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.