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Published: October 29th 2023
Leaving the last anchorage in Sardinia, Italy
and ready to move on to the Balearic Islands, SpainAs you may have picked up by now with various blog entries this season, we have been moving much quicker than we normal do (or typically like). We have said many times that we are actually travelers that also enjoy sailing and find it a great way to move around to various places of interest (albeit at a slow speed!)
This season we realized that we aimed for a destination farther than we should probably have planned. With overnight passages the distance is definitely doable, but we typically enjoy moving along a coast slowly so we can take in the sights and even take day trips inland when we can. This season with factoring the distance as well as the winds that seemed to be against us most of the time, it was not as relaxing a season. In this regard, the weather sometimes was beneficial in forcing us to slow down and take some time to see some of the places we were passing through. Never as slow as we’d like but as seen in some of our earlier blog postings, we had time to visit with some friends, enjoy a few days on the island of
Rhodes and Crete and other towns or islands that we just decided to take an extra day or two in.
The clock has been ticking and we know we want to get to Cartagena, Spain, our destination within the 90 days, but with a few extra days to organize Tsamaya and get her ready so we could return to the US. The weather in the Med is typically hot in July and August, but as with so many places in the world, this summer was especially hot and humid. The Balearic Islands, an archipelago off of eastern Spain are known for its beauty, but also for its attraction for the rich and famous, and its crowded anchorages and expensive marinas during the high season.
Many visit the Balearic Islands when they first enter the Med when traveling from west to east and in doing so are able to do it earlier in the season when they can fully enjoy the area. For some reason we seem to always be like “wrong way Corrigan” and as a result we found ourselves traveling through the Balearic Islands at the height of the season. As a result of all of these
reasons coming together between the weather, the crowded conditions and our timing, we moved through this area quite quickly so only took time to spend a couple of days ashore on one of the three islands that we “visited”.
Our passage that would take us from our last taste of Italy on the island of Sardinia to the first touch of Spanish waters/land in the Balearics would take us longer than a daylight passage. By planning out our route, we decided that it would be best to leave the anchorage in Cala Granda, Sardinia at 8pm. We typically like to leave first thing in the morning, but in order to arrive during the daylight and allow for any delays due to the weather, we hung around the anchorage. We knew we both needed some rest during the day, but it did give us some free time to spend in the water which was a treat. This anchorage was a quiet one with no blaring music from restaurants and very clear water. A real bonus. When we did leave at 8pm the wind was down so we motored out of the anchorage and had a wonderful night of star gazing
until about 1AM when the clouds moved in. The night was very quiet as we didn’t even see any indication of ship traffic until about 2AM.
By the next morning around 10AM the wind picked up and we could see whitecaps as well as heavy cloud cover. Clouds started to dissipate about noon and we continued on our way toward the island of Menorca in the Balearics. After 38 ½ hours we made it to a mooring field near Binibeca Nou – we made it to Spanish territory. Mooring fields allow more boats to be an area vs each one putting an anchor down. It worked out well for us and cost 30 euros per night (about $32). We were definitely tired after our crossing so after resting, we took our dinghy ashore to see what was here. We found out that they actually have a boat that can pick you up and shuttle you to shore, but as we already now had our dinghy down from the davits, we decided to use it for our transportation. It also gave us another chance to try out our new dinghy which we are very pleased with.
As we were
Changing from Italy & Sardinia Flag to Spain
as we move to the Balearic Islands, part of Spain in a secure mooring field and we had just finished a long passage we decided to stay an extra day to give us time to walk around on land. Not sure how this happens but we seem to always set our goal at finding a grocery store first. At times we aren’t really in any desperate need for anything but it at least gives us a place to aim for. We really liked that they had an excellent place to get to shore here – a place to easily tie up the dinghy, complete with stairs for getting up to the ground level where the restaurant and a dive shop were located. We asked someone where the nearest store was and were told it was quite a distance away and that there wasn’t any public transportation to it. Oh well, we could use the walk as like to stretch out the legs after a passage. It also is a great opportunity to see a little more of the area on the way. Only problem as Bob said was that by the time we got to shore, figured out where we were going, the day had already gotten quite hot. Oh
Hooked Up to a Mooring on the island of Menorca
in Binibeca Nou - nice after 38 1/2 hour crossing well, he does say quite frequently that we are like “mad dogs and Englishmen” and we continued on.
The first thing you definitely notice is that the housing is much different – very high scale area complete with beautiful homes complete with large green lawns, lovely plantings around the property, signs on fences stating that they have a security system, wide sidewalks as well as roads that had plenty of room – no narrow alleyways here or need to park on the sidewalks! We did get to the grocery store, picked up a few items and then continued on into “town” to see what was here. From what we could see from the shops here, they definitely cater to the tourists that come here to spend time on the beaches and do a little shopping therapy as well. Not too much, just enough to give people time to do their souvenir and clothes shopping. We headed back to the boat as still quite hot during the day. Before taking the dinghy back to the boat, we decided to stop at the restaurant located in this bay to have a cold drink as they had a nice shady area to
What a Treat to Have a Good Place to Bring the Dinghy
for going to shore- a place to tie up & easily get on land sit. Part way through the drink we figured it would be worth checking out the menu “just in case” and the nachos were calling to us. We ordered and decided that now that we were in Spain it was appropriate to celebrate – (and to call this dinner!)
As I mentioned we had decided to stay an extra day here before moving on so we went to shore again the next day to do some walking. We were going to go in the opposite direction, but after checking with others it didn’t seem that there was much except houses in that direction. We did find quite a few signs mentioning a bus route that took people to various beaches, but kept to walking and made it into town again (the second time it seemed like a shorter distance). On our walk back toward the bay where our boat is moored, we stopped for some lunch (talked ourselves into it being too hot to make anything on the boat mid-day) and we left room to take a few steps back toward the gelato stand for some dessert. While sitting there we had a chance to talk to a couple that
have lived on the island of Menorca for about 25 years. It was interesting to find out what they had to say about the changes that have occurred over the years. Definitely many more rental homes here now with the influx of tourists. They said the summers have really changed with everyone seeming to want to vacation here in the Balearics. One told us that even her children that were born and raised here are not able to live here as it has gotten so expensive. They both told us how much they enjoy the island still but only during non-tourist season when it gets back to a more normal pace.
On our continued walk back to the boat we took a lovely detour. We could see that there were numerous trails down to the beaches so decided to check one of them out. The beach was definitely full of people, but there still seemed to be some areas that had room for more to join in the fun. The beaches are somewhat small and are surrounded by craggy rock cliffs making for a beautiful setting. Instead of walking back up to the sidewalk we walked over some of
the rocky areas as looked like there were numerous paths which would lead toward the bay that our boat was in. It turned out to be a beauty meander along the shoreline giving us another vantage point for viewing the bay that we were tucked into.
Glad that we decided to slow down and give ourselves another day in this lovely area, but the next day we disconnected from the mooring at 5:55AM and headed toward another of the islands in this archipelago. We got an early start as knew it would take us the full day to get to Mallorca. We arrived at the large bay near Puerto de Campos at 7:15PM and found a nice place to anchor in 20 feet of white sand. We had heard from friends that this is a very large anchorage with plenty of room even if we arrived late, but we still find it easier to find a spot to anchor easier in the daylight if at all possible. It was true that there were plenty of boats here, but lots of room for many more. The bay was large enough that you didn’t even feel like you were in a
crowded anchorage as there was enough space between boats – a nice change from a few places we have been this season.
With a look at the weather, we decided that we would be staying 2 nights here which was not a hardship at all. Even with the number of boats here and people on the beaches surrounding the bay, it was quite a quiet spot to be. We could see a fence close behind one of the beaches and found that there is a nature preserve here which also kept the noise level down without lots of restaurants lining the shoreline. We had thought that we might take our dinghy to shore or just explore the bay, but we decided to be lazy and just enjoy a peaceful anchorage to catch up on some reading. When we travel, we keep the dinghy up on our davits as well as our outboard engine on the rails. With the weight of the engine, even with the hoist that we have, we find that we keep getting lazier and lazier about putting it up and down, especially if there is any wave action at all. Guess, we are getting old (er)!
Of course, part of the time is always taken up with checking the weather predictions and reading up on the next few anchorages to aim for, but that is just part of the routine when on a boat. During the day we did notice that a few boats had turned their music up quite loud, but it “surprisingly” got quite quiet when a coast guard boat came into the bay and launched a smaller craft in order to patrol the area. Isn’t it amazing how seeing them around always seems to lower the noise level in an anchorage!
With the weather predictions we decided that it would be best to leave Mallorca in the evening so took up anchor at 6PM with 10 knots of wind. Our destination was the island of Ibiza, another of the 5 main islands making up the Balearics. When planning our destination, we typically have at least 2 places picked out just in case one is crowded or for some other reason doesn’t work out. That was the case on this passage. There were quite a few anchorages near each other and in checking them out in reality we found that a couple were
smaller than we thought as well as were filled with other boats already. We ended up in a nice anchorage at Sa Caixota by 10:30 AM the next morning, so only a 16 ½ hour passage. Here we were definitely one of the smaller boats at this location, however a couple of motor boats arriving later did anchor closer to the shoreline.
Whenever we see a megayacht we have fun checking out the name of the boat and then doing a google search to find out who owns the boat and some details about the boat. The one that definitely caught our eye as soon as we turned into the bay was a catamaran by the name of MV Nebula with a helicopter on the stern. Just a quick overview is that it was built in 2022 and is 220 feet long with a 46 feet beam (width). What really struck us is the fact that this is just the support ship for the mother ship by the name of MV Moonrise. We have seen support ships here in the Med before, but this one we learned was not just for storage of the “toys” for the guest on
the mother ship, but also the owner wanted it to have excellent accommodations for the crew, and also a VIP room for guests. One thing that makes this ship different from others that have a helipad (yes, we have seen others with helicopters onboard), is that the fact that it is the only private vessel in the world that has a hangar that can house the helicopter without the need for it to fold its rotors. In this way the helicopter is less visible and provides protection from the salt air. It also means that the helicopter is ready much quicker to take off when needed. We learned from reading that it also carries a 33-foot RIB (rigid-hull inflatable boat), a 23-foot rescue RIB and 4 jet skis. The one that surprised us was when we saw a baby catamaran that looks like Nebula being launched off the side. It is much smaller at only 40 feet (the same size as Tsamaya). We read that lots of detail was given to providing excellent, spacious accommodations for the crew. A total of 38-42 people can sleep onboard. The designers took into consideration some of the recommendations from crew on their needs
and were rewarded with a fully-equipped gym, two lounge areas, bar, spacious rooms and even a couple of smaller rooms for meetings/quiet area for studying or making phone calls. Guess the owner wanted to provide some nice perks for his crew. We didn’t see the mother-ship called Moonrise (328 ft long), but we did see the helicopter take off and return a couple of times when we were there. So, who, owns all of this – it is Jan Koum who was one of the co-founders of the app, WhatsApp and former CEO of it. Guess when WhatsApp was sold to Facebook back in 2014 the selling price was $19.3 billion. If you have time, you should google Jan Koum to read his “rags to riches” story – we found it quite interesting.
Yes, that was the last island of the Balearics as we left the next morning at 7AM with clear skies, 12-15 knots of wind and 3-4 feet seas. Just short of 12 hours later we were anchoring off the town of Calp, on the mainland of Spain! One sight that we had as we were close to the anchorage was what we would call a “river
of jellyfish” that we were passing through. As we moved close to the shore, we kept seeing thick streams of brown jellyfish that were quite large. Definitely did not look like it was going to be an inviting place to be to go into the water. We do know that there are some jellyfish that do not sting, but even if these don’t (which we really don’t know the answer to), it was so thick with them that there was no way either of us were going to enter the water with that many around. Luckily, when at the anchorage there weren’t so many, but there was still enough to see all around the boat and throughout the anchorage. No swimming again today. With the increase of water temperature, the number of jellyfish this year has definitely risen as well.
While many would tell you that the Balearic Islands are a place to go to relax and enjoy the lovely beaches, we moved through them quite quickly. For us, they were an excellent stepping stone between Italy and mainland Spain. Will end for now and try to get the next blog entry up a little sooner than later as
Getting Close to Our Destination on Mallorca
the 2nd island we will visit in the Balearics definitely want to get this up to date before we leave again to head back to Spain in January 2024 – wish me luck with that at my current rate of blog postings!
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