Story - Menorca 2

Kalandia Web Diary
Bill Peach
Mon 7 Sep 2009 20:33

Now settling in with Leila and Tom, showing them the ropes, and reminding them where everything is. I say learn the ropes, Tom has really got into knot tying and seems to grab a bit of rope at every spare minute and is busy practicing knots.

After seeing Liz off at the airport, the next day we set off to Port Addaya sailing all the way, although very slowly to anchor on a small Cala by the town. It was very tight on space so we put down 2 anchors so we would swing around less which worked well. It had been pretty warm all day so we set off in the dinghy to find a small beach somewhere as the cala was wooded and the water was pretty weedy. After wandering into some shallow water and stopping a little quicker than we expected we eventually found a small beach for a cooling swim then on the way back to the boat and stopped for a small cervesa, which turned into a meal.

Taking up the anchors next day was a bit of a challenge as the Kedge anchor did not want to lift, so Tom and I had to take the Kedge anchor to the bow and use the windlass to pull it up to break it out of the mud while Leila was on the wheel. All good practice for both of them.

Next day we headed for Fornells, stopping off for a small afternoon swim. Fornells is another protected anchorage, which meant that we were able to use a mooring buoy, which was easier than anchoring. We went ashore to try and seek out the notorious local dish which is Lobster soup. We soon found that for 500g lobster prices started at 40 Euros going up to 75 per person, so a nice Tortilla and salad was had on board instead!

The night at anchor was a very rolly one, so with little sleep we set off for Ciutadella early in the morning to avoid the imminent Tramotana (local strong wind), which was a good thing as after talking to some other  yachties who followed us 24 hours later they had a very uncomfortable time.

The old port of Ciutadella has a very narrow entrance, and to make it more fun there are some very large ferries that come in, although they are building a ferry terminal outide at the moment. So everytime a ferry is about to arrive or leave (about 6 times a day) the port police close the port all traffic. Of course we arrived as  the ferry was coming so we had to tuck into a small  cala to get out of the way. Eventually we managed to get a berth alongside the quay with restaurants, right in the centre. Mind you when the ferries came in and turned around they were only 40m away as they turned.

We were alongside a 30m motor yacht, and I was chatting to the permanent skipper,  who told me the fuel consumption underway  was 500 Litres per hour (about 500 euro per hour) so you won’t hear me complain about fuel costs again with my modest 6-10 Litres per hour.

You may notice the quality of the photos is improving since Tom came on board, Its not  Me!

Bill

 

 

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