Fai Tira now in Ibiza.   39:57.19N 01:31.35E

11^th to 15^th August 2011

I hired a car for the day which would help with the two airport runs I had to do transferring crews.  The car didn’t turn up at 09.30 and I had quite a performance trying to sort it out, eventually it arrived at 10.30.  My replacement crew an old flying mate of mine was due to land at 10.00.  I arrived at the airport at 11.30 and welcomed Barry Underwood (Baz) to Mallorca.  On the way back to the FT we visited a supermarket to stock up on tonic, beer and some food and headed back to the port where the Thrifts were patiently waiting.

Baz and the Thrifts meet up on FT.

We settled Baz in and decided to head for Palma and do a bit of sightseeing.  The landscape of in this flattish part of Mallorca is dominated by dry stone walls and wind mills.

We arrived at the large city of Palma which is dominated by the cathedral housed within the old city walls. 

We parked the car and set off for the cathedral which was spectacular.  The stain glass windows gave the huge space inside a lovely ambience.

After our piece of culture we strolled around the old city until we found a cafe in a shady square, Ed was hungry.  We made a plan to return to FT and have Ed’s favourite meal, Pizza before taking the Thrifts to the airport.  I had previously arranged to meet up with Adrian and Dean from Mercury Rising.  They had sailed overnight from Menorca to be able to meet up with us. I found them sitting in the bar at the marina.  We chatted for an hour or so, before I had to take the Thrifts to the airport for their 11.30 flight back to the UK.  I said my goodbyes to them in the departure lounge and thanked them for being a great crew and great company.  I then headed back to the marina and Mercury Rising. We chatted and did lots of reminiscing with Adrian and Dean.  Phyllis came up a lot in the conversation as she spent quite some time with Adrian on MR.    After a few drinks we arranged to meet up the next day on Anchor and carry on where we had left off.  Unfortunately this did not happen as Adrian woke up in the morning with both his arms and hands swelled up and was promptly taken to the hospital.  He was later sent home (he lives in Mallorca) with some drugs so I didn’t get to see him again. 

Dean and the crew of MR set of back to the home port of Cala D’Or. We waved them a sad goodbye.  MR is up for sale Adrian and Dean have made her look very nice after it was shipped back from Brisbane in Australia.

Baz at the helm of FT just as we set off for Ibiza and me at the very expensive 95€  a night marina quay.  We stayed on anchor that night just outside the marina and set off a 4am the following morning for the 70nm crossing to Ibiza.

Our first sighting of Ibiza.  We had light following winds and a large swell which made the crossing very rolly.  Baz was struggling a bit to keep his breakfast down but he made it all the way without being sick.  We motor sailed for most of the way, 13 hours only being able to switch the engine off when we neared land and picked up the sea breeze.  The anchorage we had chosen was untenable so we headed back to an anchorage in the lee of a small island in the north east corner of Ibiza. We had a fairly comfortable night there and moved on the next day to where we are now at Cala Longa.

There is festival in Cala Longa today so we will stay until tomorrow when we head off for Formentera.

Bye for now Pete and Baz.