Porto Cristo 39:32.39N 03:20.08E
Red Skies
David Alexander
Sat 4 Jun 2011 17:37
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Friday 3rd June. The forecasts have
been unpromising - rain and storms, so yesterday we stayed in Colon but, today,
decided to brave whatever was thrown at us and move on.
As D left to row ashore and pay for our stay (37
euros for 6 nights) thunder and lightening were around. However, by the time he
returned, A counted 17 seconds between lightening and thunder and guessed the
storm was moving away. Trouble was it was moving North and so were
we.
We motored the 8 miles to Porto Cristo (wind on
nose - as so often the case, but it enabled batteries to be recharged and
domestic water to be heated) and entered the river with fingers crossed that
there would be space on the town quay. We learned in Colon that we were
registered with the Port Authorities' centralised system and that we should ask
for an authority berth, quoting our reference numbers, as they were considerably
cheaper than the 'Club Nautico' private ones. Last year we had paid 64 euros at
the Club Nautico in Porto Cristo for just one night. We were delighted to find
the town quay had a number of spare places and, apart from concern about an
underwater cill against the quay wall, we are now in civilization with
walk-ashore facilities - no more rowing for D for a while, with electricity,
water, showers, shops and restaurants and even a wifi cafe. Being a town quay,
there were no helpful marineros to help us berth and, in order to get close
enough to tie the stern to mooring rings on the quay, before taking a mooring
line to the bow, it meant getting perilously close to the aforementioned cill. D
says he wants to anchor in a bay and dive to inspect the rudder as he is
concerned there may have been a 'touch'. There was no mention of a cill in
either of the two pilot books we have, indeed they refer to mooring stern to the
quay, but now we wish we had moored bows to.
Charges here are much cheaper for mooring - about
20 euros a night but then a whopping 5 euros a night each for electricity and
water, plus 20 euros deposit for shower keys and a water hose connector. You may
imagine that we have have now thoroughly washed the boat, our clothes and
ourselves and cooked with electricty to try to get some value from these
charges.
 The river harbour at Porto Cristo
The port further excelled itself by having a
ferreteria (an ironmongers) within reasonably easy reach which sold bottled gas,
as our previous container ran out after only 15 days of use. We had thought that
we would have to make a stop at Alcudia, as we found last year that there was
nowhere in Pollenca (our next proposed stop) that sells gas. The only
disappointment is our failure, so far, to find a good, and reasonably priced,
restaurant, so it's Chez Red Skies once again (and that will use some more
electricity).
Porto Cristo is famed for its caves and, in
particular, the Cuevas del Drach, or Caves of the Dragon, an impressive
collection of stalag tites and mites, with an underground lake, on which
musicians in lighted boats play light clasics. Although it sounds tacky, it
actually is very effective and the rock formations reflected in the still water
are beautiful. No photos are included here as (a) they are not allowed - one
needs to buy the operator's exclusive ones, and (b) we didn't go in this year as
we did the tour last year.
 A 'dragon' in a cave - taken by George
 The Torre de Falcons with cave underneath
just prior to the entrance to the river.
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