To ibiza and on to mainland Spain

On Tuesday morning, after another calm day on buoy,  we took some fuel and bought fresh bread in Portocolom and sailed off. We sailed South and then turn the corner towards West around Punta Salinas...          

...and dropped the anchor in wide bay Ensenada de la Rapita where some of the longest and best beaches are on Mallorca. Water was clear and we had a nice lazy afternoon, despite clouds that creeped in from North. 

Further down the beach we saw this sad view. Probably from the big storm a week ago that made so much damage on Mallorca and gave us such hard time East of Menorca.

Despite the bay being so open, it was rather calm and we slept well. Next morning we sailed further West, around Cabo Blanco...

...and across the Bay of Palma. We anchored in the bay Ensenada de las Porras in front of tourist development Megaluf. It really isn't pretty, so I didn't photograph it, it is like all tall buildings standing directly at waterfront elsewhere in Spain. But the small island on the other side, Isla de la Porras, was nice.

We didn't chose the bay for its beauty, but because we studied the weather forecast and thought it would be very calm for the night. And once there it looked like it could be. Until 11 in the evening, when the wind suddenly shifted from SW to NE and got stronger. We checked the anchor and realised it wasn't holding well. So we had to anchor again, this time we made sure it was holding better. I got very upset by all of it, it seemed so unfair that we always have to deal with wind shifts in the middle of the night.

The small island provided a bit of shelter and we slept well, surprisingly. Next morning we moved a bit more West, around the Punta de Cala Figuera...

...along the West coast...

...to the SW corner of bay Cala Fornells.

Bay was not bad, but again we chose it for the protection for the night and we wanted to be at the good point for passage to Ibiza next day. We arrived there early in the afternoon and enjoyed the sun and warm clear water. After long time I went snorkelling and it wasn't bad.

All these are hydroids, relatives of corals, and they all have little tentacles with which they catch plankton.

This guy is called Sally Lightfoot (Percnon gibbesi) and I first saw it couple of years back in Adriatic.   I couldn't figure out what it was, and only a year later saw a photo of it that was taken on Tobago. I couldn't believe that a warm water crab could live in Adriatic so I double checked and researched a bit and found out it is an invasive species in Mediterranean, spreading also in Adriatic. It is obviously thriving on Mallorca, because I've seen couple of them under every rock, and some of them were quite big.

We had a very nice dinner and a good and calm night. Next morning Captain sailed off already at 7, sun was just rising.

Beginning of the passage to Ibiza was slow with little wind, but big waves. Sleeping was not possible, so I soon joined Captain on deck. After a while wind picked up and the sailing was fast, but the waves got even bigger. Wind was from NE, as forecast. But there was a strange thing about the waves. Most of them were also from NE or E, but I could swear I was seeing some ridges coming from North. The more I watched the more certain I was. Obviously wind from Gulf of Lyon was so strong that it sent waves around both sides of Mallorca and they met on the South side. Which made me worry were we will anchor on Ibiza. Since forecast for wind and waves was NE to E we were hoping to anchor in one of the calas (bays) on NW side. But we would need to wait to get to Ibiza and see how it really is.

Sailing was fast, but due to confused sea very uncomfortable, further from Mallorca waves got even bigger to 2 to 3 meters, pretty much like in Atlantic. Most of the day was cloudy and the ride was really not nice. In the afternoon we reached NE corner of Ibiza and while we sailed along NW coast we realised that even though the waves from E and NE were gone, there were still big 2m rollers from the North, travelling along the shore and into the bays. When we sailed past Cala Galera, that was going to be our anchorage for that night, we saw couple of sailboats in there, riding the waves and a motorboat escaping out of the bay and we knew we need to implement plan B. Which was to sail for another 14 miles along NW coast and either anchor in bay of San Antonio or go into marina, if we couldn't find a calm spot for anchoring. After 9 hours of sailing prospect of another couple of hours of sailing didn't cheer us. But since we had waves only from one side, we could at least make couple of sandwiches and had something to eat. I was not in the best of mood, but had to admit, that the coast with high cliffs was beautiful, even in cloudy weather.

At around 6 in the evening we anchored in NE corner of the bay above the marina. The sun appeared for couple of moments and created a rainbow.

Before going to bed we checked the weather forecast as we always do. To our surprise there was some seriously bad weather coming to Baleares in couple of days. While our plan was to stay on Ibiza a couple of days, we figured out that it will be very difficult to hide somewhere when bad weather arrives. So we changed plans and not happily decided to sail to mainland right next morning.

It is a good distance, so we started early. In the morning we still had some sun, and the islands and rocks around SW corner of Ibiza looked pretty.

Wind was taking time to start blowing, so we motored for couple of hours. Later wind picked up, but it was a bit too light for the waves we were having. Again, and again they came from North and this time around Ibiza from SE, wind was from NE. Ride was very uncomfortable, and we had to change the direction of sailing to get enough wind to prevent sails from flapping. It was not a day we enjoyed.

Our destination was anchorage behind the Punta de Morayra, we anchored there 8 years ago, also coming from Ibiza. That time the waves were not so big, but night was still not very calm (I know because I documented it all in my blog). So I was pushing to go straight into marina, after so much sailing in two days we deserved a good and calm night. Captain didn't agree, we had to sail into the anchorage and drop the anchor and wait a little to see if it is really so uncomfortable. We had a beer, and at that time it wasn't so bad, and I was too tired to argue, so I gave in.

We went to bed early. First time I woke up was at 2 and I was so tired and was thinking: oh, not again! I managed to go back to sleep and woke up at 3. At that time Captain was also up and suggested we sail off. He started the engine and lifted the anchor and off we sailed. Outside the waves were still big, but there was almost no wind, and boat was rocking and rolling from side to side. Sleeping was impossible. After some time there was some wind and Captain tried sailing and motor-sailing and when the ride got a bit smoother, I managed to get some more sleep. During the day we again had too little wind for the waves that were there. Heron can sail well with very little wind, but not in 2m high waves in confused sea. So we struggled with changing sailing directions, occasionally turning on the engine, for whole 13 hours and at 4 in the afternoon we sailed into the port of Torrevieja. Another mostly grey day I would rather forget.

This is the outer breaker of Torrevieja port, it is probably some 7m high.

This is how it looks from inside, notice how small the people on both levels are.

Behind the breakers it is very calm and plenty of space for anchoring. Even the sun came out and we had a very nice afternoon, with some resting and sleeping, and a swim. And afterwards a BBQ.

Tomorrow we still have a good piece of sailing to do, some 40 miles, we're sailing to Cartagena, and will probably stay there until bad weather passes.