Day 2 of the pit stop on Palma is going to the end. Actually, it has already gone at local time.  

We are crossing the Palma bay,  positioning ourselves on the route to Ibiza /Fomentera islands. The passage to Almerimar has started! 

I’m not doing that passage alone.  My old friends have come to make the trip with us.   They have arrived to Calanova, as I’ve been putting more diesel into the boat… and as soon as the re-fuelling was over,  I has been politely kicked out from the fuel station  by the marina guard.  He was sure I’m using the station  as the transit dock…  

Instead of waiting on the anchor again and settled all the things, and to make the preparation for the passage… all of us decided not to waste the time and to start right away. And here we are… crossing the Palma bay… 

But let me step back and described a few things… 

The morning started with a surprise.  

During my previous stay in Palma, I got acquainted with the young couple, living in Calanova.  During our meetings, I has been asked a lot about living on board,  travelling, ‘boater lifestyle’, etc, etc, etc. They told me, in exchange, about their plans to settle on Palma, etc, etc… 

Today, we met for a quick coffee and breakfast at their place.  During the coffee, I learned that my friend lost his job — kind of computer job, in the car renting office. Instead of looking/searching for some job ’similar/normal’,  my friend has approached the sailing school, and applied for sailing courses.  His goal now — to went through multiple of them, in order to reach the Spanish equivalent of the RYA Yachtmaster…  Then to connect his professional life to boating…  

I’ve tried to tell his girlfriend that I have nothing to do with that decision of his …  But I think that I failed to convinced her and their dog that all that was not my fault… At least, the dog  has not been friendly with me at all, and very happy when I left…  I went to pick up groceries, and my friend was rushing to Porto Pi for his first practical sailing lesson… ;-) 

Groceries, groceries…   

It is easy in Palma.  There are two big supermarkets in Calanova. Really big, modern, ‘full-sized' supermarkets. Not  a name on top of the smaller versions, as it happened to be in Napoli…  My favourite is Mercadona,  which together with Carrefour — a bit further —  make you feel that you get to ‘food heaven’.  

There is no shortage for food selection, wine selection, beer selection, etc, etc, etc. But the size of the bag you are able to carry — is putting a limit what you can get on each visit  to  the store… ( Of course, the money spending — put another limit…  but I do not want to spent time on ’sad’ things… ;-)).

I did my best, visiting the shop(s) with the bags three times… in order to comply  with the ‘provision list’,  my arriving friends provided me with.  I has been very proud of the results… But my friends were living in Spain much longer then me, they know better what is good and what is  so-so… So, after their correction and  the 4th visit to the shop, I was sure I did good and was super proud of myself! ( Until I learned later on the day, that on their way from the airport, my friends stopped in Mercadona too, and got things, which I have missed… ) ;-)

Boat presents… 

I fulfilled  my promised.  

The new in-line air blower  has been installed.  It took longer than I thought… But finally I managed… and at the end, it started to pull air from the motor compartment much better then it was happening before… 

The modern water pressure pump has been fitted in too… It occurred to be ’noseless’ in comparison with my previous one…, With restored water pressure  and a few extra PSI  on top — it made the water system working much better… No, looking as systems, which are working on land. -)

At certain point, I got the feeling that I’m as the ancient sailor donating some goods to the ‘boat God’, to ask for the next safe and easy / ‘boring’  Sea passage… 

But the preparation for the passage has not finished there…  I’ve also downloaded the latest weather data through Squid program, and analysed the best route with all models available… 

Amazingly, they  all come back approximately with the same results.  The good part was — the routes they were giving include a lot of motoring.  

( My friends have the tight schedule and , on the other side,  the weather forecast for Tuesday — was a big storm — up to 60 knots — on top of Mallorca again… )

So, despite of the forecast winds into our face,  I have to leave as soon as practicable… 

Only one model  was reported as ’not ready’, and I decided I will download it later, before departure. As I did, actually… 

Those task took the whole day quickly. 

As I got the message, that my friends on the island, I moved the boat from the anchor to the gas station and started to feel the boat… 

To degree, the marina guard was right, that I’ve been using the gas station as the pick-up point… 

But frankly — and miraculously — I’ve been still filling the tanks with diesel when the guests arrived… 

And here we go… 

As soon as the re-fuelling was over,  I has been politely kicked out from the fuel station  by the marina guard.  He was sure I’m using the station  as the transit dock…  

Instead of waiting on the anchor again and settled all the things, and to make the final preparations… all of us decided not to waste the time and to start right away. And here we are… crossing the Palma bay…  

The night is beautiful. We have everything for the interesting crossing… 

A lot of stories to tell… a lot food… some good  wine for the stops,  ( yes, we are planning to make the pit stops on our way… then the wine . )…

We have Squid modelled route to follow… And we are anticipating how it is going to work… 

Everything is great! 

Talk to you soon, 

M.