Welcome back to Nimue’s adventures after having spent the last 8 months either in Sant Carles de la Rapita, or the UK.  We have both had such an enjoyable time in Sant Carles, particularly meeting new friends, trying to learn Spanish, enjoying terrific walks and much, much more, which I will endeavour to summarise in a future blog.

Anyway we’ve set off again and it is our intention to explore the Balearic Islands i.e. Ibiza, Majorca and Menorca for a few months.

We said our fond farewells to friends, as we slipped from our mooring about 1000hrs.  The wind was perfect when we left Sant Carles for the small islands of The Columbretes.  These are made up of four barren groups of volcanic islets and some parts are now a marine reserve. We sailed the 40 miles under full rig with a pleasant F3/4 wind on the beam.  The only problem was that the north easterly wind direction would blow into our anchorage and mean a very rolly night.  Anyway, we decided to go for it and picked up one of the 9 or 10 mooring buoys.  As anticipated the swell meant Nimue ‘rock and rolled’ for most of the night, but we were glad we had visited these relatively unknown islands.

Below are some pictures of the Columbretes and our anchorage but as you can see it was rather a grey, 'murky' day!

We departed early the next morning for the 60 mile journey to Ibiza and again for almost half the journey had excellent sailing conditions with the wind on the beam…..perfecto!!.

The area around these islands are renowned for some of the best fishing in the Mediterranean, so once again I hung my trawling line over the stern of Nimue, but still no luck.  I understand perseverance is a virtue, so I will catch one someday!!

We arrived in relatively low visibility into Cala Salada, Ibiza around 5’o’clock and were welcomed by Alan and Ann on Sula Mac, our very goods friends who we met in Sant Carles.  This is a very beautiful, picturesque and small Cala on the west side of Ibiza and was surrounded by pine trees, so you can imagine the smell!  In addition we were just around the corner from San Antonio (clubbers paradise), but you wouldn’t have known it was there apart from the odd day trip boats.

 Sula Mac already in situ and it was great to meet up with Alan & Ann again!!

Nimue anchored in Salada Bay (one of many !!)

  Views of Salada Bay from our anchorage

Time to chill for a couple of days, before moving on…………..