Nick_H
Well-Known Member
We spent our main hols this summer cruising the Balearics, mostly in tandem with forumites A&K and bumping into others along the way, so I thought I'd share a few pics.
Leaving the Porquerolles for the 210 NM crossing to Mahon
The conditions in the infamous Golfe du Lion weren't exactly challenging, so we stopped to watch some fin whales (though for some reason I took a photo of the other boat not the whale???)
After spending a night in Mahon port and re-fuelling, we then anchored in Fornells, and then the following day at this lovely bay on the N Coast of Menorca called Punta des Liau
The camera then seems to have gone AWOL, as we cruised around to the south of Menorca, overnighted in Cala Son Saura, then crossed to Mallorca, stayed in Colom, then anchored next to Cala d'Or in a raft for a couple of days with jfm, his brother, A&K, and another Sq65. This is where the quadcopter footage on jfm's post was taken. We then moved on round the south eastern tip of Mallorca, and I must have found the camera again. This is Es Trenc
From there we went into Palma, then anchored in a couple of spots nearby, before heading over to Ibiza to hit the town for the night. We then headed down to Formentera, setting for some of the amazing aerial shots you see in the guide books. It was lovely, but spoiled a bit as an anchorage by the wakes from a never ending stream of ferries that run from early morning to late at night.
A squall blew through in the night with winds that jfm recorded at 40 knots on his wind gauge, the same storms that Hurricane experienced in Mallorca. I think I may need one of Hurricane's wind speed alarms, as we managed to sleep through it!
We dropped a friend off in Ibiza town, then headed round the south of Ibiza to Cabo de Roig, where we bumped into jfm again. Fortunately his tender was still there the next morning as we left, despite my best attempts to lose it for him by not tying it on properly when they came over for drinks.
Next morning we carried on around the west and north coasts of Ibiza
We anchored overnight in Portinatx on the N coast, and just before dusk a load of drummers came down to the beach and started playing, so we joined one of the coolest beach parties I've been to. Looking back out to the anchorage, to the rock which supposedly looks like Queen Victoria.
Next morning, with a good forecast and dead calm seas we set off back towards Mallorca, but the thunderstorms that passed through Formentera obviously hadn't cleared and half way across we met this:
We carried on through it, thinking it would just be rain and wind and wouldn't have the fetch to kick up any rough seas, but it didn't ease up and eventually we were down to 8 knots bashing through 2m vertical waves. I'd just decided to turn back when a really big wave hit us, the boat corkscrewed, cupboard doors flew open, crockery smashed, and the kids started crying. Fortunately, the great thing about head seas is as soon as you turn round everything goes calm again, and we had an easy run back to Ibiza in a following sea, and the kids don't seem scarred by their experience.
The next day we were able to cross, albeit still quite lumpy, and we anchored a night in Santa Ponsa which we found a good anchorage but a tacky town, then the following day moved onto Andraitx, which we really liked.
The following day was unusually calm and didn't suffer the normal sea breezes, so we spent the day in a small anchorage near Isla Dragonera
The day after we headed up the N coast of Mallorca past Punta Foradada
We anchored off Soller for the night, and went into the lovely town for the evening
Next day we carried on along the coast, and had lunch in the stunning anchorage at Calobra
We then carried on around the NE tip of Mallorca to meet up with some friends in Pollensa. An hour after this photo was taken we were in the Bay of Pollensa in F5 sea breezes, which seem to come in every day here.
Leaving the Porquerolles for the 210 NM crossing to Mahon
The conditions in the infamous Golfe du Lion weren't exactly challenging, so we stopped to watch some fin whales (though for some reason I took a photo of the other boat not the whale???)
After spending a night in Mahon port and re-fuelling, we then anchored in Fornells, and then the following day at this lovely bay on the N Coast of Menorca called Punta des Liau
The camera then seems to have gone AWOL, as we cruised around to the south of Menorca, overnighted in Cala Son Saura, then crossed to Mallorca, stayed in Colom, then anchored next to Cala d'Or in a raft for a couple of days with jfm, his brother, A&K, and another Sq65. This is where the quadcopter footage on jfm's post was taken. We then moved on round the south eastern tip of Mallorca, and I must have found the camera again. This is Es Trenc
From there we went into Palma, then anchored in a couple of spots nearby, before heading over to Ibiza to hit the town for the night. We then headed down to Formentera, setting for some of the amazing aerial shots you see in the guide books. It was lovely, but spoiled a bit as an anchorage by the wakes from a never ending stream of ferries that run from early morning to late at night.
A squall blew through in the night with winds that jfm recorded at 40 knots on his wind gauge, the same storms that Hurricane experienced in Mallorca. I think I may need one of Hurricane's wind speed alarms, as we managed to sleep through it!
We dropped a friend off in Ibiza town, then headed round the south of Ibiza to Cabo de Roig, where we bumped into jfm again. Fortunately his tender was still there the next morning as we left, despite my best attempts to lose it for him by not tying it on properly when they came over for drinks.
Next morning we carried on around the west and north coasts of Ibiza
We anchored overnight in Portinatx on the N coast, and just before dusk a load of drummers came down to the beach and started playing, so we joined one of the coolest beach parties I've been to. Looking back out to the anchorage, to the rock which supposedly looks like Queen Victoria.
Next morning, with a good forecast and dead calm seas we set off back towards Mallorca, but the thunderstorms that passed through Formentera obviously hadn't cleared and half way across we met this:
We carried on through it, thinking it would just be rain and wind and wouldn't have the fetch to kick up any rough seas, but it didn't ease up and eventually we were down to 8 knots bashing through 2m vertical waves. I'd just decided to turn back when a really big wave hit us, the boat corkscrewed, cupboard doors flew open, crockery smashed, and the kids started crying. Fortunately, the great thing about head seas is as soon as you turn round everything goes calm again, and we had an easy run back to Ibiza in a following sea, and the kids don't seem scarred by their experience.
The next day we were able to cross, albeit still quite lumpy, and we anchored a night in Santa Ponsa which we found a good anchorage but a tacky town, then the following day moved onto Andraitx, which we really liked.
The following day was unusually calm and didn't suffer the normal sea breezes, so we spent the day in a small anchorage near Isla Dragonera
The day after we headed up the N coast of Mallorca past Punta Foradada
We anchored off Soller for the night, and went into the lovely town for the evening
Next day we carried on along the coast, and had lunch in the stunning anchorage at Calobra
We then carried on around the NE tip of Mallorca to meet up with some friends in Pollensa. An hour after this photo was taken we were in the Bay of Pollensa in F5 sea breezes, which seem to come in every day here.
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