Written by Mia:

We left Ciutadella wistfully and already looking forward to returning. We listened to the wind again and changed our plans to head north. We sailed part of the way and it was delightful and peaceful. Teo even had a nap.

Menorca seems in line with our new found pace and we are finding it good for the soul to be here. We had a real round of hard decision making as we really wanted to get to Italy to meet up with Jon’s family who will be there on holiday at the end of the month. Unfortunately we spent a lot longer waiting for our replacement chain and suitable weather and we are slower than we had hoped. We considered going for it as we all miss them dearly and fondly speak of our holiday with them in Soller. But going would have meant two 30 hour passages with many back to back 8-12 hour days between. We decided to stay here in Menorca instead enjoying our snails pace… Itchy Foot and her snail motif <3

We checked the pilot and decided to head to Cala Morrel, and we were blown away by the view as we turned a corner and passed dramatic cliffs and rocks that guarded a lovely little village  surrounding the turquoise blue bay, clear all the way to the sandy bottom.

We had a relaxing evening on board as we watched the sun play on the cliff walls and we even had a couple of phone calls, what a treat! Mia and Jon did some adjustments to optimise Mia’s closet space, the ongoing storage solutions strategies!

The next day we went exploring in the caves around Cala Morrel which date back 4000 years. All this impressive history and I never even knew it was here! Teo, Jon and Mia all enjoyed the outing and all got lots out of it.

We left after lunch and picked our way to Cala Aragayrens with two incredible beaches. By the way our anchoring has been pretty quick and painless since bringing Rocky onboard, man is he a valuable crew member! This place has gorgeous, unspoilt beaches that stay shallow for what seems like miles and an incredible lagoon which Mia was transfixed by- well OK to be specific it was the little sea turtles that caught her eye and made her believe it might be possible to learn to meditate after all. We played on the beach ’til the sun went down and then sat in the hammock on deck (thanks again for the lovely Christmas present, Carole and David, it is getting LOTS of use!!) and relaxed. We met some new friends and saw some we met in Soller, how funny that we have mostly similar plans!

From there we moved on to another place with a totally different, called Cala Pregondo and it was quite hilly with very red sand and course sand. Teo and Mia swam from the beach back to Itchy Foot and after dinner had to jump back into the sea to cool off. It was a small anchorage with many French boats and we had two nights of anchor angst.

We moved on and went to Puerto Fornells and treated ourselves to a two-night stay on a mooring buoy and the great nights’ sleep that go with it. We explored the little town and went to see the fort on the point, the shrine to Lourdes and touched the lighthouse. The next day we ventured to the nearby to check out the special lizards that live there.

The sea was rolley as we ventured further and anchored in Puerto Addaya. We were rewarded for the advanced approach and are all very impressed with how cute this place is! Mia went on a photo frenzy as we took the perfect, rough little path around the point. It was fun to anchor next to another HR in the tiny bay. There were many little places with loud family chatter of a Sunday lunch and we were tempted to crash the party. And we are impressed with the competition for best bourgenvilla plant, I think the jury will have a tough time! We plan to check out the bird watching possibilities we have read about.

Written by Mia and Jon:

You can’t sail into the wind. But you can sail nearly into the wind and depending on many factors: boat, sails, waves, skills etc. dictates how close you can sail. Sailing as close to the wind as possible is a point of sail called ‘close hauled’.

Looking at the weather forecasts (I often check four different sources) there was some disagreement about where exactly the wind would be coming from on Sunday the 5th of June, PredictWind said from the North East but the local forecasts said from the East. I decided to trust PredictWind as they had been fairly accurate in the past so we got an early night on Saturday and woke up with dawn on Sunday ready to go.

Weighing anchor in the bay of Pollenca we picked our way out of the shallows under engine and motored up to Cap Formentor in the early morning calm. Shortly after clearing the towering headlands we got out into the wind, sails out, engine off, Teo got up from bed.

The forecast has hinted that the wind would go more easterly during the day so the plan was just to sail as close to the wind as possible and make as much ground north of east as possible. The sea was calm, the wind was a steady 10 knots and Itchy Foot happily pranced along at 6 knots heading due east.  Great! Due east would take us towards Ciudadella and give us plenty of room to head south and still make landfall in Menorca’s south coast when the wind pushed us that way.

Mia announced that she wanted a cup of tea and biscuits on the foredeck, so off she popped with the cruising guide to the Balearics to read up on our Minorca options. Teo followed up, harnessed on to the safety line we run from the front to the back of the boat, allowing him to move around without worry of falling in. I followed up with a cup of tea and much adored Oreos and the three of us as a lovely sit as the auto helm sailed us towards our destination. We giggled and stared at the sky and I think as least the adults were thinking things like, ”That’s more like it!” and “Finally, what we were waiting for!”

It’s about 8 hours sail across to Menorca, and as the day progress the winds increased and the sea with it. We furled away a little sail and bounced around a little more; Mia got splashed and retreated to the  cockpit with the baptised Pilot book. The wind conditions sent us directly into Ciutadela, so we took the hint and headed in.

We were warned that the marina is small and is often fully booked but we called them and they said there was plenty of space. The approach is funny… it was very, very narrow and reminded us of Florida with brightly coloured houses and perfectly manicured palm trees in the gardens. It kept getting more and more narrow and then we came around a bend an saw it, a beautiful little harbour, with fishing boats and forts.

We got tied up to our finger pontoon and enjoyed our showers and went to explore a very cute, picturesque town. The old town was lovely and there was a play area that Teo loved until he wiped out and got his first proper skinned knees and hands, embedded gravel and everything. After getting him cleaned up, we went to a place called Roma for dinner. This is quite a treat as we don’t go out for many meals in restaurants. And hurrah, it was one of the top 10 (Jon’s top 5) pizzas we have ever had, that is saying something!

The next day we went to Naveta des Tudons, which holds claim to being the oldest building in Europe at some 3000 years old. Here is the strange part, we had to ask twice at the tourist office so they would point us in the right direction and when we got there we had it to ourselves. Mia remembers a very different story in Pompei for example. In fact, we had to take a taxi  to get there because the bus that connects the two main cities of Minorca goes right past the place but there is no stop.

At fifty euros a night to be moored there we didn’t feel we could stay the second night and had to leave in the afternoon. But we’re already looking forward to next time!

Written by Jon:

Leaving Soller wasn’t easy, with great friends around us, it was hard to say goodbye. But once we’d got our new anchor chain sorted out it was time to move on, northwards. We set off early and headed up the coast under sail. First stop was the majestic entrance to Torrent de Colarbra. Mia and I remember sitting on the stoney beach here when I lived in Mallorca, gazing out at the yachts bobbing between the cliffs and talking about how one day it would be us out there. So one day came and, leaving Mia on-board, Teo and I rowed ashore to explore the beach and walk around the cliffs.

Teo loved exploring this pre-historic valley, like something by Jules Vern, with high sided cliffs, murky lagoons and oversized grasses. There is a tunnel cut through the cliffs between the two coves and we ran through it excitedly making scary monster noises. While we were shore the wind picked-up and Mia had to furl away the mainsail which we’d left up on anchor to save us a little time – thank you dad for the walkie-talkies which once again proved very useful for shouting ‘helpful’ advice from the shore.

Back onboard and the wind had dropped so the motor went on and we headed up the coast. After a couple of hours we grew a little bored of the motor and decided to change plans for the night and head into Cala St. Vincenc. It’s a bit of a tourist resort but the sea was the most amazing colour and at least initially it was well-sheltered from the wind and swell. Unfortunately, during the night the swell shifted around (not on the forecast) and we ended up rocking and rolling the night away with gusty wind from the west and a large swell rolling in from the north. It wasn’t dangerous as we didn’t have much wind and the sandy bottom of the cala has good holding for the anchor, but not much sleep was had by Jon.

The next morning we left early-ish and sailed peacefully, albeit slowly, around the northern most tip of the island – Cap Formentor. The whole north-west coast of Mallorca is stunning, huge vertical cliffs rising straight out of the dark blue sea and Cap Formentor was a fittingly impressive way to say goodbye to this particular bit of coast.

The next night we headed to Cala Murta, (a recommendation from the guy who picked-up our out-of-date flares) a beautiful and largely unspoilt little cala with a stoney beach, high cliffs and only one house and handful of mountain goats ashore. We left abruptly, leaving behind a pair of Mia’s favourite shoes.

A recurring theme, and potential topic for another blog post, is our anchoring angst. Suffice to say that after several more sleepless nights and an unscheduled night sail to a different anchorage, we decided to pop into the port in Pollenca and rent a car for the day to drive into Palma and buy a new anchor to go with our new chain.

So a few days passed around Pollenca, with lots of anchoring practice, a few nice walks, playing on the beach, a trip to Palma and even bumping into some friends we made in Soller. We left quietly just after the sun came up headed towards Menorca.