| Current Position 39:30.848N 002:28.189E
The Race The alarm clock rang at 06:00hrs, it's been a while since we have heard that. Hmmmmm, that familiar dry mouth. Think the competition have been trying to knobbly Watermark's performance.
The plan for today was to leave the Island of Ibiza and sail ~50nm to the north east to the biggest island in the Balearics, Mallorca. We have a number of visitors joining Watermark IV during the month of July and Palma is an easy and cheap place for all to get to.
We spent 30mins getting the boat ready to go and at 07:00hrs we crossed the start line and set off. There were varying amounts of movements on other boats but Classified II and Watermark IV were certainly straight out of the starting blocks.
The right view of Classified II - behind us........
The sun rising as we left Cala Portinatx for Mallorca - it must be early to see the sun like this heading east......
We came out of Cala Portinatx and remember'd the fun weekend that we had - it was a good anchorage and set us right for the escape from Europe's Clubbing Capital for something different.
The first 3 hours ended up being a motor sail - as expected. The winds are generally light this time of the day but with the engine running we switched on the fridges, starting making freshwater, used the inverter for 240v to charge camera batteries and laptops which meant that we were only putting 4amps into the main batteries. Hmmmm, that's not very good. There is no doubt that power, fuel and water management is something that has to be taken very seriously and constantly monitored. I have been accused on many occasions as to being something akin to the World War II air raid wardens with screams of - "Turn those lights off" or "Stop using so much water" etc etc. Charlie has even accused me of being "Tight Fisted and a Scrooge....." - can you believe that???!!!! I think in a different life I'd kit Watermark IV out with Solar Panels and a Wind Generator to reduce the reliance on a small diesel generator.
Looking back at the north east tip of Ibiza, our last picture of the island.
Mid morning an easterly set in, just about enabling us to make Mallorca under wind power alone. Off went the engine and the peace and quiet of Watermark sliding through the water took over. As time went on, the winds shifted more to the SE at a great Force 3 giving us 12-14knts over the deck. Perfect, we'd make our landfall on a single tack. The sailing was so good, I spent most of the day at the wheel steering Watermark IV - a perfect day.
Meanwhile, at 11:30hrs, Charlie decided to get up and join Cathy and I........we felt very honoured with his presence on deck???? Thank You Charlie....
Captain Marky and Cathy share the sailing. The sail was great, the wind was warm, the sea was blue and Mallorca was on the bow. Do we really want to go home in September.............????
Our first real glimpse of Mallorca on it's south westerly tip. On the left is the small island of Dragonera.
We carefully monitored our main competition on the AIS (Automatic Identification of Ships). We all transmit who we are, position, speed and direction on VHF for other ships to pickup to avoid any collisions. So, when racing, you are able to monitor the competition. As time went on, they faded further and further behind Watermark IV - just the way I like it.
As we went into the afternoon we had really picked up speed and were reaching into the Mallorcan coast at 8.5knts, crackin' speeds and the sailing felt exhilarating. Just before 16:00hrs we arrived at Cala de Santa Ponca, 6nm ahead of Mr Blue and 12nm ahead of Classified II. A satisfying win for Watermark IV and her crew. Just we are a touch bigger but "That's Detail......" A win is a win. Tee Hee Hee
Our first view coming into the entrance to Cala de Santa Ponca - one of many villa's we can see - looking nice.
Our first views of Cala de Santa Ponca.
Our views looking south with a number of other yachts in the anchorage.
WELCOME TO MALLORCA
| 
