First Bareboat Experience - Mallorca

[Ash78]

Hi all, sorry for the long post…!

Just back from our first bareboat charter (motor) in Mallorca and thought I’d share our experience in case it’s of use to others considering their first bareboat in the future.

My wife and I are newbies to motor boating having completed our DS theory in March 2020 and completing our DS practical in June this year in Mallorca. We also did our VHF/SRC course at the beginning of September. Not wanting to lose the new skills we picked up we thought we’d take the plunge on a week long bareboat charter in Mallorca from 24 Sep to 1 Oct. The boat was a 2020 Beneteau GT 40 with D300’s on IPs which we booked through Boataround and picked up in Can Pastilla marina, a short hop from Palma airport.
Having taken on feedback from this forum on a rough itinerary we wanted to pootle around the South East coast and pop over to Cabrera. Nothing too adventurous but enough to build confidence and practice what we had learnt.

Day 1 - Saturday 24: ‘Checked in’ to the boat, process was well organised. Did a thorough walk through and checked all the equipment - missing hose and connectors was soon sorted, located emergency equipment and noted existing damage (gel coat chips) with the charter company. Bought provisions and stayed in marina overnight amidst thunderstorms and heavy rain.

Day2 - Sunday 25: We hired a skipper for the day to help familiarise and build confidence with controls. IPS was new to us but quickly understood the concept of using a joystick to maneuver the boat. Ventured from Can Pastilla to Colonia de Sant Jordi. Weather on the way deteriorated further so anchored in Cala Pi whilst the risk of lightning passed. Original plan was to stay on anchor on Sunday night in Es Trenc but went back to Can Pastilla marina for the night as the weather was not favourable.

Day 3 - Monday 26: Clear skies and sunshine. Wife and I left Can Pastilla and went back to Es Trenc, anchored for a few hours and tried out the 2.5HP Protender. Left around 16:30 to head over to Cabrera to arrive around 18:00. Greeted by the marineiros who didn’t have our boat name on their reservation list (booked by our charter company so probably worth confirming booking before setting off from mainland) but issue was quickly resolved. Found a white mooring buoy and tied up on first go with two bow lines looped through. Overnight weather deteriorated, both quite paranoid with all the ‘slapping, bumping, donking’ noises on the bow.

Day4 - Tuesday 27: Very choppyin Cabrera. Didn’t want to use the rib so didn’t get to walk to the castle (next time). Reviewed several weather apps (Windfinder, AccuWeather, Met Office, Windy) to see if conditions would allow trip Puerto Petro with stop at Cala Mondrago. Saw other boats leaving Cabrera so assumed conditions were okay. Immediately greeted by nosediving bow and 1.5m+ waves hitting windscreen. I now know what I’m not comfortable venturing out in and made a mistake on this one, never to be repeated. Once I had the tide behind us journey was a bit smoother. Anchored for a couple of hours in Cala Mondrago which was protected from the waves and wind. Ventured round the corner to Puerto Petro. Lovely little marina though the water connections didn’t fit the hose on our boat - thankfully someone had pity on us and kindly lent us their hose to fill up.

Day 5 - 28 Sep: Stayed in Marina, ventured off for walks to local Calas. Tried to do washing but need ‘special’ 1euro coins to use machines = phaff! Nice meal at one of the water front restaurants.

Day 6 - 29 Sep: Left mid morning to head to Es Trench with potential stop as more calas en route but as could see forecast deteriorating headed straight back to Es Trenc. Wave height was 1.2-1.5m did a few runs up and down coast to see if we could anchor but felt too uncomfortable. Managed to get into Sa Rapita early for our booked berth. Couldn’t find the berth number so the Marineiros put us on the visitor berth before the fuel dock. Incredibly windy and our berth was quite exposed to the chop so a lot of swinging and bumping with little sleep..

Day 7 - 30 Sep: Forecast again didn’t look great so decided to up and leave to head back to Can Pastilla. Storms forecast in the afternoon so hot back to marina to check the boat back in around 1pm and refuelled.

In total did about 17engine hours, averaging 10-15 knots. Filled up with just shy of 500litres.

Learnings:
1) Check the weather, several times! For when you plan to arrive and when you plan to depart. We pushed our comfort levels on departure from Cabrera.
2) Check your boat has all the equipment you/ it needs.
3) Change plans as the weather dictates. Make the most of it when the weather is good.
4) Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Everyone we met in the marinas was incredibly helpful.
5) Having a skipper for the first day or two really helped settle our nerves and build confidence.

Whilst the weather wasn’t on our side, we both learned a lot and looking back thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Thankfully I haven’t put Mrs A off and she’s already talking about another trip next year!

 

[Switch]

Thanks for posting, very interesting. I did a similar thing in Menorca when I started out in boating - bareboat chartered. Great way to build experience prior to buying your own boat. (if that's your plan). Shame about the weather but It's all part of the experience. What did you think of IPS?

 

[rafiki_]

Looks like a great introduction to motor boating. Well done!

 

[benjenbav]

Sounds like a great trip and, from the pix, you obviously had some good weather to make up for the not-so-good. ?

 

[vas]

nice report,

starting with such poor weather (for Med standards at least) I'm sure your next experience will be much better weatherwise!

V.

 

[Ash78]

Thanks for posting, very interesting. I did a similar thing in Menorca when I started out in boating - bareboat chartered. Great way to build experience prior to buying your own boat. (if that's your plan). Shame about the weather but It's all part of the experience. What did you think of IPS?

Thanks! That’s definitely the plan to buy a boat of our own at some point. We still have lots to learn so it was also good to have a skipper for the day. IPS was new to us, we learnt just on twin levers and bow thruster. Whilst it was easier to move the boat sideways with the joystick I still want to learn how to fully control the boat with levers only - I felt like I was cheating using IPS! ?

 

[Hurricane]

Weather forecasting isn't about looking at the various forecasts - per se.
It is about reading those forecasts along with other considerations.
All the internet forecasts are calculated on an "overall basis" - I consider them as predicting the "gradient" winds.
The internet forecasts take no consideration of local effects.

For example, this year we have had lots of small localised rain patches.
Patches of rain create local pressure differences which create quite strong local winds - changes in pressure create small local anticyclones which you won't see on the internet wind forecasts.
I often look at (say) windy for rain and try to avoid the edges of the rain.
Here is an example caught using our radar



And this is what it looked like



Around the edges of that rain, there will be some strong winds but the internet wind forecasts showed nothing.
There have been quite a lot of those types of rain storms around this year - we have been dodging them as best as we can,

We do some of our boating in the waters that you were and I often get it wrong as well.

The other big thing to consider is "fetch".
You don't need much distance for the wind to pick up and create an unpleasant swell.
You may select an anchorage that you would consider protected when you look at the internet forecasts.
But if that anchorage had (say) a mile of water for the wind to cross before reaching you, you would get a nasty swell picked up by the wind.

This was exactly the case this year when we crossed over to Ibiza.
The waters around Sant Eulalia on the east side of Ibiza were totally un-navigable due to the easterly "fetch" all the way from Mallorca.
You, literally, couldn't get out of the marina.
Whereas the conditions in Cala Tarida at the same time from the same wind system were absolutely ideal - just 15 miles away as the crow flies.
We were in Tarida with these conditions



Anyway, well done.
Sounds like you had a good time.
Those waters are fantastic - lots of places to go - when are you going again?

 

[timbad]

Thanks form posting an interesting read sounds like you learnt a lot

 

[oldgit]

Know that neck of the woods pretty and Porto Petro is a delight, wonder which of the resturants you went into .
Was in Mondrago fairly recently, the resturant at the back of the beach is pretty good.
As for weather , sounds about right for the " Med"

 

[Ash78]

Weather forecasting isn't about looking at the various forecasts - per se.
It is about reading those forecasts along with other considerations.
All the internet forecasts are calculated on an "overall basis" - I consider them as predicting the "gradient" winds.
The internet forecasts take no consideration of local effects.

For example, this year we have had lots of small localised rain patches.
Patches of rain create local pressure differences which create quite strong local winds - changes in pressure create small local anticyclones which you won't see on the internet wind forecasts.
I often look at (say) windy for rain and try to avoid the edges of the rain.
Here is an example caught using our radar

View attachment 144061

And this is what it looked like

View attachment 144062

Around the edges of that rain, there will be some strong winds but the internet wind forecasts showed nothing.
There have been quite a lot of those types of rain storms around this year - we have been dodging them as best as we can,

We do some of our boating in the waters that you were and I often get it wrong as well.

The other big thing to consider is "fetch".
You don't need much distance for the wind to pick up and create an unpleasant swell.
You may select an anchorage that you would consider protected when you look at the internet forecasts.
But if that anchorage had (say) a mile of water for the wind to cross before reaching you, you would get a nasty swell picked up by the wind.

This was exactly the case this year when we crossed over to Ibiza.
The waters around Sant Eulalia on the east side of Ibiza were totally un-navigable due to the easterly "fetch" all the way from Mallorca.
You, literally, couldn't get out of the marina.
Whereas the conditions in Cala Tarida at the same time from the same wind system were absolutely ideal
We were in Tarida with these conditions

View attachment 144065

Anyway, well done.
Sounds like you had a good time.
Those waters are fantastic - lots of placed to go - when are you going again?

Thanks, great advice on looking at the localised conditions and using radar/satellite. We definitely encountered some short and very sharp gusts during the week. I think we also probably ended up with too many weather apps tbh and wasn’t sure which was most accurate / reliable. We’re thinking of potentially returning mid June next year, schedules and costs permitting. Might also do some mile building in the UK south coast somewhere to top up the practice in between.

Nice pics - Ibiza is definitely on our list once we’ve got this down a bit more! ?

 

[Ash78]

Know that neck of the woods pretty and Porto Petro is a delight, wonder which of the resturants you went into .
Was in Mondrago fairly recently, the resturant at the back of the beach is pretty good.
As for weather , sounds about right for the " Med"

We went to a restaurant I think it was called Norai…had the fish out the front of it…Good fresh fish and seafood.

 

[oldgit]

Seem to remember there was long waiting list for a mooring in Porto Petro ?
A proper little fishing village open throught the year.
There is a cafe just down the road called "Piscis" ?
The locals met there before starting work around the crack of lunchtime , the table usually boasted a bottle of brandy to help start the day.
Cala Mondrago.

A few years ago a chum booked the entire beach bar at Mondrago and held his 60th birtday there.
We all stayed in Porto Petro and he hired some of the local fishermen to ferry us round, we did have to get a taxi back due to the weather getting a bit windy in the evening, due to some of the ladies expressing a reluctance to return by boat.

 

[Ash78]

Seem to remember there was long waiting list for a mooring in Porto Petro ?
A proper little fishing village open throught the year.
There is a cafe just down the road called "Piscis" ?

We tried booking a berth or mooring buoy a week or so before hand but the marina office advised us to book a day or two before which we did - Monday for Tuesday arrival with no problems. Don’t think we passed Piscis cafe but sounds good. Nice pic of Mondrago - it’s those views that will draw us back ?

 

[jrudge]

You were unlucky with the weather. Sadly it has been crap lately. I head out next Thursday.

the only thing you can do in miserable weather is stay in port sadly. We are stabilised but sitting there in the wind and rain is not so great. Med boating is about sunshine.

rough weather usually has a speed that works. Play around a bit to find it. Don’t try 30 knots but slower is not always better.

I am glad your wife has not been put off. Oh to use 500 lts in 17 hours. That would last me 4 hours or so !

 

[Hurricane]

Nice pic of Mondrago - it’s those views that will draw us back ?

One of our best late season cruises in this video
Mondrago features at 2min 27 to 3 mins 15 secs
But the whole video is the kind of cruising area that you will probably get to know.

We choose to do our Balearic cruising from our base on mainland Spain.
That video shows what can be done.

 

[Ash78]

One of our best late season cruises in this video
Mondrago features at 2min 27 to 3 mins 15 secs
But the whole video is the kind of cruising area that you will probably get to know.

We choose to do our Balearic cruising from our base on mainland Spain.
That video shows what can be done.

Great video, locations look amazing and definitely gives us inspiration for future trips. Thanks for sharing ?