Cala Teulera and Mehon

Innamorata
Steve & Carol
Mon 30 May 2022 16:33
39:52.71N 004:18.50E 
Forever hopeful the weather will stay as forecast for us to sail over to Sardinia we decided to head into Mehon and anchor so that we could do some provisioning, there was a small shop in Addaya but it was expensive so I only got a few items there and we are in need of a few bits! Mahon is in a large inlet and the only place you are allowed to anchor is Cala Teulera near the entrance, its a reasonable size anchorage but gets very crowded and has a reputation for poor holding in places! As we sailed south we could see a lot of boats heading out of the anchorage on AIS and so were hopeful we could find a nice spot, luckily there was a nice big spot in the middle with a sandy bottom 😁. 
Mahon is about a 1.5 mile dinghy ride, there is a nice public dock there so it's easy to leave the dinghy securely to explore a bit and of course find a decent supermarket to get some provisions! Im not sure we found the heart of the old town but parts had some charm, the shopping area was busy and we didn’t spend long there finding quieter roads to wander along.
           
 
We also went over to Es Castell which was a lot closer than Mehon and quite pleasant to have a wander and stretch our legs! We found 2 old windmills from 1774 which were restored in  2012 and are open to the public - but sadly not when we were there! 
     
Cala Telerà is attractive, to the east there is Fortelasa de Isabel II or Fortress of La Mola is large stone fortress which was built at the orders of Queen Isabel II of Spain and completed in 1875, and to the west there is thLazareto de Mahon which was built as an isolation hospital for ships arriving in Spain in the 19th century. We went for a walk with Simon, Lucy and Darcy ashore on the spit of land the Fortelasa de Isabel II is on and ended up walking round part of the moat which itself is a fairly impressive structure, when we got to the end which was actually at the entrance to the fort we realised we had been walking in an area which was off limits to the public 😬. We didn’t pay to go inside the fort - maybe next time!
         
We had intended to only be here briefly but as always we stayed longer than expected as of course the weather kept changing but we had a really nice time, met some new people, watched some boating mishaps - at least 3 French boats going too fast went aground in the shallow water behind where we anchored, one needed help to get off as it was stuck fast so Steve and a dutch cruiser helped him by taking his anchor out in a dinghy and laying it out so he could pull himself off - a very effective trick we learned in Greece years ago, surprisingly a few people commented about what a good plan of action it was and no one else seemed aware of it at all! it works better than trying to pull or push a boat hard aground with a dinghy! 
 
In the end we were there for a week and by then there was quite a bunch of us waiting for a weather window to sail to Sardinia so when it was time to leave there was a mass exit.