The result was we hammered along Sicily's south coast, rushed past the south of Sardinia, positively fled around Mallorca and Ibiza, and just made it to Agua Dulci on the southern Spanish coast in time to get the boat bedded down for the summer break.
This break being "plan A ", was to go home for the summer, attending to the various things that required our attention, then to return back to the boat and head off to the Caribbean for another year or two.
Well, Plan A got kicked out sometime in late August, and was replaced by another "Plan B" which has resulted in Linda and me back at work, the girls attending school, a car being purchased, and TV license, phone land line,etc, etc and a general hemorrhaging of money like you never saw!
The simple fact was, we had so many things to attend to back home, our planned return to continue our trip was not possible, so now we plan to stay home for the winter and return to our travels in the summer of 2012.
So anyway, with all this "Plan A / B" thing, did we have fun?, and yes we did.
The wonderful thing about travelling is having the opportunity to be in "out of the way places" and learn how people do things in different ways. Here we stumbled on the fish van, except it was the fish 3 wheeler pick-up, very typical of Italy, doing a brisk trade down a narrow alley.
All too soon we were slipping off the mooring lines and heading out to sea, with an escort! This "royal" treatment also included the marina staff collecting our empty spare diesel drums, filling them up and delivering them back to our boat, great service.
We then had a calm engine on day, but only a short 30 mile or so trip up the coast to Sciacca
The town of Scaicca is an old port, active as a fishing and a commercial harbour.
There was a festival of some sort going on, but it must have been in a hidden location, because we hardly saw a living soul- the streets were empty.
We did find a lovely park to have lunch in, which was purchased from about the only place open, a street kiosk.
The other item high on the girls list of importance was the loosing of "baby" teeth, with the obvious benefit of the "tooth fairy" calling in the night. So the loss of a tooth, which you might have thought would have been a traumatic event, was in fact a bonus, almost a pleasure!
I might keep this photo for later, perhaps to scare off undesirable boyfriends!
This was to be our last stop in Sicily, as we planned to go straight across to Sardinia, a two day sail. We had been watching the forecast, and were hopeful of some decent sailing conditions. We took on water, fuel and food, and headed off in nice relaxing conditions.
Under the spray hood is the girls favourite hideaway, shelter from wind, sun or rain. Alisha is a total bookworm, and will read the entire day if left alone.
However little sister is not so quiet, and usually looks for a more physical and energetic activity- this is their "puppy dog" game.
The sail to Sardinia was very leisurely, we had full main and genneker up most of the way, and made good speed.
The the evening of the following day we had the coast of Sardinia in sight, and eventually anchored in total black dark in what we believed to be a nice anchorage.
When we awoke next morning we were pleased with our choice of anchorage, although we were not expecting the coast to be so barren, hardly a house in sight.
After breakfast, we thought that we would press on and make our way west around the south coast.
The coast was mostly rocky, high hills and not much sign of life. We did see an occasional farm or village, and of course, an occasional yacht.
One of the things that we find very odd, is that the sailing season does not really begin until well through June, and this being still (late) May, we never saw many other yachts out and about.
Although every now and then we got a little surprise, such as these guys, the bigger red yacht towing the small yellow one.
We anchored in a small bay on the southeast corner of the island of San Pietro, which lies about a mile or so west of mainland Sardinia. The town of Carloforte is just around the corner, and our intention was to spend a day at anchor, basically use up our fresh food, then go into the town marina and restock, before the fairly long sail over to Mallorca. We always try to fit in some rowing practice, and plenty of exploring ashore.
San Pietro looked to be a nice island, and the town of Carloforte was very hospitable, with helpful marina staff, and not too expensive!! I would say that Sardinia generally has a reputation for expensive marinas.
The place was quite busy, and we spent two enjoyable days, just wandering around, shopping, eating etc, with a bit of "school" and boat cleaning thrown in.
The whole area has a "country" feel to it, not "music" I might add, but nothing too built up, and also a history of tuna fishing, which appeared to be why/ how the town was first established.
This tuna fishing is still carried on today, but also tuna farming, or at least tuna growing!
The tuna are caught in nets, and then kept in pens out in the sea, and fed, presumably until they are much bigger, and therefore more value. Also I suppose they can be better marketed.
These nets are semi permanent and very long, and the pens are close by.
There were quite a few small fishing boats working in the area.
So, it was time to leave, we stocked up in our last Italian supermarket and headed off, again another beautiful day, north west through the sound and out to sea.
This place looked to be a fish factory of sorts, certainly there was some commercial activity.
Another Mediterranean sunrise.
And strawberries for breakfast, no problem with the "5 a day" when you have fresh strawberries on board.
And here we are, Porto Pollensa in Mallorca, and we were looking forward to seeing if Hewitt and Margaret Clark were in town. We knew them from back home in Shetland, and we knew that Pollensa was their base port, so I could hardly wait to drop anchor, and get the dinghy fired up. It was a busy anchorage, with a lot of yachts, so it actually took me a while to find "Lady Margaret" their boat.
In fact it was so busy, we ended up way out in the bay, far away from Hewitt and Margaret who are on a permanent mooring, close to town.
Pollensa is a very picturesque bay, almost surrounded by very rocky hills. We spent a few days swimming, walking, eating and just enjoying the place. Pollensa is a popular holliday resort, so there were other attractions (Pint of lager !)
A spot of excerise........
....and then a rest- ah its a hard life!
The girls were very impressed by the sand sculpture artist.
We even found an area laid out as a bird watching park, with information boards about the various birds living in the park.
After a few days in Pollensa, we said our good byes to Hewitt and Margret and headed down the west coast towards Port Soller.
It is a spectacular and rugged coast, and I would say a highlight of Mallorca.
It was a calm day, so we motored most of the way.
The temperature had jumped in the past few weeks, so we were all trying to find cool and shady spots....
although there is always spelling practise to keep folk occupied.
The entrance to Port Soller, almost invisible from the North.
...but in fact, completely open from the North West. This fact makes it an unsuitable anchorage in bad weather, and especially as the holding is not too good. We had to keep a good lookout, as the harbour was very busy, and some folk will always try and convince themselves that there is plenty of room, when in fact there is not.
Happily, we had no problems, and enjoyed a fantastic three days.
We found it to be a friendly place, and met quite a few old and new acquaintances.
One guy rowed over to ask if we would like a bit of tuna- yes please, and boy was it good!
Now that is a big tuna steak, we could only get one in the pan at a time.
Port Soller has a unique narrow gauge tram running from Soller to Palma, which I had suggested that we must have a trip on. It goes right across Mallorca, through some stunning countryside.
The side windows can fully open, which was good, as it was a hot day.
Now these trams are British built, of course in a period in history when the UK could build things. I have seen "English Electric" trams in various towns and cities throughout Europe, old but still in service, beautiful traditional wood construction. And in Edinburgh, they are struggling to build a tram line, and its not even a UK company that are doing the work! now that's not progress.
The choice of restaurants ashore was good, so we picked a nice small place with tables overlooking the harbour.
Next morning it was "up anchor" and an excellent 60 mile down-wind sail to Ibiza.
Again, leaving Port Soller, we were treated to more lovely scenery.
Now, as we were always getting closer to mainland Spain, there was hopefully a chance that we would meet up with some of our old friends from our 1st winter spent in Barcelona.
We knew that Kristor was somewhere in Ibiza, and also that Ton and Ingrid were in the area, so we were keen to reach San Antonio, where we knew that Kristor would be passing through.
On our way along the North coast of Ibiza, we could see that Ibiza also has some spectacular scenery to offer.
We spent one night in an anchorage before venturing into San Antonio. It is a busy place, with a big marina and also a big anchorage, and plenty of boats.
It was not that long after, that we spied our big Swedish friend in his catamaran, who waltzed through the maze of boats to eventually anchor next to us.
Lets say that the rest of that day was spent catching up on news and socialising!... and visiting...
.....comming for a beer?
smiles all round!
Kristor "showing off" in his slightly bigger and faster dinghy.....
San Antonio harbour seems to be a kind of yacht "graveyard" with a lot of interesting boats in various states of repair.
This catamaran had an interesting rig-
And this once beautiful ketch was laying at the pier, neglected, apparently a victim of drug running.
The Spanish authorities will eventually auction the boats that are apprehended, but it takes forever, and in the meantime, the boats are left, basically to rot- very sad.
After a few days at anchor, we had to say goodbye to Kristor and once more set sail, this time a 300 mile or so sail to our lay-up yard in Agua Dulci, mainland Spain.We had been watching the forecast, and we reckoned that we would have some nice sailing winds.
So after the refuelling and stocking up on food and water we set sail.
At first it was text book down wind sailing, but as the day wore on, the wind increased....
and we were soon bombing along, all sails reefed.
And by the time we reached our destination, it was so windy that the entrance to the marina was too dangerous to approach so we tucked ourselves in behind this headland, the "Cabo de Gata" and laid to the anchor for a day.
Even behind the headland we were recording 40+ knots.!
And finally, three months, and over two thousand miles later, we reach our lay-up yard, Aguadulci, just southwest of the town of Almeria.
We chose this yard, firstly it was recommended to us, second its not too expensive, and third, the Almeria airport is only 20 mins. in a taxi.
So, here she is, still in splendid condition, almost 9000 miles since we left the Voe marina in 2009.
We spent the last week cleaning, swimming during the hottest part of the day, more cleaning, and generally preparing to go home for a spell. As I said earlier, we hope to return in early summer 2012 and continue our journey.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank any one who has been interested in our little adventure for following the blog.
It was almost 100% Linda's effort, and it is only due to her good nature that I ever got the chance of doing the trip.
Next blog, hopefully next June.............goodbye for now
