Fortunately the winds also backed from easterly to northeasterly during the night, giving us a much better angle of sail and allowing us to increase our SOG (Speed Over Ground). This came with a rather large swell, but it was a following sea, so we weren’t complaining. At last we weren’t beating to weather!
However, by 0900, when Elaine was in a lovely deep sleep after her early morning watch, Roy had to wake her for a sail change; it had become rather stormy all of a sudden, with overcast skies after a lovely clear night, the winds had veered to the east and had increased in strength, but allowed us to sail rather than motor-sail. Not even a half an hour later, though, it returned backed to northeasterly and stayed that way for the rest of the passage. However, by then, Elaine was wide awake and didn’t go back to bed. This turned out to be a mistake, but we weren’t to know what awaited us.
By 1015 we had 15NM to go, but still couldn’t see land. Soon thereafter, as we sailed over the ridge going from 2,286 metres / 7500 ft to less than 152 metres / 500 ft and causing us to surf in, similar to the BVI (British Virgin Islands) when approaching from St Martin, we spotted land ahoy and we changed country flags for the third time on this adventure. Then hearing the all ships VHF call for gale warnings along the Corsica and Sardinia coasts, we were delighted to be on our final approach into Spain. Sadly that delight didn’t last long!
After arriving in Mahon and motoring through the entire natural harbour, we discovered that all the anchorages noted on Navionics and Navily were no longer designated anchorage areas, except for one small area with poor holding and crammed with yachts, all anchored on top of each other. We attempted to anchor there, but kept dragging through the soft mud bottom. Giving up after an hour, we headed back out and further down the east coast, then along the south coast. By 1600 we hadn’t found anywhere to anchor that was at least tenable or that could fit Paw Paw. Everywhere was tiny cutouts and coves with one or two yachts in each or full of local boats, all of which reminded us of Egypt.
Eventually, both exhausted, we opted to anchor off Playa Son Bou at around 1700. As Roy said, it wasn’t ideal with the slight swell rolling in, but it was protected, had enough space and had good holding; it would do for the night.
After getting anchored, with three other yachts for company in the large bay, with a sandy beach running the length of the bay, packed with holidaymakers, Roy hopped in the water for a swim, while Elaine had a wee nap; she’d hit the wall by this stage.
Since we couldn’t get ashore, again, due to the cordoned off beach area and nowhere to land the dinghy, a shower, a light dinner and bed followed in quick succession.
Unfortunately, while the coastline was very picturesque and quite stunning in areas, with the cliffs and coves all along it, and the fabulous old British fort as we entered Mahon, providing a wonderful photo opportunity, we were just too tired to enjoy it, not to mention the fact that we’d completed another overnight sail and found there was nowhere to anchor, following policy changes coming into effect this year. It was stacking up to be another destination that really didn’t want transient cruisers, other than local yachts that filled the marinas.
