Formentera, N38:47 E1:26
PASSEPARTOUT
Christopher & Nirit Slaney
Sat 21 Jul 2012 20:54
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We are on a mooring at Espalmador, an islet just
north of Formentera not fifty metres from where we first met Phil and Karel
of Tehani-Li, which according to Passepartout's log book was on
September 25th 2010. Our first ever visit to this beautiful island was in
the fall of 1983 with our two young sons; Tomer would have been nineteen months
old and Amir had just been with us for twenty-four weeks! Amir is here with us
today.
The passage from Gibraltar was almost 60 hours and
mostly on engine, the fickle wind picked up when we were just thirty miles
away and blew force 4 right on the nose. Yes, now we begin to recall
what it is about the Mediterranean we don't like. But it's too late to have
regrets about leaving the Atlantic. In Gibraltar we used the new marina at La
Linea. We wanted to be close to either the bus station or a car rental location
as we were meeting our son Amir at Jerez airport. We had a rather
confused rendezvous, realizing only at the last minute that our clocks were
one hour late. Who knew that Portugal and Spain aren't on the same time during
summer? After picking him up at the airport we had a day and a night at a hotel
in Sevilla, right in the heart of the old city. What a fascinating
place.
In Gibraltar we forwent the hike up the Rock but
ate dinner at the 'Mumtaz' Indian restaurant which was every bit as good as
we remembered. We rode the bus round to the beach at Catalan Bay, a great
place and worth another visit. All told it was a good stopover. The boat
next to us in La Linea was 'Control C' with Eric Oosthuizen, a South African who
spent several years in Tel Aviv and helped me replace a fuel filter on our
first yacht in 1997. This time he helped me install new batteries for the
bow thruster. Eric is now based in La Linea and from there runs a yacht
maintenance business called Gateway which I can definitely recommend.
Our plans to haul out for the winter in the south of
France went awry; we didn't want to commit with a deposit and the last
cradle large enough for a yacht our size was taken by someone else. Not to
worry, we are now in touch with a boatyard in Arbatax on Sardinia's east
coast which has been recommended by another Israeli couple. Weather permitting
we aim to be there
mid-August. |