39:33.9N 02:37.9E

Before we left Ibiza town, I had checked all the various weather forecasts, and felt quite comfortable about our intended  12 hr crossing to Palma after our night at anchor.  We had no telephone or internet access there, so had to rely on information 24hrs old. 

At dawn, up came the anchor as Lesley took pictures of the rising sun.

We set off under power as there was no wind.  All seemed to go well, when I spotted a very dark cloud on the horizon, and noticed it was coming towards us.  About 30 mns later, the wind rose from 4 knots to 28 knots in the space of 10 minutes, and it poured!!  I thought I was back in the Solent for a minute.  On went the oilies, in came the cushions, and we soldiered on.  Fortunately the wind was from behind us, so the boat was moving comfortably, under power, and it took about an hour for that initial “blitz” to blow through, and we were then left with 18 knot winds from the beam.   I then managed to get some sail up, and finally the clouds broke and the sun came out to dry us out a little.  We sailed and motorsailed the rest of the time, getting in to Palma around 6 p.m.  None of the bad weather had been forecast.

Palma is a massive port.  Lots of boats, from small sailing yachts to the toys of the megarich.  We’re here for a couple of nights, and can’t truly say I like it, but it does have everything one might need in terms of facilities.  It took an hour from entering Palma Bay to reach the actual harbour, and during that time I counted 21 aeroplanes taking off from the airport.  I guess their economy is not suffering as badly as the rest of Spain.  Fabulous paella in a local restaurant last night, a silver lining I guess.