them had to climb on the boom to stow the main sail. Wouldn't fancy that in a blow. It made our roller reefing seem like a boon, even though its credentials are often doubted when compared with slab reefing. Each has its merits I guess. Ours is much improved and with no real jams since Falmouth as far as I can remember, now we have sorted out the mast tensions etc and especially since we discussed it with the rigger in Gib and made a point of slackening off the backstay to roll it in. Anyway, having sorted out the sail the Oyster then upped anchor and left into the evening gloom. Wouldn't be surprised if they were delivering it and just wanted to make sure it was pristine.
Eats on board and off to bed.