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PAMARZI
Sun 6 Oct 2013 09:33
rang I was already in the tender. A turn of the key and I planed my way to
the beach at the head of the bay where Bernie and Joy stood already shoeless
(surprisingly no dinghy dock here) ready to board. They and luggage aboard a
push through the shallows and over the surf and it was back to the boat.
Great to see them both, over an early lunch we caught up with each other's
news, then an easy afternoon as they stowed their gear, found their sea legs
and caught up with the sleep they missed the previous night due to their
early hour's flight.
Sunday dawned, another day of light airs and calm seas and it was to stay
that way for pretty much the whole of Bernie and Joy's time with us. After a
leisurely breakfast we motor sailed to Formentera there we anchored off the
long spit of sand separating Formentera and Espalmador and decided to take a
long late lunch at the celebrated beach bar of Juan y Andrea, a haunt of the
'beautiful people' the rich and the famous people and of course the
wannabees! A call on channel 74 brought, much to the delight of the ladies,
a bronzed, blond haired hunk surfing over the waves in a rib with an engine
as big as his ego, to whisk us to the beach. We chose an outside table (as
nearly all the diners had) beneath the sail cloth, shaded sand, just outside
the sun bleached wooden veranda where overhead fans wafted a cooling breeze
over us. Food and drink ordered we made what we could of our fellow diners.
To my right a table of eight, we assumed them to be an ageing Russian heavy
metal band, for the lead singer if that's what he was, was weighed down with
gold adornments glistening against his heavily tattooed body. Four others,
one with hair in a long dark pony tail two completely bald, all three
heavily tattooed. The forth a thin, bespectacled fellow, no tank top for
him, wearing a modestly coloured polo shirt, looked studious and eating
quietly whilst the band drank and smoked and leered at their three female
fellow diners, he was perhaps calculating how much they would make at the
next gig. To my left beyond the 'in love couple', who thankfully had not
ordered fish, as they gave their food not a glance, unable to tear their
intimate gaze away from each other, they surly would have choked if there
had been bones, sat an elderly trout. She dispelled the myth that you can be
neither too rich nor too thin, for thin she certainly was. Legs so
insubstantial and bird like I half expected her to perch on the back of her
chair. Rich she (or her husband) must be for a fortune had been spent with
surgeons to yank the skin of her face so tight that her cheek bones appeared
translucent and her eyes had a distinctly Chinese slant. She used her
cutlery like tweezers, picking tiny morsels from the plate and transporting
them to her dazzlingly white teeth which lay between hugely distended,
filler filled, painted lips. Looking at the fish that lay before me there
could be no doubting the resemblance. I could tell you of half a dozen other
tables but I won't, suffice it to say that the company was interesting and
the food whilst good was horribly overpriced. At the allotted hour another
son of a Greek god propelled us over the waves in his Mercury engined
chariot to charmingly lift each lady aboard Pamarzi, I forced a smile and
deposited a tip into his outstretched hand. Back aboard Pamarzi we enjoyed
the evening and slept soundly on a boat that barely moved only the softest
zephyrs of wind cooled the warm night air.
A circumnavigation of Formentera the following day which whilst interesting
was unremarkable for there is little on this S shaped, thirty seven square
mile island beyond the fabulous beach and the port of Sabina, (though the
Romans called it Frumenteum in recognition of the huge amount of wheat it
supplied to Rome) then back through Feu Grande to overnight on the hook at
the now familiar and thankfully quiet bay of Ensenada de la Canal.
Tuesday and good news, they had a berth for us in Eivissa Town. We so much
wanted Bernie and Joy to see the Old Town and a berth at Botafoch Marina was
ideal. A short sail saw us entering the marina early in the afternoon,
Bernie's heart rate leaping as he saw the seemingly impossibly narrow berth
allotted to us between two multi-million pound motor yachts, that we had to
reverse into. Berthing safely accomplished our friends took the water taxi
to explore the old town whilst we saw to formalities and boat jobs, joining
them in the early evening to again dine at our now favourite restaurant Dalt
Vila in this ancient citadel. Their octopus dish served with scallops and
prawns in a bubbling cheese sauce is exceptional, eaten with a bottle of
chilled red whilst people watching and enjoying the antics of the many
passing street performers.
We said our good byes to Eivissa town the following morning heading south
and then west passing between the southern tip of Ibiza and the shark
toothed, sheer sided, starkness of Isla Vedra. Northwards now around Isla
Conejera we found safe anchorage in Port del Torrent a small (for us) but
well sheltered cala, for the second time. We dined ashore and retired early
in readiness for our passage back to the mainland and Moraira.
Weighing anchor just before sunrise we had an easy sail in calm seas, so
much so that the Skipper took to his berth for a couple of hours and left
the crew to it. Arriving in the small bay of El Rinconet near Moraira just
after 15.00, we got the hook down, I am so pleased that I specified this
(for our boat) over sized Rocna anchor, it's a big beast but every time we
have used it it has set first time and has never let us down. Once happy
with our lie the tender was quickly launched for we had seen Stephen, Helen,
John and Pam waiting on the shore side as had been arranged months before,
to be collected. A phone call confirmed that their (the ladies that is)
attire was not suitable for a beach rendezvous so we agreed to meet at the
dock near the little fish market. Super to see them all and they were soon
in the tender albeit the ladies a little nervously. Three knots only allowed
in the harbour but once outside we skimmed across to Parmarzi in short order
and had them all aboard for the first time since the launch at St.
Katherine's Dock. Drinks and lots of catching up then rather than subject
the ladies to another trip in the rib across now rising sea we moved Pamarzi
into the marina taking a convenient alongside berth. All of us meeting later
that evening at John and Pam's local taberna to dine on paella, drink local
wine and talk the evening away.
Next day we said our goodbyes to Bernie and Joy after an early lunch aboard,
they taking a taxi to the airport we walking the couple of kilometres to
John and Pam's villa just outside Moraira town, for an afternoon of lounging
by the pool and an evening full of fun and laughter around the barbeque. And
for two more days we enjoyed each other's company lunching on Pamarzi,
dining on succulent rose veal steaks at El Refugio, John and Steven taking
us in the cars up the long and winding road into the mountains to enjoy the
spectacular views and wild boar at a local mountain side hostelry, for two
times nothing as our Dutch friend would say. On the way back to the coast we
visited Guadalest and its 8th century fortress perched on a mountain peak
and gazed down on the curiously bright turquoise blue lake and river. The
rest of the little town bizarrely offered only the oddest museums, the
museum of the very small featuring fully dressed performing fleas and a book
of the bible written on a pin head, the museum of salt and pepper, the
museum of water and many more, all of which we gave a miss We had planned to
take them all for a sail to the bay at Mascarat but sea conditions were not
good for non-sailors so their first trip aboard will have to wait till
another time.
We said goodbye to Stephen and Helen on Monday as they were flying home and
spent the rest of the day on boat jobs, meeting John and Pam in the evening
to take them to an the Indonesian restaurant we had found with Rob, the food
again wonderful. Tuesday more boat chores and maintenance, John and Pam came
to the boat for drinks in the evening and to say farewell and bon voyage as
we leave for Ibiza and then on to our winter berth in Palma de Mallorca at
day break tomorrow
Roger & Lynn
The crew of Pamarzi