Written by Mia:

Jon’s parents came to visit us in Soller and it was amazing! They are incredible and what’s more incredibly good to us! They are very patient and strong (packing and carrying lots of small things we needed and bought on amazon.co.uk) and generous (treating us to a holiday here in Soller) when we probably needed it the most!

They stayed at the beautiful Esplendido hotel where we breakfasted like royalty and used the pool and generally just enjoyed the luxury. Teo loved jumping on the bed and Mia had the nicest shower she has so far had in Spain and Jon said he felt it was the first little break he has had from the to do lists in his head.

The day they arrived was the es Firo festival and three pirates (we had to be pirates because it seems the obvious choice but also you can only dress up as a Christian if you were born on the island) took the dingy ashore to join them in their room to watch the second of the battles. We all went out for a meal in the evening after having a look at Itchy Foot.

The next day, Tuesday, was a little grey and we used the opportunity to take a drive. We went up to Fornalutx and visited the Can Verdera hotel where Jon and Mia had wedding reception. We had a lovely trip down memory lane, Teo kept asking what a ”blast from the past” is. Ana was there and we had a lovely chat – she still had a picture of baby Teo over her desk. We wandered through town and had a lovely meal overlooking the valley. We had been wanting to go up there since arriving in Mallorca and it this was the perfect opportunity! We drove to Deia for a visit as well and it is a delight as always.

On Wednesday we had the incredible Espendido breakfast and then drove into Palma. We had a walk through the old town with a visit to Casa Roca (we were sad to hear the news that this incredible institution is closing its doors after a 166 years!) and then we went for coffee at Can Joan de Saigo which is a favourite and always just a little bit of a challenge to find (sprinkled in Fairy dust perhaps?) After a walk around the cathedral which is awe inspiring, we went to have some lunch in the marina cantina. It was fun to show Jon’s parents where we started this adventure with Itchy Foot. And then again with the patience, we ran lots of errands on our way out of Palma and came back just in time for a lovely sunset and a beautiful meal.

Thursday, we went back for breakfast and spent a lovely carefree day at the Esplendido. We sat by the pool, and soaked up the place. We had our first dose of sunbathing of the year. Teo made some friends and a lovely day was had by all! We had drinks on the terrace and stuck around for dinner 🙂 I get dreamy just thinking about it!

We don’t want to talk about Friday when we had to say goodbye!

Written by Mia

What a gorgeous place! it has a crescent bay with a working lighthouse at each side of a relatively narrow opening and even an old stone lighthouse as a reminder of what sailing used to be. One day we walked all the way up to the southern lighthouse Cabo Gross, what a glorious view! And thanks to the fabulous Pontoppidon barnehage in Oslo Teo quite happily walked up the two kilometres to the top of the hill. In fact Teo keeps asking us to hike to the top of the hills around the port. I think he will be enjoying the summers he spends with his uncle Stephen as his parents are pretty useless at hiking.

I think we mentioned the warm welcome we had from Mark and Nikki upon arrival and it has been lovely to be close to friends for the past few weeks – time flies!! They have been really looking after us, spoiling Mia with a day at the spa and lending us tools, their car and support when we need it. We have seen the start of the swimming season and the beach is really starting to fill up during the day, the vibe is very different from when we arrived and I think the water must be getting warmer at the rate of a degree a day. Teo loves the beach and one late afternoon he was playing on the shore and kept walking until he was basically up to his shoulders, giggling the whole time. The other adults on the beach were giggling too. A few days later Jon threatened to go for a swim in the Med before his wife and I think I was in the water about 19 minutes later. Teo took all his clothes off and jumped in too, with only a pool noodle for support. We swam around Itchy Foot a few times before going back on board.

We have split our time between the dock and being on anchor (once without a stern line and later with one). We opted for a marina for the es Firo festival which is a reenactment of when the Christians fought off the Moors at the port, the men were fighting two battles in the port and the boats reenact it. Further up the hill the women showed off their ilk when the defended the town with pitchforks and boiling olive oil! Jon’s parents arrived on the day of the Firo and had a perfect view from their hotel the Espendido. We three pirates descended on them mid afternoon. Check out the separate post of the holiday we had with Jon’s parents :))

We have slowly met our neighbours, getting a glimpse of the hard working charter boat crews and also met a few cruising boats. We were even invited onboard Linea for a boat party in Yorkshire and compared plans with the crews of Comet and Resolute. Hopefully we will be meeting everyone along the way. We were also interviewed for Boat Radio that will possibly be airing on the internet in June some time.

Mark and Nikki took us out on Mezzo Magic for an unforgettable day up the coast, with perfect conditions, a lovely lunch and lots of laughs. They do charters and if you find yourself in Mallorca look them up www.mezzomagic.co.uk We stopped in Smugglers Cove and harvested a bunch of drift wood and saw a baby seagull nested in the rocks, but the mauve stinger medusas kept us out of the water, so we travelled further north to Mushroom Rock. Everyone swam from the boat to the rock – that was quite a distance for Teo and his pool noodle. Later we checked out Cala Turent before sailing back to port. I am going to brag now because I helmed the last hour or so and we had a Spinnaker up. We sailed back into port on the Spinnaker, at sunset and moored on the buoy without the engine, so take that! Now if only we could get a picture of it from any of the hundreds of tourists who photographed us, hee hee…

We are still working on our Itchy Foot to do list, Jon jokes that the latest female member of the family is more high maintenance than his wife even when she was planning for the wedding! Our anchor chain has finally arrived in Palma and we are making our plans to pick it up and how we will get it on the boat, at the moment we are considering yet another use for the blue IKEA bag – well four of them to be more precise! Also, we have had trouble with the water pump and the fridge is crying out for attention and we are still keeping a close eye on the new batteries. Jon is amazing and does the research and maintenance and fixes. And we also found some time for some upkeep, (teak decks need lots of TLC). The whole family worked together and we removed old caulking and replaced it. Our little project of 30 patches took the better part of six hours. Teo never ceases to amaze us with his patience when his parents’ plans take a lot longer than we hoped and his ability to play on his own for a while even if that means every toy comes out of its locker (a small price to pay for a happy kid!) He comes up at regular intervals to see if we need any help and wanders off again down into the saloon when he gets bored. Jon and I feel we hit the jackpot when it comes to awesome kids!

As lovely as it has been here in Puerto de Soller the crew of Itchy Foot are itching to get to Menorca and are watching for good weather for the next step…

Written by Jon:

Our friends Jim and Karin on SY NZ Victoria were studying the weather meticulously, waiting for their chance to get out and sail to northern Italy. Unfortunately for both them and us it didn’t look good for heading north or east. Itchy Foot and her crew had our eyes set on the nearer prize of Port de Soller, which was only about four hours sail away but also headed north and east.

Finally, Jim said the weather looked good for their passage over the Gulf of Leon leaving early on Tuesday morning. It would also be perfect for us to pop around to Soller. More pressingly it seemed like the forecast after Wednesday would see winds out of the NE for several more days. Time to GO.

We didn’t do much to prepare the day before our trip, preferring instead to take the bus into Palma city to go the last days of the Super Yacht boat show that had been running for the last week. The bus trip from Port de Andratx to Palma is slow and littered with stops in some of Mallorca’s less attractive tourist traps. After an hour of gawking out of bus windows and the occasional game of eye-spy with Teo (who has graduated from colours to letters) we arrived in Palma. First a quick bite to eat at one of our favourite tapas bars:

Teo food rating:

1. Bread and garlic mayonnaise = two thumbs up
2. Chorizo sausage in wine = two thumbs up
3. Croquettes = one thumbs up
4. Melon and ham = one thumb up (melon) one thumb down (ham)

Then off the boat show. We met H who had kindly organised a couple of tickets for us. The show was fairly quite, being the last day, and had a nice mix of different stalls. We tried to find a kayak at a bargain price but got there a little too late I suspect. I had a nice chat to a guy who had designed and was selling a ‘scuba’ system where the “Peter” tank stays on the surface in an ‘unsinkable’ plastic raft and the divers take tubes down below. Very cool stuff and high on the list of things I want should we end up sailing across the pacific.

But time marched on an back to the boat we went. Just one quick job before dinner a bed: put the dinghy onboard and tied down on the front deck. Time to try out the lifting sling I’d made a few days earlier specifically for getting the dinghy in and out of the sea. Good news, the sling worked perfectly and she came up and out easy enough. Bad news, when I disconnected the outboard engine from the external fuel tank the pipe between the two broke and sprayed petrol over the inside of the dinghy (thankfully not all over our teak decks). So, as usual, the purely theoretical ’5 minute job’ turned into a two hour long strip and clean the dinghy. Sleep.

The next morning I was up early preparing for the hop round the coast. Re-read the pilot books. Make a few notes. Put in some new waypoints on the plotter. Ready to go!  With Mia on the helm (she has done all the close quarters manoeuvring so far) we slipped the mooring buoy and motored around to the fuel pontoon to top up our tanks. Again, a perfect approach from Mia meant that I could step gently onto the pontoon without so much as a raised voice. Just for reference, we put in 150 litres of fuel (about 40 gallons) and it cost us about 150 euros (170 USD). To fill her up from empty would cost three times that, about 500 USD for a full tank!

With Itchy Foot now full of fuel and water we set off to Soller. First west, down to the island of Dragonera, through a narrow and beautiful little channel between the island and Mallorca and then turning north east for a long stretch up the stunning, cliff lined, north west coast of Mallorca. Once we had a spot of lunch and the wind had picked up a little we turned off the engine and managed to get a little sailing done. Unfortunately it was a little short lived with the wind fading and the swell increasing but for an hour or two it was perfect.  The warmth and the motion of the ocean sent Teo off to sleep down below and Mia and I got to sit, relax and chat while Itchy Foot sailed nicely to Soller.

We arrived in Soller about 4 in the afternoon and were just looking for a place to drop anchor when Mark (from Mezzo Magic) buzzed over in his dinghy to welcome us to their home port and guide us to a nicely protected spot of anchor between the mooring buoys. The approach wasn’t easy: scattered with tiny local mooring buoys (too small for us), power boats buzzing in and out of the marina, tourist ferries leaving and even pedal boats crammed with pink sinked tourist families doing their best to get in our way. But Mia kept her cool, dodged everything and stopped up in exactly the right place, bows into the wind so I could drop the anchor and drift back putting out a chain. Not as much chain as I would like but with very small swing room it would have to do and the forecast was light winds for the next few days.

Mark popped by and asked if we wanted anything from the supermarket in town, he came back with Nikki an hour later with a bottle of ‘Mia’ wine and a few supplies. We popped some bubbled and toasted a successful passage and safe arrival in Soller. Wheeee we slept on anchor on Itchy Foot and were comfy cozy in Puerto de Soller, now it only we could find reliable internet…

Written by Mia:

We decided to stop in Andratx because we were tired of motoring and we decided to stay a little longer because the town is cute and the mooring buoy has a lot going for it: it is comfortable, the changing view is pretty and it is a lot cheaper than the marina would be in Soller (we would potentially have to opt for a marina while we are waiting for our replacement anchor chain to be delivered from Italy), and finally the timing – we are staying put while Jon’s sprained ankle heals.

Mia has been practicing driving the dingy – the first attempt was nerve wracking and she handed over the control to Jon for the approach to the dock and then again when the trio returned to Itchy Foot. She quickly forgot this when she and Teo hopped in leaving Jon onboard to rest his foot and then quickly remembered at the dock to the club. On the return, she took a couple of rounds and even a flyby even though she got a “negative ghost rider, the pattern is full”. Practice makes… well maybe not perfect but a lot less erratic 🙂 and today regained her cool a LOT quicker when she stalled it in the marina…

Let me share an exchange between Jon and Anders;

J: Mia and Teo are out in the dingy

A: What is that? Sounds dirty…

J: Americans call it a tender…

A: Not getting any better…

J: It is inflatable and has a motor at one end…

A: I don’t even want to know…

We are getting to know Itchy Foot and our stay on the mooring buoy has given us the chance to use the generator to charge the batteries and we have a better idea of when we need to fill certain tanks and empty others. And tomorrow we have a few projects to start, we are going to figure out how to haul out the dingy so we can take the outboard engine off and put it back in its place (it was very heavy to lower it onto the dingy when we got here on Friday and would probably be even heavier to pull back up again. We will also try to give our decks some TLC while we are here. Thanks again to John Neal for his continued and patient advice, now this time about care for aging (mature?) decks!

We have enjoyed ourselves here. The marinera Guillermo (William) comes by and asks “Itchy Foot, you staying another night?” and he sometimes comes by and picks up our rubbish and we really should eat at his mother’s place in town… ah we might be here longer than we thought! The lighthouse here is gorgeous we see it from afar as part of our view and we took the dingy over and discovered it is from 1890. We hosted our first cruising dinner onboard, Jim and Karin from NZ Victoria came over we had a lovely evening 🙂 it is so nice to hear how real cruisers do it, respect!

Mamma and Pappa Duck heard this is a good place and they also visit for meals. One day they did not come over to see us and Teo said, “They cannot come today, they are at a wedding.”  As nice as it is, we are also itching to move on and find the next place to explore 🙂 Soller, we will be there just as soon as the wind stops coming from the Northwest!

Written by Jon:

Time to move on from Palma. A number of reasons forced our hand to leave, firstly our friends from Mezzo Magic moved back to Soller for the start of their work for the season. RCNP (Real Club Nautico Palma) the marina we were staying in wanted our space back for the boat show that is coming to town. But mostly it was time to stretch our legs and scratch our itchy feet!

You are never completely ready. If we waited until everything was done we’d never leave the marina. But with my most precious cargo of Mia and Teo onboard I’m trying to be as cautious as possible. The plan was to pick a nice calm day and have a leisurely motor-sail around to Soller (about 8 hours) before dropping anchor in the bay.

A few days before we put together a ‘short list’ for stuff we must get done before we go and started ticking items off. We made good progress and with a couple of long days of prep I felt confident and happy to go.

Friday morning and I got up early to a grey, windless and slightly chilly morning – not perfect but OK for what we had planned. After showers, coffee and a little last-minute boat prep we were just about to start the engine and leave our marina berth when the pitter patter of little feet and Teo emerged from the bedroom demanding breakfast; a last minute delay.

Mia took the helm and I slipped our lines; she skilfully guided us out of the berth we’d been sitting in for the last few months. Palma is a busy shipping harbour, but we didn’t have too many cargo ships or ferries for Mia to deal with as she navigated us out into the bay and set course south west. The sea was calm and after finishing off his breakfast Teo put on a fleece, climbing harness, clipped on and joined us on deck to watch Magaluf slide past. After a few minutes on deck Teo announced that this was his “favourite day on Itchy Foot”.

Just as we were passing Portals we heard the following on the VHF: “Big Boy, Big Boy, this is Envious, Envious, Over” – best call sign combination ever.

Half-way to Soller is the port of Andratx, we’d heard good things about this place and as we were passing I dug out the cruising guide. The guide also spoke positively about the port town and the ‘old’ town which is free from tourism, what’s more they had managed mooring buoys. We were tired of motoring and spending a night or two on a mooring buoy seemed like a cheaper option than another marina (long story about anchor chain for another time) in Soller so after reading about the approach and checking the charts we agreed to change plans.

Mia and I discussed a technique for stress-free picking up mooring buoys:

First motor slowly through the area and agree which buoy you intend to pickup. Then rig-up a ‘lasso’ on the foredeck, which is just a long line of rope attached between the two cleats on the front, running in-front of everything else. Then agree on a set of hand signals you intend to use. Finally, discuss what we expect to happen and also what we’ll do if something goes wrong.

Mia was back on the helm, and motored slowly towards the mooring buoy from directly down wind. I was on the foredeck pointing in the direction of the buoy and indicating distance off. Once we got close Mia stopped the boat and I dropped the loop of line over the buoy. We drifted back on the wind until the line caught and then we could relax and take our time switching out the temporary lasso with a couple of more permanent mooring lines.

The only problem was that the first buoy we picked up didn’t have any pickup lines, so we did the whole thing again on a second mooring. Both executed perfectly with Mia on the helm.

A safe, successful and stress-free first hop around the coast of Mallorca was celebrated by fighting with the dingy and outboard engine for the next three hours. We finally got across a to town for a an hour at the playground and then dinner and a much needed beer as the sun went down.

We all slept great bobbing around on the mooring buoy and it was lovely to wake up to the pretty shifting views of Puerto de Andratx and we have decided to stick around a little while. We ate Swedish pancakes the first day (ArmPit will be so proud) and we have been to check out the village at the port and the older town a couple of miles inland. Many places in Mallorca have this split location setup, probably part historical (to keep inhabitants safe from attacks from the sea) and partially because they just needed more space.

Written by Mia:

Most of you know me quite well so you will not be surprised when I start this with an apology…I am sorry it has taken so long for us to reach out to everyone! We had intended to keep you all updated via our blog but March came and went with no posts. I think it falls under the heading “If you don’t have something nice to say, say nothing at all”…so we kept a low profile. March was cold and full of chores, unexpected maintenance and lots of sleeping. 

There were lots of windy, somewhat wet days that were the wrong side of 10 degrees (and I for one was kicking myself for throwing out all those pairs of wool socks I gleefully ditched in the cull that was February in Oslo… We were all pretty cold and that made us all cranky and quiet. Plus we were trying to recover from a busy and emotional February so we slept a LOT. All three of us were sleeping 12 hours a night for at least the first couple of weeks…

The first week on the boat we had trouble with the water pump and the toilet (thank goodness Jon is good at researching and problem solving!) The only trouble with research in March was that we struggled with a very bad internet connection that meant we spent up to two hours getting  connected….grrrrrr arrrrgh and Jon spent a lot of time trying to fix this (dare I say there was a bit of frustration and gnashing of teeth. This bad internet connection also made posting blogs impossible. Again, we are sorry about that… We still have a long list of stuff we needed to do before we left Oslo (the stuff that was internet-based was postponed till we got here) but that was before we knew we would be internetally challenged so it basically became a month of guilty conscience and worry about not meeting deadlines.

I spent a lot of March trying to find smart places to put our things (six bags at 20kg each) so that we can still find it but it doesn’t bang around when we finally cast off? Plus all the while we were all getting used to a smaller galley: you have to do everything in the correct order because for example the biggest prep area is on top of the top-loading fridge and the two gas hobs cook fast! Most of you know that Jon is our family’s best chef so cooking is more of a challenge for me… but I managed pasta with salmon and white sauce and a Spanish rice that I was very proud of and I forgot to pat myself on the back for until just now when I shared it with you.

When we were in the middle of it all, I felt and overwhelming sense of “OH CRAP, I am not cut out for this!” but with a little distance I can identify some wins and successes and I have to say some of my favourite memories of March are scooting trips with my boys (one of these trips was even 10km long!) and time searching for sea-glass on the beach. And we spent time with some new friends which has been a godsend. It is really nice to spend some time away and we even got to help them which is nice! We spent a couple days painting Spanish shutters and it was great to see instant results and share some laughs.

Through all this I have to brag about our son – Teo is incredibly patient and we are blessed to have a kid who entertains himself for hours at a time and handles late nights and postponed meal times with more grace than his parents. He has been the best to handle the transition to living on a boat and we are very very proud of him!

Written by Jon:

Sunday is a quiet day in Palma, few shops are open and being low season there is little noise in the city, save for the occasional ringing of church bells. Mia woke up shortly after I made coffee and we had an uninterrupted hour of chat on deck in the morning sun. Lovely way to start the day.

We had a slow start to the day with Teo waking up late and breakfast up on deck not happening until midmorning. After breakfast Mia continued her battle wth the boat safety netting, which is almost finished and looking great. Teo and I did a quick reading lesson which is coming on very well.

In the afternoon Teo played nicely with his new Magformers (thanks Mormor and Grandpa!) – we are blessed with a kid who can amuse himself for an hour or two without having to be ‘stuck’ in front of an iPad. While he worked on building a giant truck, Mia and I cracked on with boat projects until mid-afternoon. But with lovely weather and the need to reward the ever-patient Teo we decided to put the work on hold and go and be tourists for a change.

Golf Fantasia

We quickly grabbed a bag and ran for the bus towards Palma Nova and Golf Fantasia! Teo takes after his Grandpa and loves to play golf, so this was his pick for the afternoon. Golf Fantasia is OK – nice enough location and in nice condition but it was more golf and less crazy. The ‘obstacles’ weren’t that different to what you’d find on the PGA tour, not very many windmills, but Teo enjoyed it nonetheless.

Surprisingly, in this tourist trap, we found a nice restaurant and had a lovely dinner before taking the bus back to Palma. Grabbed some ice-cream and took turns being remote control airplanes on the way back to the boat and were all in bed before midnight – just!