Puerto de Soller

Innamorata
Steve & Carol
Wed 11 May 2022 14:15
39:47.53N  002:41.549E 
We had a very peaceful night and set off at about 9am to head round the NW coast to Puerto de Soller, as we came out of the Cala we could see Rockhopper who are heading the same way as us, we soon got the cruising chute and mizzen up and had a good sail just in front of them until we got in to the gap between Isla Dragonera and Mallorca when we had to take the cruising chute down to gybe it and Rockhopper sailed past us, not long after that the wind died and then did a 180 degree shift so we took the cruising chute down and motored for the rest of the trip going around the coast to check out a couple of anchorages which we had thought we might stop at, they weren’t really suitable either too much swell rolling in or deep and with a lot of rocks on the bottom. 

We arrived in Soller which had a good few boats in the bay some were anchored and some on unofficial moorings and swing in the same way as the anchored ones, after a couple of goes at anchoring when we ended up too close to boats 🙄 we found a space! Rockhopper anchored near by not long afterwards, Jo and Carl came over for drinks and we made plans to go ashore and explore with them the following day. 
We headed ashore and got one of the vintage wooden sided trams into the town of Soller about 2 miles inland, the trams are very well maintained and well worth taking for the experience, orange and lemon trees line some of the route, it didn’t take long to get to Soller and what a pretty rural town it is - it was a shame that there are very noisy roadworks going on in the town square though as it rather spoilt the ambiance! The tram journey ends at the train station where there was a delightful victorian train from the same era as the trams waiting to depart for Palma, there was even a small turntable and some tram sheds which reminded me of Thomas the tank engine stories. The town itself was quaint and we wandered around the narrow streets before stopping in the square for some lunch. We hd noticed flags hanging from buildings in the streets - to us they looked like the St George, Balearics and Turkish flags, so Steve asked the waiter what they were about - he said that they were to the battle between the Christians and the Moors in 1561, Otterman invaders landed on the beaches on Puerto de Soller and marched to the town to claim it for the Arabs where they were held off and defeated by locals and the local the militia of Soller. Sadly the Firo of Soller was celebrated a few days before we arrived - it's a massive celebration where locals dress in the traditional costumes of Mallorca and the invaders and reenact the battles and would have been great fun to see, maybe another time! The trip into Soller of course ended with a trip to a supermarket to get some groceries before heading back to the boats.                                                                                                                                                                              
      
       
The following morning we were busy doing laundry, cleaning the boat and having a bit of a sort out, we gave the Bimini sides and back a good clean then stowed them away and replaced them with some sunshades as hopefully summer is here at last as the weather has been gorgeous for the last couple of weeks. In the afternoon we went ashore and met Jon and Rena who we last saw in the USVI in January 2020, Steve had contacted Jon when we were in Palma as he used to be based in the summer when he skippered Genevieve, we thought he was in Mexico on his own sailboat but he replied to Steve saying he was arriving in Palma in a couple of days on a Motorboat delivery from New Zealand. What great timing for a change, they had agreed to see us in Soller and drove over for the afternoon/evening. We met them ashore in a cafe and then they came back to Innamorata where we had a lovely time catching up.
We also went for a hike - it started as a walk to the lighthouse, on the way we met an elderly German gentleman and got chatting, he said there was a nice walk from the lighthouse inland to Muleta Gran and back round to join the road from Soller so we decided to do that walk. It wasn’t far only just over 9km but it took us a while, Steve took his drone and we stopped in an old olive grove to practice flying and catching it!
  
   
Much of the track was stone which was pretty uncomfortable to walk on after a while and somewhat slippery on the way down. The track was busy , mainly with hikers going the opposite way to us, some had walked from Deia along the coast. 
   
   
  
After our walk we headed back to the boat before heading over to Toodle-oo for sundowners. 
We need to be moving on so after hopping ashore for fresh bread we headed further along the coast to explore some quieter anchorages.