Another "Moved" to Sunnier Climes thread

[petem]

Each to their own but CD in my book is much better than Palma or Portals. Problem with those places, in my book, is that there aren't enough nice anchorages close by. When you exit Palma you have to turn right, as there is nowhere close if you go straight on, and upon turning right you dont have enough choices in my book (comapred with Antibes etc and CD). Plenty of folks might not care about it but I do, which is why SoF marinas work and CD works, imho.
Palma itself is also a bit rolly, and has industrial feel in some places, again just in my book. Portals solves that, as realised by the clever orange people mentioned, but still leaves you with too few local anchorages imho
So even though matm might have JFDI-ed it, I reckon he and L made a great choice

Thanks, I suppose there's also the six lane road that runs parallel to the Palma marinas which is a bit of a downer and it's a decent walk from the westerly marinas back to the old town restaurants. And Portals might be nicer but is further and dearer by taxi. Not to mention the astronomical berthing costs (and a full English was €15 in Nov IIRC).

Of course if CD has better local anchorages then less diesel used? Easy man maths then. Can berth holders use the CD pool?

 

[CLOUD9]

Seems to be a good few forumites basing themselves in Cala D'or.
What's the attraction of Cala D'or over the Palma marinas? Isn't the transfer time / cost from the airport an issue or are you guys keeping cars at the airport? Not being critical, genuinely interested as I'd be leaning toward Portals along with the orange Germans.

Like Mat, we are new here in Cala d'Or, so early days yet. We decided to come to the Med at the end of last season and initially had a totally open mind on where to base the boat. After reading many threads on here and taking advice from friends already in the Med, we narrowed it down to Cote d'Azure, Mallorca or Mainland Spain.
I love SOF but focused more on Spain simply as it seemed a little easier to find a mooring to rent on a yearly basis. If we fully get the Med bug and decide to buy a long lease somewhere we would revisit SOF in future.
We then narrowed it down further and decided we wanted to be on Mallorca.
The choices are all highly personal and we were surprised that there was so much difference between the various options in terms of cost, and atmosphere. Our final decision was between Palma and Cala d'Or.
Palma was attractive for its more 'year round' offer with a lively City on the door step. I based myself in a hotel in Portals for a week while I looked around the island. Portals is lovely, very high-end and commands top dollar prices, but I didn't think it was quite right for us. Proximity to the airport might have been a deciding factor if we planned 'long weekends' on board, but we don't. We hope to be here for a couple of weeks at a time minimum, so the drive to Cala d'Or is much less of an issue for us than it might be. We will probably get a car here.
As soon as I arrived in Cala d'Or I was sure that it would suit us better and would give us that 'holiday feel' with the white painted low rise buildings and marina lined with Palm trees, against the more industrial feel of Port de Mallorca Palma, and a more laid-back feel than Portals.
As jfm has said, the clincher for Cala d'Or is the immediate cruising ground. I can see us being here a season or two without burning any significant amount of diesel!
It's all very subjective and personal and depends on what you are looking for of course. Hope this helps anyone grappling with the same decisions.

 

[petem]

Thanks, one assumes you can get a decent full English there too without too many riff raff

 

[CLOUD9]

Thanks, one assumes you can get a decent full English there too without too many riff raff

SWMBO has not allowed me anywhere near the Full English yet! So can't comment on the cost or the clientele!
The Cala d'Or yacht club pool is available to use if you pay a daily, weekly or monthly fee. We will try this before we consider 'joining' the club on a yearly basis.

 

[jrudge]

No one joins !

If you wa t a pool then head to the hotel / club pool near the port entrance. It is about Euro 5 per sunbed

 

[CLOUD9]

No one joins !
If you wa t a pool then head to the hotel / club

Thanks for that. We thought that might be the case as there's not a lot of incentive to join for a year unless significantly better value I guess. And we hope to be on the boat more than in the pool anyway. We will give it a try at the hotel.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Each to their own but CD in my book is much better than Palma or Portals.

Well I'm going to stick up for Palma here. We had a few months in CD in 2003 and then spent 5 seasons in Palma from 2005 to 2009 before moving east. There were several reasons we didn't choose CD the 2nd time round. The first one was at the time, it took well over an hour to drive to CD from Palma airport and that was a hassle we thought we could do without. All the Palma marinas are a 10-15min taxi ride away from the airport. The second reason was that when we arrived in CD in February it was as dead as a dodo; very few bars and restaurants open and nobody about except a few bored yacht brokers. Of course in the summer that all changes and CD is quite a lively place. In contrast, Palma is a year round city and a surprisingly attractive city at that so even during winter there are bars and restaurants open and things to do. The third reason was that an easterly wind is quite common in the Balearics and when you get a stiff easterly most of the anchorages on the east side of Majorca are uncomfortable or untenable except for somewhere like Colom. Palma is sheltered from easterly winds and of course from the NW mistral as well so it is very unusual to find a day when you cannot go boating out of Palma

Yes I agree that there are some lovely anchorages along the E coast of Majorca but from Palma there are also some attractive anchorages within easy reach, Illetes for example which is a double anchorage giving shelter from both the E and W and which is within spitting distance of Palma harbour. Then there are anchorages at Portals Vells and Palma Nova within less than 30 mins cruise. Of course from Palma, the SW corner of Majorca is within easy reach where there are also some lovely anchorages and attractive destinations like Andraitx and Soller

Yes there are 2 downsides to mooring in Palma. It is subject to swell from all the vessel traffic but some marinas are worse than others. Club de Mar, where we moored, is less prone to swell whereas somewhere like Marina Port de Majorca is bad. Then there is the Paseo Maritimo road which runs along the seafront which can be a bit busy and noisy but I have to admit never bothered us

Given the choice between CD and Palma now, it would be difficult for me to decide because I understand the road to the east has been improved so the drive to CD is shorter and yes CD has more of an on holiday feel than Palma and maybe there is more going on in CD over winter now. Tough choice but don't ignore Palma because there are still a lot of advantages to mooring there

 

[julians]

I keep my boat in Port Adriano,but that's more of a function of the fact that it's close to our apartment than any other reason.

 

[jfm]

@Deleted User, yep, there are definitely two sides to these coins, pros/cons, more so even than when choosing a boat!

AIUI Cala d'Or is indeed dead in winter, so yes that is relevant to winter weekenders. It reopened a couple of weeks ago. CD also has terrible water - the hosepipes basically serve a form of seawater, slightly less salty than the actual sea. The only way to run the boat is have a w/maker and make loads of water before coming back into port, and use that to wash the boat down. I never fancied running the water maker in port because the water looks a bit silty.

As regards winds, I reckon there are enough sheltered spots on that coast, starting with Cala Gran, right outside CD before you even hit open sea

I stayed in marina port de Mallorca last summer and the rolling is shocking. You're broadside to the waves of course. I saw several pairs of adjacent ~20m flybridge boats rolling so hard that their flybridges were uncomfortably close to crunching, but even if they didn't crunch it wasn't great on board. I ran my stabilisers in port plenty. The passing wakes die down at night, to be fair. But the other marinas like club de Mar are better than Port deM anyway, if not entirely roll free. Actually I think Club DeM is the nicest of the palma marinas, but alas it is furthest from the nice old town. RCNP marina, close to the town, feels somehow a bit scruffy/tired to me

Last summer we were allowed into the CD yacht club and used the pool without paying any fee. We did buy plenty of 12-person dinners, so maybe they turned a blind eye, I dunno. Anyway I quite like the CD yacht club - it's nice to get off the boat for an hour and have a G+T on their terrace, watching the world go by

But yes this whole marina thing, like boats, is a case of weighing up pros and cons. Then arguing about them on here, haha!

 

[petem]

I was in Palma for the weekend at the end of November and there was plenty going on. Portals was quiet but open. So I suppose if you could get a deal, CD in summer and Palma in winter might work.

 

[petem]

Ha ha, you could do what MYAG does and keep 10,000 bottles of mineral water in a spare cabin!

 

[benjenbav]

Reference the games without frontiers twixt the Antibes Massif, the SCM Mob and the CA Crew.

Game One: Drone challenge - Each team will first paint their Phantom V (I'm looking ahead) in team colours. Points to be awarded for wit and originality. Then, taking to the skies, each team will attempt to down the others' drones. Last drone flying wins.

Game Two: Supersoaker challenge. As we all know the first rule of a supersoaker challenge is...there are no rules in a supersoaker challenge.

 

[DougH]

THE FOOTBALL MATCH OF THE YEAR

Going back a few years the Yacht Club in Cala d'Or used to run a football match between the members and Yacht Club staff.

This took place as part of the end of season party in August and ended by an alcohol fuelled barbecue in the evening with entertainment and silly prizes.

Now that the marina is returning to full capacity the Yacht Club would be able to reinstate this type of activity and if there is genuine interest I will have a word with Sergio the club Director.

We could make a yearly challenge contest between Cala d'Or, Santa Carlas and Antibes and if there is enough interest from the ladies, a hockey match. (Ladies can play in the footer teams if they like:encouragement

Wog ha tink

 

[Hurricane]

Keeping a boat on mainland Spain very cheaply has meant that we have an impartial view of ALL the places in the Baldricks.

Firstly my view on the islands.
Ibiza is small with not many marinas you can "run to" ivf the weather turns - othewise though, it is beautiful.
Menorca is also short of marinas but has more options for anchoring - mostly low coastline - again beautiful.
So, that just leaves Mallorca.
We have done most of the places mentioned above - either on anchor or in marinas.
I agree with most said above but the north is also worth mentioning.
Alcudia, for example, is probably the cheapest and there is a fast road across from Palma - probably making it quicker to get to than CD.
IMHO, (I'm sure I will get flamed for this) - CD and Alcudia are a bit like "Blackpool in the sun" - he says ducking for cover.
Both are full of tourist restaurants - but that's probably what people want.
For me, I prefer more local culture and away from the crouds.
And for that reason, I lile to stay away from Palma.
Having said that, we often will pop in to these places for a few days.
But our intention is to search out those idylic quiet anchorages which are very difficult to find, especially in the Baldricks or the SoF.
Mainland Spain doesn't have the solution either.
Our summer cruise last year turned up some great places in MAPISM's locality - but flights are difficult.
You just can't have it all.

I have a plan for a late season trip this year.
It goes like this.
No specific plan - just look for about a week's good weather in (say) September and blat across to (maybe) Ibiza with the idea of staying on the anchor the whole time.
Our range is just about good enough to do the whole trip on a single fuel load from Sant Carles.
That concept makes Sant Carles a good alternative for us to the marinas on Mallorca.
And, as I say, maybe provide an impartial view of CD vs Palma etc

 

[DougH]

Oi Mr Fusspot stop taking the p*** out of our water.

Just use a 3 stage filter set between the tap and boat and you get the sweetest water possible.

OK that is an exaggeration but really it is only heavily concentrated with calcium. It's perfectly ok for cleansing (showering) purposes but whilst safe for drinking is not to be recommended as the taste is best described as unusual.

Most of the Spanish cook with the water as do most of the eateries but never use it for tea.

Get the 3 filters John and then you can wash the boat with impunity.

Oh and no excuse for being unable to play footer because of an old leg injury.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Ha ha, you could do what MYAG does and keep 10,000 bottles of mineral water in a spare cabin!

and 50,000 bottles of beer in another cabin

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

IMHO, (I'm sure I will get flamed for this) - CD and Alcudia are a bit like "Blackpool in the sun" - he says ducking for cover.

Exactly what we said but in a good way. Alcudia in particular is great for young kids with a very sheltered beach and other 'amusements' in town

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

We could make a yearly challenge contest between Cala d'Or, Santa Carlas and Antibes and if there is enough interest from the ladies, a hockey match. (Ladies can play in the footer teams if they like:encouragement

I think the San Carles and Antibes mobs look a bit unfit to me. I think you'd take 'em easy

 

[Andy Bav]

I think the San Carles and Antibes mobs look a bit unfit to me. I think you'd take 'em easy

Sounds like fighting talk to me.......... Errrr can we nominate sons

 

[matm]

SWMBO has not allowed me anywhere near the Full English yet! So can't comment on the cost or the clientele!
The Cala d'Or yacht club pool is available to use if you pay a daily, weekly or monthly fee. We will try this before we consider 'joining' the club on a yearly basis.

Guilty as charged on the full english front. We were just in front of it so it was rude not to go there everyday for brekkie. SWMBO had the Mallorcan breakfast which was really good too. Decent value at around 6-7E

Thought about joining the YC until I saw the prices! Great tip on the hotel - thanks jrudge.

I think our biggest concern will be the winter. We were over there the Wednesday before everything started to open on the Thurs/Fri - the YC was open but that was about it. Bit of a moot point at the moment as we've just paid for a year. The CD Summer/Palma Winter would have been an interesting option.

The road is actually very good to CD. Lots of big long stretches and dual carriage way to start with. Plenty of places to over-take tractors or the like.

We'll just go with the flow for a bit. I think the honeymoon period will take a year or so to wear off anyway.