The Voyages of Disco Volante: Mallorca, Ibiza, Granada to Benalmedena

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Just looked at the dates and realised it is a month since my last confession... ...I mean blog. How time flies when you are having fun! Best got on with it as I have a lot to catch you up on!



Sitting on the Deck of Disco Volante writing this blog in blazing sunshine. I am pleased to report that the thermals and waterproofs are back in the cupboard again! It certainly feels like summer now and our early, freezing sails from Italy seem a distant memory. The tans are coming on nicely now and the norm is definitely sun sun sun! Haven’t quite packed away my jeans yet, but almost!



We have officially left the Mediterranean now and are back in the Atlantic Ocean. I am very happy to be back on normal finger pontoons, rather than Mediterranean style moorings. (Now we are back to 3-4m tides, you need floating pontoons!) We have topped 4600nm so far for our trip, which feels like quite an accomplishment. I am sure it will be over 6000nm by the end! If you had said a year ago that I would be an experienced sailor with that many miles under my belt, I wouldn’t have believed you!



We have ended up arriving in Cadiz a few days earlier than expected as we wanted to leave Gibraltar & the strait when the winds weren’t blowing right in our face! Emily & Phil are about to join us on the 22^nd and we have just said goodbye to Gemma & Simon. Plenty of guests due over the next month or so including my Auntie & Uncle, Matt & Laura & Gwynn. So our last few weeks will be busy! We will be returning to some of our favourite spots like Rio Guadiana, Lisbon & Porto, but also seeing some new places.. Seville, Vigo & Cadiz and hopefully the Scilly Isles. If anyone else fancies a visit, let us know asap. Deffo some good stops still up for grabs!



Weds 18^th – Sunday 22^nd March – Palma, Mallorca

I was determined to be somewhere lively for our 5th wedding anniversary, and it turns out we chose just the place. Palma is one of those cities that is lively all year round and with a strong ex-pat community. It’s a pretty impressive port to arrive into. The bay is huge, with the most marinas we have seen in one place. Masts as far as the eye can see. It’s also very busy with huge ferries and tourist boats flying in and out the harbour.

Last time we stayed at the Royal Club Nautico we were on a normal pontoon, but this time we were put on the visitors’ pontoon, which was not as protected from the high winds we were expecting. We had literally the world’s worst Marinero (Person who shows you where to moor and helps with the ropes from onshore). So we had a stressful time getting onto the mooring and ended up dinging the back of the boat (Only a tiny scratch, but annoying when it was totally avoidable). We were also surprised that prices weren’t any cheaper than high season, but 28euros per night wasn’t too bad and we got to use the showers and facilities of the super posh Royal Yacht club which were super plush!

We were on a mission straight away to catch up on our washing that had piled up over the last few weeks. We also needed to wash all our sailing gear that was completely salted up after all the rough sails we had been having. It’s not all glamourous on yachts you know!! We also did a spot of provisioning at Corte Ingles, which is a fab supermarket in the heart of Palma, which has a British section. Great if you are craving marmite & Walkers Shortbread ;-)

The next day was devoted to sightseeing, so we did a walking tour of Palma including a recce of some restaurants and bars for our anniversary night out. We found the old quarter that we hadn’t seen on our last visit, which was really atmospheric and had some great tapas restaurants. I made a brilliant Spanish cock-up when buying an ice-cream and managed to ask for a Coῆa instead of a cona, I will let you look that one up, but it wasn’t good to ask for a small one! We decided to visit the Palau March Museum, which has a lovely sculpture terrace and great views down onto the cathedral. It also has this amazing wax nativity scene, with thousands of wax figures that was made for a Spanish king. Quite an incredible amount of detail!

After much internet research I got myself booked in with an English hair salon on the morning our anniversary. So after a lovely strawberry and waffle breakfast provided by Mike and an all-Spanish anniversary card message which I had to translate, I was ready for some beautifying! After far too many marina home dye jobs, it was a real treat and I loved every minute of it! Hilariously the salon (Eden Hair & Beauty) was located in a proper ex-pat part of town, with British supermarkets and even a UK DVD rental place! I was very happy with my new hair and the chance for a bit of typical British hairdresser chat. Best of all I got loads of good tip-offs for bars to check out later..

So scrubbed up nicely, we headed out on the town for a night of tapas and drinking. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t on our side and it was peeing down!! We had a 15min walk into the old town to the restaurant we had chosen called Quina Creu, which is a very funky tapas place with a young hip crowd. The walls were decorated with loads of retro movie posters and the place was already busy at 8pm, which is pretty unheard of in Spain! Lovely meal and cocktails, but we were keen to set off on our bar crawl! We started at a bar called Wineing, one of those places where you get a card with a chip in it and can try taster, small, medium and large glasses of any of the wines they have from special dispensing machines. Each wine is served at its optimum temperature too which is cool. We soon realised even starting at 80 cents a glass it was easy to drink your way through quite a bit of money. Super fun though, especially as they had lots of local Mallorcan wines to try. I am sure the equivalent experience in the UK would be much more pricey!

Next we went to one of Palmas most famous bars called Abaco, down a cobbled alleyway. It is set in a beautiful old mansion and famous for its displays of fresh fruit, draped all over the main room of the building. Cocktails are pricy at about 15euros a drink, but were stunning and served beautifully in crystal glasses. Once you have finished your drinks you can go and check out the upper floor of the house too. The kitchen had loads of fresh veg displayed in it and there were beautiful painted ceilings. And at least the cost of the drinks goes towards the upkeep of the beautiful building.

Next we headed over towards the area near my hairdressers. There is a buzzy street with loads of funky bars. We started off in Idem, which is a bit of a saucily decorated red theme bar, with epic gin and tonics! Next we went to Lab, which has awesome unusual cocktails. We then bumped into a load of Brits who work in Palma and the night goes a bit hazy. But we did end up in a nightclub and got some dancing. Boy were we hungover the next day..

..in fact so hungover we ended up watching the rugby on the boat! And what a day of rugby it was! Even the group of cadets on the training boat next to us were shocked by our language!

I would deffo recommend Palma as a holiday location, especially as in the summer all the beach bars are open too including Nikki Beach and Pacha. As you can tell we had to drag ourselves away, but next stop Ibiza!



Sunday 22^nd March – Palma to Puerto De Santa Ponsa

Distance: 16.6nm

We set of in the afternoon for a short sail to get us to the Western end of Palma, ready for our sail across to Ibiza. We had a lovely 10-15kts of wind, so sailed all the way. Mike got competitive with a 50ft yacht and decided we had to race them. Not sure they realised we were racing too, but we certainly beat them up wind! We had decided to anchor off the beach in Santa Ponsa. It was only a tiny anchorage, so we were pleased to be the only boat. As we came in to the port a whole flotilla of tiny dinghies came in, must have been hundreds of kids from the local sailing club in dinky Optomists. We had to dodge them all as they sailed past like little ducklings. The slow ones getting a tow from passing RIBs. It was a really protected anchorage, so we got some good sleep, not bothering to go to shore.



Monday 23^rd March – Mallorca to Portinax, Ibiza

Distance: 52nm / 9hrs

Some days everything goes wrong! This was one of them. To start with the wind was strong and it was cold and grey. The wind was directly behind us too, which means it’s not a comfortable or fast sail. The wind was also quite gusty, 5kts one minute, then 20kts the next. So we had to tweak the sails the whole time and rig a preventer to stop the boom whipping across as the wind changed direction. Finally the wind seemed to settle, but was still about 15kts, so Mike was keen to give the spinnaker its first outing of the season. I wasn’t too keen as the rolly boat was making me feel a bit sick and it’s also really awkward getting the spinnaker up and down with just the two of you, even with the autopilot, which was having one of those days when it keeps switching itself off at the worst possible moment! However I reluctantly agreed as hopefully it would give us some speed and we would get there earlier.

First go at getting the spinnaker up, mike on the winch and me feeding the sail out of the bag was a disaster! The sail got wrapped around the forestay after dunking in the water, due to the flaky winds, I nearly went overboard and was happy to just put it away after that, but Mike wanted to persevere. Second attempt went better with me on the winch and Mike seeing the sail up. However it really wasn’t flying well and the auopilot was also not happy with the combination of gusts and big waves, so Mike had to steer for ages and we had broach after broach (when you get caught by a wind gust, turning the boat side on to the wind and the boat leans over VERY far!). This was not helping my seasickness, so we decided to take it down after two hours, but again we nearly lost it overboard when trying to pull it in, plus it was now soaked and needed to be dried before going away. Not a fun experience. We were so pleased to finally make it into Portinax at 4pm, but sods law we were in for a rolly night at anchor due to the high winds, so didn’t manage much sleep after a testing day. We were very keen to get to the Marina in Ibiza town!



Tues 24^th – Sun 29^th March – Ibiza Town

The weather was still really overcast when we set off for Ibiza Town. Luckily it was a short 22nm hop to get into the marina. It was quite exciting as we had never actually been into the Port at Ibiza Town as we hadn’t been able to afford to stay there last time as it was peak season. It’s a pretty iconic entrance, with the old town – Dalt Villa – off to the left and super yachts as far as the eye can see. We pulled up to the fuel pontoon to do the paperwork, before being directed to a lovely mooring in-between Lio’s and Pacha! We were both knackered and looking forward to being in a marina, especially as another big storm was due in that night (Meaning we hadn’t been able to get to Formentera as planned as it is so flat, it has little protection). So I am ashamed to say our first night in Ibiza was a quiet one! The next day was also terrible weather, so we used the opportunity to do some work around the boat and tidy everything up. We did make it into town a little later on though and had several drinks in the main bar square (in winter season). A bottle of chilled rose and lots of sangria later, we were pretty merry, but pleased to see Ibiza had some life off season!

By Thursday the sun was back and the wind had died down, so we finally went to do some exploring! Neither of us had ever been into Ibiza old town, known as Dalt Villa before. But before that we headed over to another first, some Punic burial chambers right in the heart of Ibiza Town. A little oasis in what is normally a built up holiday resort. It was a lovely museum, well worth a visit if you happen to be in Ibiza, with little enough of a hangover to do anything apart from stay around the pool! Next stop was a Menu Del Dias in a pretty square. Ibiza is certainly cheaper offseason. We got three courses for 10euros – amazing value and great food too! Next stop was a serious walk around the old town, with spectacular views - we felt a bit foolish for not actually having been here before, considering we have both been to Ibiza numerous time, including a month in September 2014! (See pics!!) After all our exploring we headed over to Playa D’en Bossa to meet up with Priscilla & Javier (Adi’s lovely friends from Brazil - Well Priscilla is Brazilian, Jave is from Spain - who we met back in September). In true Brazilian style we were fed lovely food and VERY cold beers! We arranged to meet up the following night at Pacha for dinner and dancing, yippee!

On Friday we decided to hire a car for the day and explore the island – another Ibiza first! We had a little black fiat Panda which was comedy! I had scoped out lots of interesting places to visit all around the Island. We pretty much drove around the whole island. We started off in Santa Eulalia which has a gorgeous 16^th century church up on the hill, with amazing views. Then we walked down the river valley into Santa Eulalia past old stone bridges and past an idyllic watermill and pond full of super cute ducks. Who knew that was there?? We went to Port Sant Miquel for lunch – another bargainous menu del dia for 9euro! We were stuffed. We certainly know why it is called the pine island now. The scenery was amazing. We were most surprised to see lots of vineyards in the centre of the island too. Fab day. On the way home we used the luxury of having a hire car to do a massive water and booze shop! Priscilla, Jave and her son stopped by to see the boat and let us come and visit the apartments they are finishing & decorating ready to let out for the summer season. They were amazing – wish we could afford to rent one, but they are super high end (Paris Hilton was looking to hire one) and decorated with really cool modern furniture and retro club posters!

Then it was time to get glammed up for our night out at Pacha! Off season you can have dinner at Pacha pretty reasonably and then get free entry to the club afterwards. We had a yummy dinner and cocktails, then headed into the club (just one small inside and outside area is open) for some awesome Ibizan tunage. And the drinks are half the price of summer! Was a fab chatty crowd of locals – met some cool people who live in Ibiza all year round and even ended up having a bit of an after-party – AWESOME NIGHT!

Overall not much was properly open bar & club wise until 1^st April, most places not opening until May, but there was plenty to do, still a few good places open (including Pacha which is open all year round) and the weather was nice, would definitely recommend visiting Ibiza off season.

Sadly we ended up having to leave Ibiza a day earlier than planned. We had hoped to check the Primavera festival on the Sunday, but the forecast changed, meaning we had to get to the mainland earlier than planned or risk being stranded in Ibiza and possibly not getting to Malaga in time to meet Gemma & Simon or getting to Alison’s hen do. This also meant we had to miss out Valencia, which I was gutted about, but we decided to visit Granada instead from Malaga.



29th to 31^st March - Ibiza to Mar Menor (overnight sail)

Distance: 127nm

5-10kts of wind most of the way from Ibiza to Mar Menor (an inland sea we visited on way out). So we had a mixture of full sail and motor-sailing. Plenty of shipping to keep us busy on night watches, but it was quite warm overnight, so fairly pleasant. We arrived a little earlier than planned after a 23hr sail, so had to anchor off the port of entry waiting for the swing bridge to open (happens every two hours). Tempted to go in for a swim in the turquoise water, but too many jelly fish!

Finally pulled up the anchor and negotiated the 1mile shallow channel into Mar Menor. It really is shallow in places, but mainly 3m! A few tense moments though when weed on the seabed puts the depth sounder off! Finally under the swing bridge and into Mar Menor itself, which is around 3-6m deep. We headed to a nice anchorage off an island in the centre of the water and dropped anchor. Had a nice dinner and sangria on deck. Then watched the most amazing sunset – check out the pics, but it looked like the sky had been painted. Stunning!

Woke up early the next day, very refreshed after flat calm night. Mike was keen to try out the new outboard engine, so we made ourselves a beer picnic and did a dinghy tour of the island, much to the horror of the nesting seagulls on the island, who didn’t take kindly to the noise! The wind began to change direction overnight and stupidly we decided to stay where we were rather than move around to the other side of the island. As the wind picked up overnight we dragged anchor and had a rude awakening when the keel touched rock!!! You have never seen two people jump out of bed so quickly – thankfully I managed to grab a dressing gown on the way out of the hatch, but Mike ended up being on deck naked. Luckily it was 6am and we were the only boat in the anchorage, no one saw and his modesty was intact. Though the seagulls certainly seemed interested! We then moved the boat to the other side of the island. Another lesson learned! Plus Mike had to take a swim, just to check the underneath of the boat – it was a chilly lesson, but thankfully no harm done!



1^st – 2^nd April – Mar Menor to Aguadulcie.

Distance: 127nm

On the way out of Mar Menor, we decided to tie up to the waiting pontoon and have a nice alfresco lunch in the marina. The nice thing about 24hr sails is that you don’t have to leave until after lunch as you don’t want to risk arriving to early or in the morning darkness. So you can have a nice lie-in and lunch before you leave. Pretty uneventful sail, but the winds were lovely and warm and we hugged the coast for much of it, so only fishing boats to look out for on watch.



2^nd-4^th April – moored in Aguadulcie

We had a lovely couple of nights in Aguadulcie, close to Almeria. We decided to stop here as they have a fab tapas culture & cheap marina. Free tapas with every small beer, coke or glass of wine you order. And these are proper tapas, huge portions of meat and fish. We ate out for about 10euros between us. Most of the menus in Spanish, so you have to guess a bit as to what things are. It’s a bit of a lottery, but great fun! Put it this way, one tapas was an actual homemade burger and chips. I don’t know how they do it for the money – roughly 2euros for a drink and a dish!!

We got lucky with the weather too, so had our first beach sunbath and swim of the year as there is a fab beach right next to the marina.



4^th-5^th April – Aguadulcie to Benalmadena (Nr Malaga)

Distance: 99nm

Another late sail. Set off at 2pm. It was pretty calm, so sitting on front deck with autopilot on, enjoying sundowners when a huge pod of dolphins swam past! Nice winds, made fast sailing, so arrived early into marina by 10am. Spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the marina complex – which was quite funky. Realised we were actually right next to Torremolinos and lots of Brits getting some spring sunshine. Most amusing as the Spanish still in coats and jeans, but all the brits in shorts and vest, tee hee.. But it was much cheaper than the Claub Nautico in Malaga which was 50euros a night, compared with 15euros in Benalmedena. No brainer!



5^th-9^th April – moored in Benalmedena with trip overland to Granada.

To make up for my missed trip to Valencia, we decided to spend a couple of nights in a hotel in Granada and a chance to visit the Alhambra. We took a bit of a risk because you now need to book advance tickets to the Alhambra months in advance as they have restricted the numbers of visitors to protect the buildings. We caught one of the super efficient buses from Malaga to Granada. Opted for Supra-economy bus which is only 2euros more than the standard bus, but super comfy and you even get a free snack bag. Lovely coach ride through valleys of olive trees on the way.

Arrived at the hotel I had booked, right in the heart of the town and really lucked out even with our super discounted last minute rate. Just a short walk from all the tapas bars and the Alhambra.

Got a tip off from the tourist information office, that you can buy some last minute tickets from a book shop, which we duly did and actually managed to get some of the last tickets for the next day. SO LUCKY!!! The only down side was our timed ticket to one of the building complexes called the Palacio Nazaries was at 6pm, an hour before closing time, but we were just relived to have tickets.

Spent the afternoon walking around the old town and took a trip up the other side of the valley to Sacromonte, where people still live in cave dwellings, not as primitive as it sounds! It has amazing views of the Alhambra too. There was a great little museum, showing how he gypsies used to live in the caves. Rooms heated by their animals and natural air conditioned. Then it was back to the hotel to rest the feet and get ready for a tapas extravaganza. In Granada you get free tapas with every drink, but unlike Almeria province, you can’t choose what you have. So you never quite know what you will get! We ended up going to three very different tapas bars and it was really fun. We mainly sat at the bar and soaked up the atmosphere. We made it home by about 1am, full and more than a bit tipsy.

The next day we had a bit of a lie in, then headed to one of the most famous viewpoints, which was full to bursting and next to one of Granada’s mosques. We visited a few other sights, before heading up the Alhambra for our afternoon ticket. It’s a lovely walk up hill from the centre of the old town to the entrance gate. We started off exploring the beautifully restored raised gardens, full of water features and cypress trees. Then we headed around the various different buildings until it was time to go into the moorish palaces. I won’t bore you with the details as the MANY photos speak a thousand words. Just make sure you go if you can, it’s an amazing place and so pleased to see it is finally getting the renovation and conservation it needs to survive.

After all that walking, it was time to check out some more tapas again in the evening. Starting with a Moroccan style tapas bar and ending in a real spit and sawdust locals place. There are some great newspaper articles online that give you tips on fab tapas places to check out in Granada, modern, traditional and quirky, but you could spend a few days just days just soaking up the atmosphere of the tapas bar. Basically go to Granada, its fab!



So I am leaving the blog here – you will have to wait to hear about Malaga, Gibraltar, Cadiz and Seville. I jetted off to Amsterdam for Miss Mulrooney’s (soon to be Jessop) hen do in Amsterdam on the 9^th of April – well I tried to, but due to the French Air Traffic control strike, I instead spent

12hrs in Malaga Airport only to have my flight cancelled, but luckily got there better late than never the next day. I’d love to fill you in on all the juicy details of the hen do, but what happens on tour stays on tour ;-) I left Mike, Gemma & Simon on the boat and missed Mike & Simon’s hilarious night out in Puerto Banus, where they posed as an Asian Stag do and got free pole dances out of pity. (Will ask Mike to write a special section of the next blog to fill you all in)



7 weeks to go until we return home. I hope it goes slowly..



Lots of love





Sarah & Mike xxx

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Photos

5th wedding Anniversary dinner @ Quina Creu
Amazing gin cocktail list!

..followed by wine tasting @ 'Wineing'
Hundreds of wines to try by the glass, including about 30 Mallorcan wines

Anniversary cocktails at stunning Abaco bar
Mike had a fresh strawberry daiquiri and o had a very potent Irish coffee. Expensive, but worth it for the beautiful surroundings.

The beautiful Cupid painting on the ceiling at Abaco
I want one on my lounge ceiling when I get back!

First sunset in Ibiza town
You can just about see the Dalt Villa old town in the background.

Ibiza Marina
Our home for 6 nights

Punic necropolis in Ibiza Town
Who knew there was culture and clubbing?

View from Dalt Villa
Spring flowers out in force

View from Dalt Villa into Ibiza Town Marina
Formentera ferry coming out.

Our mooring in Ibiza Town
Lio's bar/restaurant in front.

First test of the new outboard!
Mike was very excited!

Mike checking the keel
What you can't see is all the jelly fish in the water. (The water was only 17degrees)

First day on the beach of 2015
Aguadulcie beach