The summer started.  And we have appeared to be completely unprepared for it… ;-) 

With all my love to and convenience of Puerto Calanova — it has appeared to be not the greatest place for the hot summer days…  There are reasons why people with the boats are travelling away from Palma… And so we did — left the anchor, and moved away… 

During the exam  — the examiner brought us the  Portals Vells. A beautiful  Cala ( harbour ), with crystal clean water,  at the South West corner of the Palma Bay.   The place is famous by locals for its water, beaches… During the day — the density of the boats may be compared with the amount of the boats in the marina… ( That was the examiner’s idea to test us — to find the place and to anchor the boat it the Zoo…. ;-).  I still remember all those horns, shouts, etc…. as people around realised who we are and were panicking  — with no real reason, of course! ;-) — when we dropped the anchor next by their boats… ;-) But I remembered how nice the place was… ) 

 

So the time came to visit it again, and to see it in a quite environment… It should be not so many visitors, on Monday, right?   ( Wrong!!! It is Mallorca — as soon as the weather is good — there is no too much difference between Monday, Tuesday, etc. ) .

So, expecting the wind to pick up, we started the motor, raised the anchor and left Porto Calanovo.  The wind has been waiting for us, indeed. As soon as our course became evident, the wind picked up, and started to blow steadily, exactly from the direction we were going… Steadily, but not enough for all sailing preparations and tacking exercises.  Plus, the distance to go — was not long enough… 

I’ve change the tactics, trying to fool the wind… and started to motor along the coast, hoping than at certain point, as we turn, the angle to the wind would be good enough to try the sail… ( Did not work… The wind was changing accordingly, and was blowing into our face all the way to Portals Vells…) But, as going along the coast, I was able to see all small harbours and anchorages!   Good trip! 

One of the distinguishing features of the Spanish coast — Towers:

Built centuries ago, those seems to have NO EXPIRY date. In ancient times, they were used for notifications about the possible enemy invasion… 

Today, some of them are becoming the real estate property…  And as always, there is no shortage of ideas what people can do — 

Abandon, like one above… Actually, the island the tower is standing on — still belongs to military… 

Modify into the living place… 

Or, kind of rebuild from the ground up…  ;-)

Finally, we arrived into Portals Vells.   

It is a really nice place.  Though  it was Monday afternoon — the place was crowded…  But closer to the evening, the ‘day stay boats’ left, leaving plenty of place to choose where to anchor…   The place is really popular, and if you would like to stay here — you either arrive before eleven in the morning, or after 2000 in the evening…  Otherwise, the chances are high, you may failed to find the place to anchor… 

On the South tip of the harbour, there are caves…  ( See the openings behind the boat… ):

Those caves have the tombs, dated back for Phoenician times.  Yes, you may notice that the entry were modified and opened by the modern ’tools/machines’…  I heard the story — it has been cheaper to do that and to turn it into  the small shrine, then to search for the people, lost in the endless labyrinths of the tunnels… 

On the Northern part — the famous tower ( with beautiful house, hidden between the trees behind ), and the modern development…. 

We dropped the anchor right between… 

As any special mysterious place — this one has its own guards…

  

Those small black ‘dots’ — are actually medusas… They bites… I was told — you really feel it… I have not experienced  myself yet… But on a day of arrival — I was watching the man in his ~50th…  The way he was crying and jumped from the water into the boat, convinced me  — those can bite! 

It was amazing to see how those small creatures surrounded my boat, and  was — effortlessly — swimming around, despite the wind and waves… 

The next morning, I staged experiment — a small part of green onion was dropped into the water…  The intention of my ‘friends’ became clear instantly:

Needless to say, I did not swim that day…   And part of  fun from swimming… I’m afraid gone for some time…  The sea is not friendly, as I imagine before…  I’m presently checking what should I pay to the sea ( to drop/to spill into the water ), in order  to settle my account… 

But time is ticking… Besides enjoying the good weather,  and nice environment — some work on the boat has been done.  Some learning and experiments with the cooking has been performed.   After re-anchoring the boat for multiple times — some physical exercises and training  has been performed… ;-)  ( The reason for re anchoring has been two folded…  First, as the anchorage got empty, I was looking for the better spot from the current and wind combination point of view… Secondly, it was fun to use some knowledge I got during the training… ;-)).

That is all for now.  Everything is OK on board.

Talk to you soon, 

M.