| Update We continue to stay at anchor in Porto Colom. The main driver being the flat waters that are very relaxing and the forecast over the next few days for bigger winds in the north of the island. With these winds we are expecting more swell so a sheltered harbour sounds very good for us. We have plenty of time to cover the north later in the week or next week.
General Weather We have got talking with many people in Porto Colom, some of whom we have met before as we have sailed around. The general concensus is that this is not a typical Med year. All are commenting on the irregular and confused waves and swell that we are experiencing and the unsettled weather in terms of winds. Looking at the bigger picture, the north half of the Balearics (North Mallorca and Menorca) are being affected by big winds streaming out of the Gulf of Lyon, commonly called the Mistral. This appears to be happening every 2/3 days just now. However, the temperatures are good, the water is warm, the skies are generally blue so as long as we can find sheltered flat water all is well.
Charlie discovers a new game..... Charlie has been experimenting with the running rigging and discovered a way to make a new swing on board. He uses one of the bosun chairs, the storm jib halyard and the spinnaker tack line. This means we can swing him around the foredeck from the cockpit. This seems to give him a lot of pleasure....
Version 1 foredeck swing - a new experiment and not very high off the deck.
Of course, it's not too long before we realise that once off the deck then Charlie is trapped and at the mercy of his mother........Fantastic
Cathy takes advantage of the trapped position that Charlie finds himself in......Tee Hee Hee - Revenge. Wasn't long before Captain Marky also got in there....!!!
The more that Charlie played with this, then the more confident he become and the higher he wanted to go up.
Charlie now very confident and well up in the rigging in his "Swifter Swing".........
Of course, once up this high, it's very tempting to just leave him there. After a while, he will say "YES" to anything..........Poor Charlie.
The Fiesta Last night was the local towns party which was one of the reasons for hanging about, apart from the weather. We really weren't sure what it would be about as there was very little information about it anywhere and more to the point - no signs of it!!!!!????
At about 20:00hrs, we were moored to one side of the harbour and out came all the day boats, decorated.
The lead boat towing a whole line of other small decorated dayboats.
Loved the paper sail....
Of course, the local church dignitaries take centre stage.
Are those the Jelly Fish that stung Charlie a few days ago, they look big enough according to Charlie - Yeah, of course they are!!!!!
Once the towns boats had done the circuit around the harbour then all went quiet for a while when suddenly you could hear the roar of all the little diesel engines and it appeared to be a flat out burn up contest from one side of the harbour to the other missing Watermark only by a few metres...... The water in the harbour was whipped up into quite an unsettled messed as you can se below. Watermark and Waterwinky were being tossed all over the place...
The "big burn up" in Porto Colom Fiesta - one of the few occasions when the speed limit just disappears and all take full advantage of it.
Once all had burnt as much petrol and diesel as they could afford, the boats all returned to their moorings, the water calmed down and peace settled back over the harbour. There were just a few firework crackers let off up in the sky which I guess sounded the end of the event - or so we thought..........
The Night As we got to midnight after a large sundowner we retired to our bunks but woke an hour of so later due to a swell starting to find it's way into the Porto. Watermark started her usual dance and the winds increased to yet again hold us broadside to the swell, the worse possible position as this maximises the rockin' and rollin'. For the whole of the night we rolled about preventing another good nights sleep.
However, more was to come. On top of this the town sprung into life and an enormous all night rave started up. The music was the usual Ibizan Summer Mix with the bass line that just vibrates through Watermarks fibreglass hull. The Spanish really love their LOUD music. We could see lights from the town across the water and this went on until 06:00hrs........
So here we sit, with strong tea and coffee. The swell has now reduced a lot, the sun is out, as is the blue sky and I think we are all going to go back to bed.
Goodnight from Porto Colom and the Balearic Islands..........
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