Our Almanac says that you can no longer anchor in Mahon in peak season, but then again it said that you're never allowed to anchor in Fornells and there's a pontoon especially for tenders there.  Cala Taulera is a tiny little anchorage quite a distance from the town, nestled behind an island and overshadowed on the other side by the huge fortress on the entrance to the bay.  There were already a few boats there but we found a spot right on the edge.  A bit too near the edge: after a while a black rib with blue flashing lights was heading straight for us.  Ooops - we didn't realise that boats could squeeze through the narrow gap between the island and the headland and we'd strayed just past a starboard marker when the wind changed and so were in trouble with El Fuzz.  However, they couldn't have been nicer about it and said that we were fine overnight but if we wanted to stay longer could we please move forward.

Sometime later a face appeared at our stern shouting "Hola", keen to get our attention.  I immediately thought we were in bother again, but no, it was Alberto, an enterprising young chap offering delivery fresh from the bakery first thing in the morning and a supermarket delivery service in the afternoon.  He was also the answer to our dilemma as to how we were going to get into town, a several mile hike from the nearby shore and an impossible journey by sea with a banjaxed outboard.  So we placed an order of two croissants and a return taxi journey for the next day.

It doesn't matter how packed an anchorage is, you can guarantee that just before the last light 2 or 3 french yachts will come and squidge their way in somewhere and they didn't let us down that evening.  One of them was about 6 foot off our bow and their friends from the other two boats piled into their cockpit - one more frenchman and it might have sunk.  It was good for entertainment value though; later a little kid was the designated taxi driver ferrying everyone back to their boats.  It seems that he was taught to handle a tender at the same school where the two little boys learned how to fish.  I think it's called the bumper-car technique: Ram the tender head on into the stern of the boat (still in gear of course) and hopefully grab onto something before you bounce back too far.  Cling on to the boat and tender to try and keep them together (still in gear of course) while mum and nan wobble aboard.  Do the same on their boat and bounce backwards and forwards several times until all the noisy frenchmen have been delivered home.  To complete their entertainment programme, they treated us to a pyrotechnic display from the back of their boat.  I've never seen flames like that from a barbeque, and certainly wouldn't want flames like that on a boat, especially with the ships ensign wafting above.  Zut alors!

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