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!