Pollenca (2)
Red Skies
David Alexander
Sun 12 Jun 2011 08:35
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Thursday 9th June. The rain & thunder
continued all night Tuesday and well into Wednesday morning, again requiring a
dinghy bale out, but by late morning it looked sufficiently dry to go ashore.
The water was still very lumpy and, despite our summer wet-weather clothing, we
got quite wet in the dinghy getting ashore and even more so on the way back.
Puerto Pollenca has an extensive market on
Wednesdays, fruit & veg, meat, olives & nuts, clothes, jewellery,
handbags & shoes, olive wood plus the normal tourist tat. It had attracted a
lot of trippers - just mooching not knowing what else to do with a miserable
day. The clouds gradually cleared and by evening we were once again enjoying our
dinner in the sunshine.
Today has dawned calm and clear and looks set for
this for the next few days. As they say in the Med - "10 good days then a
thunderstorm". We set out to walk to a deserted cove on the other side of the
peninsular - Cala Boquer. The sketch map in the local handbook indicated to
start at Aparthotel Olo Playa - but the first problem was to find the said
Aparthotel. We spent a long time in the wrong part of town but just as we were
about to give up and return for some more detailed directions we came across it
in a back street. After that the walk was reasonably straightforward but we were
glad that we had walking shoes on as the route was over broken rocks , shale and
mud - we were fortunate that we hadn't tried it earlier as it would have been
very muddy in places. The route took us through a ravine between two scrubby
hillsides, with goats and birds as company. Amazingly, for such barren
landscape, someone over the years had expended huge energy building stone walls
to compartmentalise the hillsides, some going up at very acute angles. To get on
to the path one had to go through the grounds of a previously beautiful private
house, which had stunning views of the bay but now, together with many sheds and
barns, was well past its prime. Eventually the path deteriorated into a
series of goat tracks neared to the beach and when we got there we found at
least a dozen people (all of them German from their shouted conversations) on a
stony and uninspiring beach. The setting of the small bay was attractive
however.
 The bay from half way down final
descent
 Stony beach
Friday 10th June. Since one of D's
underwater surveys of our anchor position, we have been concerned that our
anchor or chain could get itself trapped under a nearby concrete block that
clearly was associated with a mooring buoy now no loner present. Today D noticed
that anchor chain had wrapped itself around the said concrete block and, despite
swimming down with a hook on a rope, was unable to dislodge it just by tugging
at it in the water. We decided, therefore, as it was calm and the water was
crystal clear so that we could see what we were doing from the boat, to lift the
anchor and move to qanother location. D cautiously pulled up the anchor by hand
and fortunately it pulled free. We have now moved to the other side of the bay,
which is more sheltered from the the expected NE winds due overnight but is a
longer dinghy ride into town. It is, however closer to the take-off location for
the sea-plane - see pic.
 Sea-plane taking off as viewed from Red Skies at
anchor
Saturday 11th June. The winds picked up
overnight but not as much as was forecast. We were delighted to find that we had
this side of the bay to ourselves and it was beautifully peaceful overnight but
that changed during the day when motor boats arrived with loud music and people
talking/shouting at each other. In particular there was a boat which had a
number of people on board taking it in turns to 'wave ride'. An 'essential'
element to this was to have exteremely loud music with heavy beat blaring as
they traversed the anchorage and to motor in such that they set up a standing
wave for the participants to surf on (much like the Severn Bore) ie with no tow
rope as in water skiing. Our peaceful anchorage was peaceful no longer and the
waves created by their antics were not at all appreciated. We were so
pleased when they finally left at dusk. We also had the pleasure of a
couple of jet skis ( with Brits driving, I regret) whose sole purpose seemed to
be to drive as fast and as close to other boats as they could. D was
regretting that he didn't have a catapault on board to take pot
shots.
At last evening came and although we were not alone
this time on the anchorage, there were five yachts staying overnight, it
was gloriously peaceful and calm. Being further away from the town
meant that the stars were that much clearer. We were also fortunate that the
disco music that could just be discerned (by me - not by D) and which
stopped at 6.00 am was coming from the direction of Alcudia (about 6 miles away)
and we were thankful we were no closer.
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