Saturday 23^rd August – Porto Petro, Mallorca (Marina Cala d’Or, Cala Llonga)

39:21.626N 3:12.874E

The wind, cloud and even some rain arrived during the night and morning as forecast.  Despite being in a fairly sheltered spot the swell still worked its way into the cala and made sleeping a little difficult.  Gradually during the morning the sky brightened but the wind remained quite fresh at times throughout the day.

Yesterday we finished the last of our petrol supply topping up the generator.  Unfortunately the marina here in Porto Petro has no fuel station and there is no petrol station nearby.  The nearest fuel was at the marina in the next cala. 

Richard had a look at our charts, MultiMap and Google-Earth and saw that we could cut through to Cala d’Or quite quickly if we landed the dinghy just ashore from where we are moored rather than in Porto Petro.  So this afternoon, once the weather had improved, we set off to explore.

We were in Cala d’Or in a remarkably short time by foot (about 10-15 minutes) and we were soon wandering around the marina there.  It is the prettiest setting that we have seen for a marina since we have been on Mallorca and it seems very well run – we saw a lot of marinaros around and the place was very clean; the boat yard impressed Richard as it was immaculate and also had the sturdy metal supports for the boat and a new-looking travel hoist (we have seen some precarious arrangements on our travels!)

We asked an English couple on a large motor boat where the fuel station was in the marina and they even offered to give us a lift to the nearest petrol station in their car if there was a problem at the marina as they weren’t sure that it was open; we said we were happy to take a look and toddled off but it left us feeling that the place was also very friendly.  After topping up our fuel can we wandered back for a drink at one of the cafés next to the marina.  As we walked back the same couple pulled up in their car to check we had managed to get sorted J

On the way into Cala d’Or we had spotted a sign for Eroski, my favourite supermarket in Spain, and couldn’t resist a small diversion to it on the way back.  It was a small store but nevertheless had all we needed.

When we got back to Pyxis we unloaded the shopping, took the rubbish ashore and then took the outboard off the dinghy to get ready for passage.

We then started the generator to give the batteries a quick boost and went onto the foredeck with a drink and a book whilst it did its thing for a while.  As we sat there we noticed that something didn’t seem right, something was missing.  It was our mooring buoy, the large orange buoy at the front with a number on was missing.  The mooring line to the sea bed was still OK and so we were still anchored firmly in place but the buoy itself was missing.

We looked around and spotted what looked like a large orange buoy on the far side of the cala, on the rocks.  We decided we had better rescue it as the warden was not around.  Richard fitted the engine back on the dinghy, and so off we went, me armed with a boat hook, to rescue it. 

When we arrived by the rocks, we could see that it was indeed our buoy and so I hooked the bottom loop with the boat hook and we towed it back to Pyxis.  Whilst Richard held the dinghy, I tied it back onto the string where we could see it had come loose.  Not sure how long it will last but it is near the end of the season so hopefully it will see the season out (we should stress that you moor to the eye on the main mooring line here, not the buoy itself; the string the mooring buoy is tied on to the mooring line with is non-load bearing).