Our Ibizan adventure

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Tuesday 26^thAug – Cala De Port Roig



We finally did it – Disco Volante was built with this goal in mind. All the cold wet days in Wales & Bristol, Mike spending weekends building the boat instead of going out, me sat in the saloon seeing my own breath, wishing it didn’t rain into my lounge when I opened the main hatch, the financial sacrifice – now it makes sense – after 9 years of toil we had arrived in Ibiza!!!



We sailed past the Isla Vedra – A bit of a hippy pilgrimage point, especially to watch the sunset.

We sailed past and our energy soured… Now just a small matter of the overpriced Ibiza Marinas, crowded anchorages & super yachts getting in the way…



Mike had spotted a nice little anchorage called Cala De Port Roig, which offered good protection from the winds and a chance for us to recharge our batteries after our overnight sail. The anchorage has no resorts or bars.. Just a few fisherman huts and small houses. But it crowded, as it’s early and people haven’t started to leave yet. We do a surprisingly nifty manoeuvre and tuck in right behind a racing yacht, The anchor dug in well, off to bed for us. (Despite the inevitable urge to go out and have cocktail immediately). After 4hrs kip we were ready to meet the day and have a cheeky drink over in Cala Jondal (Home of Blue Marlin & lots of Jelly fish!!!) So after a surprisingly energetic walk there we arrived on the beach and checked out Blue Marlin that we had been to many years before… If I am honest, we were disappointed.. It’s so chock full of sunbeds now that you can’t really walk in to the bar that easily. The music was boring and minimal… We left and went next door to the beach bar… 5EUR a pint, in beautiful beach hut! YES – We were happy. IBIZA WE MADE IT!!!!!!!



Wednesday 27^th August

We decided to pop South East along the coast and drive by Las Selinas beach and sand dunes, then on to Platya En Bossa to see if there were any decent anchorages to be found close to Bora Bora. Las Salinas was as beautiful as we remembered and despite the paid for buoys on the front, you can still anchor to the East of the each, ironically close to the guy cruising grounds in the dunes. But we were keen to check out Platya En Bossa so we cruised along the beach as close as we could get, but it offered little protection and we certainly couldn’t leave the boat anchored for any period of time to ‘pop’ into Space! We spotted a beach called Playa Figueretas tucked into the East of the bay and headed over. The depths weren’t perfect but if we took our time we should be fine.

Unfortunately we trusted the Navionics a bit too much and the sand banks had obviously shifted a bit. We went aground – our first grounding incident – hopefully our last! The utter panic of being wedged into the sand and not knowing if we could get off was terrifying! Luckily we have an amazing new engine, so we were eventually able to get up enough power to nudgingly reverse our way off!!!

I have never been so happy. Mike tried calming me down by saying he had run aground plenty of times and weren’t we lucky the Med isn’t that tidal – It didn’t help!!!

We then took the long way around ‘rat Island’ and made it into a nice protected anchorage off a cute beach in Figueretas. Handily just a 10 minute walk from Ibiza town. (Well worth staying in if you find Ibiza Town too busy to find accommodation).

We couldn’t resist ‘popping’ into Ibiza town for some drinks that night. It had been a while!! Was so good to be back, though we struggled to find cheaper bars and places we had been before. We manged to find the gay street though – fab people watching – and Dalt Villa (The old town) lit up at night is still spectacular. We had a little nosey at the super yachts in Ibiza Town, they are as big as ferrie and some even had helicopters on top. Disco suddenly felt a little on the small side. Relieved of 100EUR and still not that drunk, we had a lovely walk home through the streets of Ibiza town and it’s excellent sights.



Thursday 28^th August – Monday 1^st September

We had decided to spend the week before my Brother Tim & wife Adriana arrived to circumnavigate the island and check out all the good anchorages. Fortunately we discovered that it was possible to get an anchorage for free in August – which is just as well as the marinas were between 100-200EUR a night for an 11m yacht!

We had a lovely sail past Puerto De Ibiza, where the super-yacht count was off the scale! Up the SE coast we stopped off at anywhere that looked nice.. Lunch in one bay, swim in another..

As we reached the North of the Island there are tons of beautiful Calas (coves) inc Caletas, Charraca & some lovely Islands.

We decided to go up to Cala Portinax in the very North of the island. It is more of a Spanish tourist destination, with the beaches very child friendly and we also had a chance to top up our stars. The Cala is made up of three points with separate beaches and despite the season there was enough room to squeeze us in. The water was crystal blue and lovely and warm. Snorkelling was also great (For Ibiza). We spent a lovely couple of days relaxing in calm waters with everything on our doorstep, but no monster hotels. (Though we could hear the bad Spanish Karaoke!!!)

Then we were off again to check out some of the legendary Calas on the NW/SW side of the island. We popped into Benniras (Famous for it Sunday night hippy drumming & naked Germans from what we could tell ;-) ), then we found Cala Blanco, deserted of houses & shops, but FULL of yachts having parties! Then we headed down to Cala Salada, then down towards San Antonio and it’s nearby beaches of Cala Bassa (more on this later), Cala Tarida & Cala Badella.

Cala Bassa just West of San Antonio really stood out to us, it was well protected, too shallow for too many super-yachts and only had a couple of low-rise bar/restaurants, all tastefully done. We arrived later on in the evening and swam ashore, lovely warm turquoise water, with a gently sloping beach.

When we woke up the next morning we swam with thousands of fish that loved shading themselves under the boat. If you swam away from them they would follow you like something out of the Pied-Piper!



Monday 1^st September

The money saving was over – Tim and Adi arrived today, so we had a longish sail (Still no wind, mainly motoring apart from the odd wind increase in the afternoons – Ibiza was earning it’s expensive reputation already and that was without even going clubbing yet – we were spending SO much on diesel due to flaky winds!!) back to Playa Figueritas (Via Las Selinas) to meet them and get the party started.

We stopped off in Las Selinas for cocktails on the way (natch). Las Selinas is next to Ibizas famous salt plains and the beach is really long and unspoilt, with only three bars and sandunes behind. We went to one of Mike’s highly rated bars – Sa Trencha – which plays awesome music any time – perfect place to recover from a hangover. We anchored on the East of the beach where anchoring for fre is allowed as long as you avoid the natural sea grasses. We dropped anchor and swum ashore with our money in a waterproof pouch. About half way into the swim I felt a sting on my ancle and called out to Mike, saying I thought there might be jelly fish. Then I felt another small sting on my chest. Just seconds later Mike starts screaming that he has been stung on the forearm and starts swimming back to the boat. I tell him not to be so soft and with the help of my polarised glasses we avoided any other encounters, but as soon as we land, on what would appear to be the naked gay beach, Mike’s starts running for the first aid post. You could see the tentacle marks on his skin. Admittedly he got it worse than me. All the Lifeguard did was tip vinegar on it and tell him to sit in the shade for 15mins. He stank.

Tim & Adi had smuggled an entire cow in their luggage so we had uber high quality Brazilian meat for a BBQ the following day. Adi was concerned about how we might get her to the boat – Dinghy with all your prized possessions in it of course!

We welcomed them with some Don Simon Sangria and some super chilled beers! But it was all too much excitement for Mike and we let the youngsters go into Ibiza town, while we prepared ourselves for the Brazilian BBQ the next day!



Tuesday 2^nd September

Adi used to work in Ibiza and her contacts certainly came through!! We had a lovely BBQ with her friends in the day (Drank a lot of beer), they introduced us to the pure joy of inflatables for the boat – of ‘floaters’ as Mike calls them – genius!! We tie them onto the boat and float away = awesome.

We have realised Adi is seriously accident prone, poor live managed to burn her back on our BBQ that hangs off the boat – check out the pics – ouch!

Then we headed to Ushuaiya Hotel (Not how you spell it) the new cool hotel in Ibiza, for sun downers and had drinks on a fab beach bed.. Her friend Priscilla invited us to the new Pacha Hotel called Destino for dinner – What a night. This place is normally soooo expensive, but on Tuesdays they have a 35EUR three course menu with a drink. The hotel is behind Playa De En Bossa in the middle of nowhere. It is seriously swanky, the food way amazing and to top it all Priscillas friend bought us all drinks – pints of gin pretty much!!! After an amazing day and night of eating and drinking we headed home for an early night. Too much sun & booze.



Wednesday 3^rd September

Adi jumped ship in the morning. It would seem hangovers and sailing don’t mix. We heard a splash and off she went.. So she got a bus to meet us in Las Selinas where we had reserved a mooring buoy right on the front for two nights. Tim had his first experience of sailing on the way – Captain Timus.

On arrival we heard a scream form the beach and saw Adi waving with her lilo. Tim did the gentlemanly think and rowed to shore to check she was OK and have a nice lunch.

As we were getting ready for a night out we go the news about Mum. So unfortunately this is where Tim & Adis holiday ended as we all headed back to the UK, leaving Mike in charge of Disco and with a list of maintenance jobs to do while he waited for my return..



Monday 8^th September

I had flown back to Ibiza the night before. Got stranded on Cala Bassa beach with no working mobile and a very confused security guard helping me signal Mike onboard via torch and shouting!!

Once we woke up we headed around to San Antonio Marina for a whole 6 days with good facilities and a pontoon to jump on and off of!

We waited impatiently for Jo and Matthew to arrive, they were flying in from Nice via Barcelona. After a quick lunch at Blue Marlin they joined us onboard with their friend Marcus and we had some sun-downers and nibbles on board, watching the excellent sunset over San Antonio – We could see Café Mambo & Café Del Mar from the marina!

Marcus made the excellent suggestion of heading to the new Pacha bar & restaurant called Lio for drinks – Its in the building that El Divinos used to be in, so has excellent views of Ibiza towns marina.

We all jumped into his jeep and headed for a windy ride into Ibiza town.

While Jo & Matthew got changed we had some AMAZING, but potent cocktails at the new Ibiza Town harbour bar, sister bar to Blue Marlin in Cala Jondal. Then we headed over to the stunning Lio’s for a drink. Just to walk into this place for a drink costs you 70EUR, luckily Marcus is in the know and got us in for free. So we already felt 70EUR up per person – time for some gin!

I will try to explain what Lio’s is like, but it’s so amazing its hard to describe. One side is completely open, looking over the marina (Super yacht ahoy!), the main restaurant tables are in front of the stage where every 10 minutes or so beautiful performers put on various acts – acrobatics, singing, amazing themed dance routines.. The bar is towards the back, behind all the VIP tables. They serve amazing cocktails, at a price!! Just to secure on of the front tables to going bribe is 500EUR!!! We didn’t dare to look at the menu prices. In the bathroom you have amazing free products and beauticians/masseuses in the most glamorous toilets you are ever like to see. Many, many gins & cocktails later we headed home, smiling from ear to ear!



Tuesday 9^th September

After a rather hungover day, we finally got up and headed over to Ibiza town to visit the Doels (They stayed in a stunning hotel just next to Pacha). Matthew had discovered a bar with a roof terrace that overlooked the old town (Dalt Villa). Thank goodness he found it, it was gorgeous, but we would have walked past the entrance with no idea what was up the stairs. Several drinks later we headed to that nights main event – Together @ Amnesia. Chase & Status where headlining with B-Traits & Wilkinson supporting. We had paid an extra 20EUR each to have VIP access to the balcony overlooking both rooms – WELL WORTH the money, when we discovered that there was a lovely cocktail bar overlooking the DJ box, with fans blowing on us and almost as good as the main VIP balcony. I had been massively looking forward to this night since we had arrived in Ibiza – It didn’t disappoint. The mar prices are insane – 10EUR for water, 22EUR normal spirits, 27EUR for premium – water for us then!!!

We had all the clubs dancers shaking there thang on our left and a perfect view of the DJ box. At intervals the imfamous Amnesia smoke canon erupted and occasionally streamers exploded coating everyone in white paper and looking amazing with all the quality lighting. Chase & status did not disappoint, but the surprise of the night was a DJ called Wilkinson with an MC who absolutely stole the show with some top tunes! We kept up with the young pups, The Doels managing until 5:30am and us until 6:15am. Then there was the classic Ibiza Disco Bus experience on the way home to round off a top night.



Wednesday 10^th September

Today Karen & Sinead arrived from the UK late in the evening, so after a lazy day (and some last minute boat cleaning!!!!) we had a bit of a quite one.



Thursday 11^th September

Today was boat BBQ day. We set off at 10am aiming to get to Formentera, but the wind was playing ball. Captain Karen basically skippered us out to the island just before Formentera (She is a natural to this sailing lark – I was annoyed), but we then realised under motor it would be a bit of a horrible journey, so we turned around and headed back to a local beach called Cala Bassa, with cool tunes, turquoise water and good snorkelling for an epic BBQ at sea. Once the anchor was down we tucked in to some serious boozing. We Barbequed the last of the Brazilian meat, some yummy king prawns and a nice cheese board.

Just before sunset we motored over to Café Del Mar and I am pleased to say we WERE those yacht wankers who clock the sunset. It was totally amazing seeing all the fun of the sunset bars from onboard, floating in our inflatables and sipping our own booze. I don’t think you can ever get board of those Ibiza sunsets!

Mooring the boat after all the booze was interesting, but we pulled it off. Happy, Tipsy and a little sunburnt we then through it was time to try out San Antonios sights. To say we had a culture shock after our previous few days luxury, was an understatement. We found ourselves sitting outside a Scottish bar, drinking 10EUR jugs of cocktails with free jagerbombs – You can imagine the hangovers after that!

Jo & Mike did the right thing and toddled off home around 1am, but silly silly me, Karen, Sins & Matthew though clubbing at Plastik was a good idea – IT WAS NOT! I think I got home around 4am – how we all managed to clamber onto the boat without falling in is one of lifes drunken mysteries.



Friday 12^th September

Ibiza is having an usually HOT September. Normally it starts cooling down by now, but the sun and heat has been relentless averaging 34degrees. The trouble with Marinas is that there is just no air, so every day we are sweating like no bodies business. So much so that Mike took pity on the ladies and had to hose us down about every 30mins to stop us internally combusting. I went down hill during the day as the dehydration increased and the hangover worsened – damn that cheap San Antonio booze! We all started getting ready to head over to Ibiza town to meet The Doels for drinks at our fave rooftop bar. It was a quiet on the for us as we had the main event the following night – Glitterbox @ Boom! I made it as far as Ibiza town, but as everyone else manned up, I went downhill quick and had to jump in a taxi home – not my finest hour. Everyone else managed to stay out for more drinks, but it was time for me to admit defeat and head home to chez boat.



Saturday 13^th September

We had a relaxing day sunbathing on board. About 6pm we headed over to Jo & Matthews hotel for some sun-downers around there gorgeous pool and most excitingly drinks & getting ready in their air-conditioned hotel room. Us three girls were ecstatic about the thought of getting ready without having to rig the hairdryer outside the boat. Putting up make-up had been interesting – it literally slide off as quickly as we could put it on!

So armed with backpacks full of booze and our going out clothes we headed up to Jo & Matthews suite for an amazing girlie getting ready session!

Once we were all glammed up and had taken the requisite photos of us all dolled up we headed back to the Ibiza town Blue Marline for some pre-club cocktails – real strawberry mojitos ROCK!

Then with nervous tummies we headed into Boom! For the much anticipated Glitterbox night, run by Defected. Boom! Only opened last season and hold around 1000 people. A great intimate venue to see the legendary Dimitri from Paris & Joey Negro. It’s a great little club, with a stunning outside terrace. It was decked out in the obligatory glitter balls and very hot dancers (Male & female) wearing not much but sequins natch!

The music was phenomenal – and after cracking sets from both of the headliners the night was played out by DJ Pippy who still managed a cracking set despite following on from two legends. The crowd was awesome, slightly older than the Ibiza norm and friendly and lovely. Matthew was throwing some serious shapes on the dance floor and Jo manged to find a bar where slightly worse for wear hot guys were pouring extremely generous measures to all the ladies who where making a beeline for their bar! At 6am the fun was over and the lights went down on a top quality night – we almost cried.

Once back at the boat, with no sign of the heat receding we decided on the spur of the moment to take Disco Volante over to the nearest beach so we could get some seabreeze. We moored up next to the owner of Pachas wooden yacht. (In know because I had just seen it in OK magazine) After some sun-uppers Mike & I headed to bed, but naughty Karen & Sinead stayed up! They even managed to hail a lift from the Captain of the Pacha yacht to shore, where they then continued having drinks at the lovely Cala Bassa Beach Club. (Why not – it was there last night after all)



Sunday 14^th September

When we eventually woke up and the girlies still weren’t back, we did the gentlemanly thing and went looking for them on our inflatables, we eventually found them onshore waving and shouting to us. We joined them for some drinks and then the next problem, how to get them back. Luckily they found a friendly banana boat driver who was willing to give them a lift back to the boat, with us paddling madly behind them.

That evening after a mad dash for the girls to pack and find all of their belongs, we headed to meet Jo & Matthew for dinner @ the beautiful KM5 restaurant. Tables are particularly hard to come by on a Sunday, but Matthew put his blagging to good use and somehow got us the prime table smack bang in the centre of the restaurant, under a gorgeous chandelier.

We somehow managed two MAGNUMS of rose wine between us! Not to mentioned some out of this world food – including duck breast with melt in your mouth skin, the tenderist steaks & some amazing seafood starters. At the end of the meal the waitress mentioned we could have a free VIP table in their onsite club – why not we said… Several facepaints, Strawberry mojitos & gins later we reflected on our Ibiza craziness – what a phenomenal week!



I of course have to mention, as most of you know, that it was my Mum’s funeral on the 17^th September. We gave her a great send off, as best we could. I know she would be overwhelmed to know that over 50 people came to see her off. We had such an emotional day – people sharing lovely memories of the unique person she was. Thanks for everyone messages and thoughts at such an awful time – it meant the world to me & Mike and my family to know that we had lots of support from our friends. RIP Mum. (See photo of graffiti my brother am in her honour)



I will leave the blog here for now – next instalment to include our last few days on Ibiza – meeting up with Fernanda in Sta Eulalia, sailing to Mallorca, fabulous Palma, meeting up with the Granthams, sailing to Menorca and our epic 30hr sail to Sardinia to meet up with Anna, Tom, Phil & Emily. Our advanture continue – but this time in Italiano!

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