Much has happened this week, we are now gale bound on Menorca “39.52.68N 04.18.49E”.  We are in the Puerto de Mahon, tucked between the Isla del Lazareto and La Mola. The weather is set for the week, a Mistral I believe with strong Northerly or Northwesterlies from the Rhone Valley  until at least Friday....Still we don’t need to be in Marseille until a week on Wednesday some 215 miles from here, or about 36 hours sailing so we don’t need to leave till say Sunday evening.

This last week we have had Sam sailing with us which has been lovely.  We spent the first few days around Alicante waiting for news on the Autohelm.  We have found a man who can get a part made to repair ours for only a couple of hundred Euro...much better than I had expected!  I also mended the Hydrovane with the part Sam brought out, and it is now fully functional.  We left the main land and headed straight for the Isla Baleares, stopping briefly at a beautiful island south of Ibiza and a little bay on Mallorca.  Unfortunately due to the delay caused by the Autohelm we didn’t get to Palma to see the J Class racing, hopefully we will have an opportunity at some other time.

We did spend much of the time motoring due to no wind which given our predicament now was especially frustrating.  However we also got to try out a few sail variations, including the twin poles for the first time.  It was excellent, although the boat was a little inclined to roll.  I don’t know if flying the mizzen would stabilise that, more research required.  I am still waiting for the day we get to fly both blue sail together, soon I hope.

We have spent a lot of the week at anchor, much cheaper than marinas! Several nights we have been alone or with only one or two yachts as company.  Last night was different, due to the weather everyone is hiding! There were 16 yachts (at least seven British) and two motor boats in here.  Unfortunately one of the boats is a very large Australian catamaran who had anchored rather close to a German yacht.  So about 4.30 this morning half the anchorage was awake with boats moving around.  The Australian moved but ended up too close to us so spent all night sat up watching the situation and has promised to move this morning.  For some reason the Germans also moved a little too I think perhaps they needed to move to allow the Australian to recover his anchor.  Then a Spanish boat moved, no idea why I guess he felt he was too close to someone.  So an interesting night all round, and more to come I suspect that most boats will stay here for a few days.

There is a nice little bar the other side of the harbour with a dinghy landing pontoon just outside that has wifi, so I suspect that we will go there later and spend a few days doing odd jobs.  We might well get the bikes out and go for a ride too.

I trust that you are all well

Love Alasdair, Gill, Habitat, Pickles and Star Charger