39:25.067N 003:16.143E
SV Eleonora
Michael A. Andronov
Sat 8 Jun 2019 18:43
| June 8th, 2019 1518 UTC Nice Saturday afternoon. We are on anchor, in Porto Colom. Actually, it is easier to show the map:  Correct, the round black circle on the right side — that is the place… The discovery of Meteó-France, who predicts the weather in the region accurately, does not change much, to my own surprise… I was on anchor in Vells ( the most left position of the boat ), analysing the weather files…. ‘ Yes, tomorrow in the perfect day to go… The wind is going to pick up at night, and in the morning would be perfectly in the direction I would like to go… then it will be blowing that direction till the noon of the day after… Then it would change on the opposite, and stay that way for another couple of days… That matching ok with the meteo chat… Great! So, I have to leave tomorrow, and I will do those ~38 miles effortlessly, with the following wind! ‘ But… I did NOT left the next day… I left at early morning the day after… Which explains the track on the map above… Straight line at the beginning, and then… all that tacking to the most South point of Mallorca Island… Close to the wind, then tack, close to the wind, tack… As the wind started to pick up, the boat started to heel, and the objects inside the boat started to move and to fly… The ~38 miles ’straight’ course started to grow…. ( As I would have arrived to destination, I would have made 60+ nm…. ). In short, all spectrum of reasons, why I wanted to go the previous day… ;-) I’ve learned a couple of things though… The boat is very well balanced — at least, in medium winds — with a ’new’ old genoa sail I have installed. It is really bigger then the yankee sail I removed for repair… And though the sail is larger, the boat is still manageable! The second thing I learned… The problem with the ‘wrong’ weather appears to be not related to the quality of the forecast! It is mostly related to the person, who is currently in the chair, in front of the computer! Nothing new, I know! But still an interesting observation! Amazing discovery, I would call it. Despite all technicalities… It was a beautiful trip! Until Salinas — the coast line looks like a flat, undeveloped area… The coast line looks a bit dull, with the stone shore cliffs raising straight from the water… The only ‘urbanisation’ is visible a few miles before the Salinas point — with a small town / village, and the developed beach… Then another mile of undeveloped beach… and Salinas point… I was expecting that the wind would change the moment we turn around the point… Just to punish me for my negligence with the weather … But somebody made a decision not to punish me further… One more tack, we go to port — turn to the left — and managed to make to destination on the same tack, ‘climbing up the map’ — with the nice breeze, and observing the shore line… What a change! Being more exposed to the wind and waves, the shore line is full of Calas — creek/cove — of different size… Probably, most of the languages has a proverb, saying ‘ the drop of the water cut the stone’… We are taking that as a gifted knowledge… Seeing what the water and wind are actually capable to do with the stone — is staggering ! For the reason completely unclear, that part of the shore is more occupied, and you may see more ’settlements’ everywhere… Nice, accurately build houses and villas all over the coast… It was a late afternoon, there were a couple of sailing miles behind… And though there was a tempting feeling to drop the sails and to explore each Cala and bay… I did not… We sailed straight to the Cala Mondrago… ( The motivation to do that — the guide says it is a very undeveloped Cala, with four big creeks inside… beautiful and protected, ) Indeed, it is beautiful! Nice cliffs, four different creek / calas, all in different directions… So, technically, if you guess right the direction of the swell and wind - you may always find the right place to drop the anchor… Assuming there is no other boats around… ;-) But the boaters — at least at this point of the year — are arriving only for the day time… ( even through the week days ), and then left closer to the evening… As we arrived — there was only one boat around… Another challenge to find the place to anchor — to judge the distance… When the cliffs are raising from the water… the water surface area — already not too big — is looking smaller. ( At least, I feel it that way… ;-)). You suddenly find yourself between cliffs… It looks like there is no enough space… The boat turns on the anchor — and you will hit the wall…  I’ve chosen the widest one… I knew the wind would change by the next day… I did my best to calculate the distance… In the morning, I found the boat turned… and nearly touching the cliff:  As the boat was swinging on the anchor, the distance between the dinghy and the rock was coming to 2 feet… The people, watching from the other boats, had a ’sure feeling’ we were going to hit… And ‘aaaahhhh…’ , partially with disappointment, partially with the surprise and relief… followed by some applauses… was a reward when I looked out… The weather was good, the water — crystal… But… we left the next morning… The forecast said — the patch of bad weather would pass over us the next night, generating some wind and swell… So, we picked up the anchor, and moved towards PortoColom. There was no rush at all this time since the entry to PortoColom was les then 5 mile ahead, with the wind totally behind us… We visited a few Calas on a way, marked a few as ‘must to see’ on the map…Arrived soon to the Porto Colom, found the place, anchored. I have not put the dinghy on the water yet. To this end — I can not say too much about the PortoColom settlement/village/city/town… Obviously, it is a large place — in comparison what I’ve seen on the way here… The harbour is large too… but most part of it is a bit shallow, under the 2.5 meter depth… The channel to the main port has been dragged and maintained on 4-5 meters depth… The rest — easy to pick up in the guides, Wiki, google… There are some things which you would fail to find… One of the titles — PACIDONIA! Pacidonia — is a grass, which is growing on the seabed. Everybody likes the green grass. There are a lot of advantages about the grass… Yes, of course, you would find the POCIDONIA, using the Internet… But the way pro POCIDONIA company is organised in PortoColom — that is challenging to find on the net! The official part of the story sounds logical… You — as a boater — may found it inconvenient… But the logic in official story — at the first glance - does exist. Then… the strategy and implementation… The big bay is already taken by moorings… Which may be understood again… If the place is crowded in summer… Then why not to collect money ? But then — there is a place in the harbour — which marked on the latest charts — as an anchoring area… And as soon as you anchor there… The dinghy coming, saying that your anchor chain is destroying the pocidonia grass, and that tomorrow the guys are coming to give you the fine ticket… I heard the rumours that the tickets are high… The answer to the direct question : ‘ — Am I allowed to anchor there ? — Yes, but you are not allowed to drop the anchor on the grass… — Well, I dropped the anchor and put the anchor in the middle of the sand patch, correct ? — Correct. ( The guy confirmed it, he has a special scope for checking it … ) But your chain is touching the grass…. — But nothing I can do about it… I did my best… That is the biggest sand patch around… ‘ The bottom line — the guy agreed that I did my best, and promised to protect me from the other guys, who supposes to come and give me a ticket…. The whole story — is very unclear… If the place is not for anchoring, why not to close it ? But right now it is more looking as diversification of the revenue traffic from boaters… ‘ Ye, ye… drop the anchor right there… Good … Now, we are going to give you a fine ticket ‘…. Imagine a big Parking sign at the popular place… No limits, no constrains… And as soon as you parked — authority coming to give you a ticket… A very odd situation, to say at least… But seems to make wonders in Porto Colom! Well, we will see how it all going to unfold… ;-) That is all for now. At the mean time — lovely evening, nice weather… Unfortunately, a small ‘disturbance’ passed over us during the night — made some havoc … Or may be it is just a coincidence ? Three ‘MAYDAY’ calls during the day time… This time — real… A bit too much… Everything fine on board. Talk to you soon. M. Phone, whatsapp, & text: +1(514)609-5645 |