July 2007

3 July

We have been waiting for parts for our watermaker for over a week.  They were supposed to be here on Friday, then we got a call saying someone had refused them and sent them back.  But the marina office says they didn’t do that, and the Fed Ex site shows they’re in Madrid waiting for clearance.  So we don’t know what is going on.  We can’t use the watermaker until we get these parts, though.  Right now we have water at the marina, but we are planning on leaving tomorrow.  So I don’t know what is going to happen.  A big mess!  But it’ll get figured out somehow.

There are always things that break or need fixing on boats.  It’s just part of the nature of the beast.  When you use it full-time and it’s being pounded by waves and constantly in the sun and saltwater, things break and corrode. That happens with all boats.  If you haven’t owned a boat in salt air, though, you wouldn’t know that.  RH has taken another part off of the boat and we may drive it down to another town or else wait and take it down via sailing there.  I don’t yet know what we are doing.

  

4 July

Well, the Cup is over and we are planning on heading out today.  We will be retracing our steps slightly and heading south to Javea, south of Denia. When I took Robert up the mast the other day, he noticed that some of the cables on our forestay were broken.  So we had to take it down and will take it to Javea to hopefully get the cable replaced. We also had to order some parts for the ProFurl on it, which are supposed to arrive today.

We had hoped the Kiwis would win the Cup and then could be there in 3-4 years for the next one.  But we are happy for Ed Baird, who drove for Alinghi, to win, as he is a St. Petersburg guy whom Robert has known for many years.  For those that didn’t see the final race yesterday, it was one of the most exciting we have ever seen, and Alinghi won by only two seconds.  The boats quite literally crossed the line simultaneously and you couldn’t initially tell which one had won.

Valencia is a very pretty town with many ‘newer’ buildings (only 100 years old or so), and the city is very clean. We enjoyed our stay here, but after almost two weeks are ready to move on to new adventures.  Once we get the forestay fixed, we will head to the Balearics.  We have read and been told that they are gorgeous. We hope to visit Formentara, Ibiza, Mallorca and Menorca. After that we will head to Barcelona to drop off my inlaws, then pop up to France. I definitely am ready for some French pastries and wine, although we’ve sampled some great wine here for around $2/bottle!  They even sell sangria here in 1 litre boxes for 1 Euro each, and it tastes quite good!

8 July 

After spending two nights at anchorage in Javea, we headed out around 10 am yesterday for the Balearics.  We had gotten parts we needed to fix our forestay and Profurl, so after a couple hours of putting that back together we were off.  We were fortunate to have a good breeze and, with that fixed, we were able to put up the sails and made some good time heading almost due east towards the islands.  We had intended to go to Formentara for the night, but with a wind shift we decided on an inlet on Ibiza, Cala d’Hort. It is a beautiful cove, with white sand bottom.  The water is the clearest I’ve seen in years, better even than the Caribbean. I’m guessing that’s partly because there are a lot fewer boats there. If it was in the BVI, I told Robert there would’ve been over 100 boats there last night.  As it was, we had about 10. There are the remains of a Carthaginian settlement more than 1,200 years old, known as Ses Paises, near the beach.

After a breakfast of cinnamon pancakes, we are now motoring south towards Formentara. Our friends have told us of an area near Espalmador where you can take a mud bath, then wash it off in the ocean. We’ll see! The wind is on our nose, so we are motoring. It’s a gorgeous day and the coastline is quite rugged, with awesome looking Moorish-type homes (newer) perched on the cliffs. We just passed a harbor with a lot of superyachts in them. We may try to spend the night at Illetas, which they say at the height of the season is an A-list celebrity hotspot where all the big yachts gather. It also says the beach is one of the best in the entire Mediterranean.

Sally, Robert and I all went for swims after dinner last night. It was quite refreshing with the water not too terribly cold — not as warm as the Caribbean, but much cleaner and prettier! There are cormorants (or their first cousins!) here, so they entertained us with their underwater swimming trying to catch their next meal.

The weather has been ‘typical’, which means sunny and warm with few clouds. When you get right down to it, it’s about as close to perfect as you could ever hope!

10 July

We had a fun time in a bay off the island of Espalmador. Some friends had told us about a place on the island where you could go take a mud bath, so we went in search. Came across two people covered from head to toe in mud, so I asked where they’d gone. They pointed the way, and off we went. It was inland in an area that I think was a salt pond, yet it had a ‘mud hole’. Robert and I got very covered; he laid in it. Lewis & Sally got some on their front for a ‘photo shoot’. Then we walked back to the beach and after a little bit went into the water and washed off. Then we all smelled like sulphur!

We went down to Cala Sahona to spend the night, which initially had a lot of boats but by early evening was much more pleasant, with only a few sailboats remaining. It was a beautiful spot and I fed crumbled crackers to the fish in the water and had a feeding frenzy!

Yesterday morning we got up and headed to the town of Eivissa (as they spell it locally) on the island of Ibiza. It was founded by the Phoenicians 2,600 years ago! There is a walled city, aka fortified town, called Dalt Vila, which has a castle and cathedral. Unfortunately the cathedral was closed yesterday. The Cathedral was built between the 14th & 16th centuries in gothic Catalan style and renovated in the 18th century in the Baroque style. We spent the entire afternoon wandering around the fortified city, and had lunch halfway up the hill looking out over the bay.

This area is another place for the ‘beautiful people’, with shops to go with it! I tell you, if I had ‘another life’, I could really go to town with the clothes here. They are absolutely fabulous and I am having a marvelous time window shopping!

We had dinner at a cafe on another part of the bay. I decided it was time for a cheeseburger in paradise, while the guys each had a Hawaiian pizza which Robert thought rivaled those at Bernini! All in all, we had a lovely day.

This morning we plan to head up the coast to perhaps Es Canar, where there is a festival to Saint Christopher today.

12 July

We made it to Palma this morning.  Anchored just offshore from the cathedral.  Spent the afternoon exploring the old town. The cathedral is spectacular, and the entire old town area is very neat. We got back to the boat around 5 pm, pulled up anchor and headed a few miles west to anchor in a more protected area. We’re now in a lovely, quite small anchorage tucked behind an island with a small beach just on shore. Tomorrow we will visit a couple castles and who knows what else. I need to read the literature we picked up to see what all there is in the area. I really like the area and can see why it’s so popular with tourists.

The weather continues to be great, and we continue to be thankful for such beautiful weather and places to visit.

15 July

We are anchored tonight at Cala de la Calobra, a beautiful little harbor at the mouth of a river on the west coast of Mallorca. On Friday, Robert, Sally and I took a bus into Palma (having spent the prior night in a little bay about 5 miles west of town), then caught the tourist sightseeing bus around town. It was a double decker bus, so we did the whole route once around to snap photos and see where all they went. Then on the second time we hopped off at Bellver Castle, which was built (I think) in the 1300s. They also have a museum there in the various rooms of the castle. It was a great visit, and we spent a couple hours there exploring. It’s high on a hill above town, so we had great views down on the harbor, etc.

We then went back to the historic district and had lunch, then went to the Pueblo Espanyol (yes, that’s how they spell it), which is a new old city. Someone, about 40 years ago, built a small village that looks like a complete old town. I guess at one point it had a bunch of shops & restaurants, but seems to not have done well and now is mostly just what I’d consider a ‘tourist trap’. It’s a neat thing to walk around, but there’s nothing in anything and so all of the buildings are pretty much closed up. And for that, they charge too much. But we didn’t know until we’d paid and gone inside, so that’s how it goes. Lewis had stayed behind and on the boat all day, as he had a sore foot as well as a leg bothering him. We went back and cooked dinner on the boat.

Yesterday we got up and headed around the island to Puerto de Soller. It’s a neat little town with a nice harbor. We went to town for dinner and had a real nice one. We got up this morning and dinghied in, then caught a train to the town of Soller. From there we caught a bigger train over to Palma. It’s an electric train that began around 1929. It goes across the countryside and has numerous tunnels, one of which seemed to be about 2 miles long, and so we got a chance to see more of the island. We ate lunch in Palma and then rode the train back to the town of Soller. We then walked around and viewed the church, etc. and then caught the small train back to the port. We then headed out and came up to Calobra.

Tomorrow we’ll relax and swim in the bay, have lunch on shore, then head out across the sea towards Barcelona. Lewis & Sally have a reservation at the Hilton there on 17 July, so we’ll get them there (wind & weather willing!) by early afternoon on Tuesday.

16 July

After a morning exploring the area, we had one of the worst lunches of our life onshore, then around 2 pm we headed away from the Balearics on a course of 343 degrees towards Barcelona. It is about 95 miles as the crow flies, which right now will be our course as well since there is NO wind! Another day/night of motoring. The good news is that the seas are fairly flat and so it is a comfortable, albeit warm journey.

About an hour ago, Robert had a bite on the fishing line he had out. He reeled it in, and there was a lovely yellowfin tuna! So God has smiled on us and is making up to us for the rotten lunch! Even Dar likes tuna!

17 July

We made it to Barcelona early this morning. We motored the entire way — slowed down partway across to time our arrival for daylight. Took us three marinas before we found one with space for us. So we are now safely tucked away in Port Forum Marina. It’s a newer marina towards the north part of town, very nice and we are ‘outside’ the main area (due to the height of our mast) in some most excellent company — our neighbors range from a 102′ powerboat to a couple ~250 foot power yachts from the BVI.

Robert and I grabbed quick showers, then we got a taxi & headed to the central part of town to get Lewis & Sally at their hotel and pick up our watermaker parts for which we have been waiting for nearly a month now!!  Good news is that they were there at the front desk when we arrived, so tomorrow Robert will see if we can get the watermaker working again. We had to buy water over in the Balearics. After lunch at a Mexican restaurant with the Hills, Robert and I went over to a huge department store & looked for a couple things we needed, then caught the #7 bus towards our marina. Took the bus to the end of the line, then we had to figure out how to get to our marina! It took us a couple tries — there was this thing called an interstate in our way!! — but we managed to make it back safely. Robert’s now downstairs taking a short nap while I play catch up with internet. We have ‘true’ internet here at the marina, so I can send and receive photos, attachments, etc. for a couple days via AOL. I may try to forward some of you a couple photos from the most recent adventures.

Barcelona is a huge city and very beautiful. It was a long taxi ride to the Hill’s hotel, so we got to see many buildings. The taxi driver said there are 7-8 million people in the area. We’ve already decided we may come back here for a few weeks this winter to get a chance to really look around the city.  As of now, we are here until Friday. Then we have absolutely NO idea where we are heading. We will try to discuss it in the next couple days, although I am leaning towards heading up to France — it’s calling my name . . .

19 July

Yesterday, I fell in love . . . with Barcelona!!!  OMG, this city is absolutely fabulous!  Think of Pearl St. Mall in Boulder, add a touch of Mallory Square in Key West, toss in a few dozen gorgeous buildings that are 100+ years old, expand it by a half mile or so, and voila!  You have La Rambla in Barcelona.  Robert and I spent half a day exploring the cathedral (gorgeous, but unfortunately the exterior is covered by scaffolding for rehab) and the area around including La Rambla.  Absolutely fabulous!  Jon, you would eat this place up!

We had dinner last night with Robert’s folks — didn’t get back to the boat until 11:30 pm (the Spanish believe in eating late).  They are taking the train back to Madrid this morning, then will fly back to Tampa tomorrow.

21 July

We’ve met some Canadians that we will probably cruise with for awhile; they have been over here a year and know lots of things about lots of places! They mostly anchor out as opposed to staying in marinas, so are ‘our kind’ of cruisers.

We greatly enjoyed our time in Barcelona, but didn’t have nearly enough time to see all we wanted, so we already plan to return sometime in the coming year.  If anyone wants a good place for a holiday, I highly recommend it!

24 July

We left Barcelona a couple days ago.  We are cruising up the coast of Spain, then will visit France and Italy for the remainder of the summer. We spent our first night at Palamos, then last night were at Cala de Montgo, a cove with high rocky cliffs on each side.  We had wonderful wind WITH us for a change and hit the occasional 15.6 knots on our speed.  Today we are heading towards Cadaques, just past the Golfo de Rosas and only a few miles from the French border.  Salvador Dali had a summer home there; we may walk over (or anchor in Cala de Port Lligat, where it is) and have a look.  There also is the Church of Santa Maria from 1662, which they say is ‘rare’ as it was never damaged during the various Spanish revolutions, wars & invasions.

This coastline is very beautiful, probably the prettiest of the entire east Spain coastline. It’s called the Costa Brava. It’s backed by the eastern extremity of the Pyrenees. There are lots of caves along the coast, and we saw one bridge/arch yesterday where you could pass under the arch (by sea) in a motorboat.

31 July

We made it to France a few days ago and have been having a great time. We spent a couple nights in Collioure, spending one day looking around the charming town with a medieval chateau and church. Matisse and Derain spent time here painting, and reproductions of many of their works are scattered around town. The next day we caught the train to Perpignan and had a wonderful day exploring the city. Lionel, our Canadian friend, went with us, leaving his wife behind to write an overdue article for some publication back home. The cathedral is magnificent and I continue taking 200+ photos per day. We also visited the Palais des Rois de Majorque, built in the 13th century and the oldest royal palace in France. We located a cafeteria for lunch which had wonderful, inexpensive food and I indulged in a strawberry tart for dessert. It’s nice to be in France; as lovely as Spain is, I much prefer French food!

Leaving Collioure, we had a great sail over to Sete, which is the ‘home’ of our catamaran. We spent two nights here as well. One day we took the train to Montpellier and explored. They have a flea market there every Sunday, so we located that and bought two bicycles. Much quicker than walking! I had wanted to buy some before we left the US, but Robert wasn’t convinced. However, as soon as we reached Europe he kept saying we needed to get some. Montpellier’s ‘centre ville’ has many 17th & 18th century buildings which make for a picturesque stroll. They also have their own Arc de Triomphe (similar to Paris but without the 10 lanes of traffic circling it!), built in 1689 to honor Louis “Sun King” XIV. Sete is almost like a little Venice, with canals along the strees. They were having a festival, and they have on-water jousting!

Yesterday was another good sail and we ended up just past the Golfe de Fos at Anse du Verdon, a little cove which gave us good protection overnight from the very strong NW winds. We may stay here and ‘chill’ a day or head to Marseille, which is about 25 miles away. We will probably stay in the Marseille area for several days to explore. The Chateau d’If is just off the coast of Marseille; it’s a 16th century fortress turned prison surrounded by the sea (think ancient Alcatraz!), and it’s most famous prisoner was Alexander Dumas’s Count of Monte Cristo. They say you can still see the hole from which he’s said to have made his escape.

Can you tell we’re enjoying ourselves?!!  Here are some photos: