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Date: 29 Jul 2009 22:01:00
Title: 38 43N 001 24E Formentera
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Ibiza and Formentera have proven to be friendly and welcoming! Indeed God is looking over the Pipe Dream today....what a great chain of events. Beginning with Ibiza yesterday. Yes, the winds cooperated and began blowing at 20 knts in the middle of the night in a shipping channel after we had motored all day to welcome us to the Islas Balearas. We made our way into the marinas of Ibiza City early in the morning and went directly to the fuel dock...naturally! Found that there were no slips available in Ibiza City, but a gentleman was willing to scalp his friend's slip to us for a mere 450 euros....Wayne actually choked a bit. We were given directions to a mooring outside of the city in an area called Selenas. We pulled in and tied off to a mooring ball provided by the national park. The crew took care of the dinghy and rowed ashore (the dinghy motor has been bathed in salt water so Wayno is working on a new task). Wayne and I stayed on board and cleaned up the boat, rested, read and awaited the dinghy's return, which didn't take long. Everyone was ready to head into Ibiza.We were not disappointed. Happened upon a rogue taxi driver and she took us to the main area of the city. We climbed up the road to the gates of the castle and entered a world of shops, restaurants, and fun. We ate at a wonderful place and were able to people watch...well the people are fascinating here! The discos/clubs open at midnight and for a mere 60 euros you can enter for a great party until 7 am when they close. No...Wayne and I did not party all night...didn't even dance the night away. But the mass of people around was impressive. There's always a bigger boat, also....that was proven in the Ibiza marinas! We made it back to our beach early the next morning, had to walk across a pitch black beach, find the dinghy we had left behind, pile all five of us into the dinghy to paddle to our boat...which was somewhere off shore. Half way to the boat, Chris noted the logic of what we were doing, and needless to say we had a good laugh! Plans to return to Ibiza City in the next few days..but another anchorage awaits near Formentera.

We untie the painter from the mooring and motored over to Formentera, tied up to another mooring and were met by the official to be told they were full today. BUT....you can take that mooring over there, that's available. Next we row to shore with our gas can to replace the gasoline that could be tainted with water and begin walking to the town. We had no idea how far the town was, but it was around 90 degrees on an arid island and we had no idea where we were going. We found a road and followed it and after about two miles, and no where near where we wanted to be, Wayne and I (who were straggling behind) decided to hitchhike if ANYONE came by! Sure enough a wonderful couple from France stop to give us a ride and of course, stop to pick up "mes amis." Where do you need to go? Supermarket and then back to our boat...of course we can help you with that. First stop a gas station...then we'll drop you at the supermarket..."Will a half hour be enough?"...they return to say, do you mind, we need to go to the boat store? Wayne nearly did a dance! Then, groceries loaded, we are driven back to our dinghy!!!!! We hook up the new gas and with some coaxing we motor back to the boat, while Matt swims with a loan unattached mooring buoy we've named Wilson. Our new friends, Katherine and Allain dinghy to our boat with their spouses and six children from their vacation cottage. We had a short party, passed some cokes and beers and shot glasses around of the local distillery, spoke broken French and English, everyone signed Wilson, and the kids (aged 12-14) jumped off the boat to return to their dinghy! Is there someone watching over us or what???? We decide to try to dinghy to the town now that we have new fuel, and sure enough the motor doesn't cooperate. As we're floating among the other boats anchored and moored, an English gentleman dinghy's over to us and insists on helping us get the motor started, and show us the way into town! The motor doesn't cooperate fully and he makes certain that we return to our boat safely! Needless to say, we ate on board tonight.

Ok, Ibiza and Formentera are very freestyle...yes, topless is the mode for many of the women, Speedo's for the men, but it's taken for granted! No, I have not chosen to go topless, thank you very much! As I said earlier, we're heading to another port on Ibiza, the island, tomorrow. Our hope is to get a slip, do some laundry and find a good internet connection. We have not been able to communicate as much as we would like....please forgive! We will be in touch and hope all is well! This is Mary signing off.....
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