BALEARIC ISLANDS
September finds Musketelle in the Balearic Islands after a testing passage from Sardinia that weather forecasts predicted would see perfect sailing northwest winds out of the Gulf de Lyon for a speedy passage. In reality we saw no wind but confused and uncomfortable seas out of the opposite direction, the southwest powered by a huge low pressure system way to the east over the Balkans which was pummelling the Aegean with 60knot winds leaving us wallowing in these big seas.
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| Liquid sunset immersing in sea before weather packs up between Sardinia and Balearics |
B was unfortunately reacquainted with mal da mer which she had but forgotten about in recent times. The log note says it all……Swell!!! Worst trip ever !!!
To really make for a memorable trip we also experienced a middle of the night thunderstorm and lightning show that was way too close for comfort supplying fork lightning to scare the bjeezus out of the most stoic soul. In these situations we run around placing key pieces of electronic gear like laptops, digital cameras, portable gps etc in the oven and a metal biscuit tin in an attempt to create a Faraday Cage to minimise damage if the ship receives a direct hit by lightning.
We were pleased to make landfall in the Belearics at Mahon on the island of Minorca and find sanctuary from the swell in a historic landlocked harbour that it seems most every European power has controlled at one time or another including Lord Nelson for the British.
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| Haven Mahon |
Strawberries and Cream Olde Chap
Got the distinct impression half of old England is either living or visiting the Balearic Islands. So not surprisingly met a pleasant English couple out dining one evening.
We talked about Britain and how one of the BBC online headlines that day came from the comedian John Cleese who was saying London is no longer an English city.
The Brit gentleman told us he was managing a large farming estate in Norfolk and told us how he was among other things growing strawberries (albiet with great difficulty due no doubt to climatic conditions) because the owner of the property was aghast at eating strawberries grown in Turkey. Now given the earlier concerns about London being overrun by foreigners we made the point that by sourcing strawberries from Turkey at least keeps the Turks at home and not heading for London.
Our farmer friend noted the point but did not know whether that would influence his boss. We were impressed to learn the vast farming enterprise he managed covered most every pastoral activity you can imagine including flower growing and a major equine stable. Toward the end of the evening B gleaned from the wife that the estate owner was none other than Princ.. ..harles and the estate Sandr.. gham.
Cala Hopping
Is not a new wave dance. A cala is a small bay or cove shaped by the sea and wind out of the rocky coastline and due to the barren rocky nature of these islands with minimal topsoil and little rain these calas have pristine clear water that makes them ideal for anchoring in close, subject to weather conditions. Given the weather was now settled we enjoyed a number of pleasant days swimming and snorkelling in calas.
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| Calas are difficult to spot but you can just see a yacht in this one |
Our favourite was Cala Blava on the island of Majorca which had the added benefit of live entertainment in the form of freeclimb rock climbers managing stunning athleticism on the adjacent cliffs. Failure resulted in falling into the sea below and such was the difficulty there were more splashes than success, so it was good to watch.
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| A Freeclimber does his thing |
Palma Majorca
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| Magnificent Palma Cathedral |
The city recognises this as evidenced by numerous nautical theme monuments including some funky sundials.
Time to keep sailing west......if we stay at these latitudes we will run aground in Spain around Valencia.
