Once that was out of the way, we dinghied ashore for a coffee and baked delight, choosing Café Capuchino on the waterfront to stay in the cool breeze.
Afterwards it was time to complete our provisioning in preparation for our departure, but what a nightmare that turned into. To begin with, it’s not the largest supermarket with narrow isles. Compound that with unpacked boxes stacked everywhere, blocking the isles, kids running around grabbing items off the shelves and shouting to their parents to enquire if they could have whatever it was they’d grabbed, parents shouting back, other holidaymakers standing in the middle of the isles staring aimlessly or discussing, in awe, how cheap everything was compared to “back home”. At one point Elaine thought Roy was going to loose it, but we managed to get what we could, frazzled, but unscathed. It’s fair to say that the longer we’ve sailed the less we like or can tolerate most humans, especially en masse!
Back onboard everything was sanitised and stowed before we sat down to revisit our itinerary for Ireland. That took a lot longer than we envisaged because we’d added a few more stops on our road trip, primarily to see family in the north of County Donegal.
After dinner we’d planned on going ashore again for an ice-cream, but a quick perusal of the weather radar showed storms brewing to the northeast of us and moving in our direction. Instead, we dinghied ashore only to drop off the remainder of our garbage, mostly packaging from our provisions, then returned to Paw Paw for an early night. We definitely couldn’t complain, though, since we could have been on the Greek island of Rhodes dealing with wildfires.
This morning we were awake with the alarm, weighed anchor and said goodbye to Port de Pollença, after thoroughly enjoying our two week holiday there. This was our last big push to Gibraltar, although we hoped to enjoy one or two spots along the way. It didn’t help matters, though, that our Yellowbrick tracker decided to give up the ghost; rather annoying because we now don’t have a track of our route and our shore contacts can’t keep an eye on us. Fortunately we don’t have anymore overnight sails until we reach Gibraltar, where we hope to get the battery replaced. We can’t really complain, though, since we haven’t had an ounce of trouble from this device in more than 10 years. We just didn’t think about getting the battery replaced while we sat in Türkiye; another oversight on our part.
Regardless, in flat seas, calm winds and sweltering heat, all creating a haze with poor visibility, we motored around the top northwestern tip of Mallorca Island and continued down the northwestern coast, passing Port de Sóller en route, which we’d visited by land a few days ago.
When the wind eventually picked up at around noon, it unfortunately was not in the direction forecast. Instead, we had 10-15 Kts out of the south and directly on the nose, slowing us down. For the entire time that we sat at anchor in Port de Pollença, the wind predominantly blew out of the northeast and that was what was forecast for today, giving us the hope that we would be able to sail. So much for that bright idea!
To pass the time, Roy ran the watermaker and rinsed Paw Paw’s decks, while Elaine washed the helmstation and cockpit; the red desert sand was everywhere again, but fortunately not as bad as what we’d experienced during our brief overnight on Minorca Island.
As the day progressed we had a variety of watercraft for company; yachts, motorboats, megayachts, sailing dinghies, kayaks, you name it, all sailing up and down the coast, in different directions, requiring a sharp lookout, as most of the larger vessels didn’t have an AIS (Automatic identification System) and in the haze and poor visibility, it was difficult to see them at a distance.
The further south we progressed, though, the gloomier the weather became, but we enjoyed some spectacular scenery, including the very picturesque village of Banyabufar, perched on the edge of the cliffs and nestled in the foothills of the towering mountains set as a backdrop.
As we turned southeast, though, the landscape changed; less greenery and more arid, although the towering cliffs were impressive.
By 1800 we were anchored off Camp de Mar with a little beach, Playa Roca de Camp de Mar, in the northeast corner of the bay; not the most picturesque anchorage, but it will do, since we don’t intend to linger here for too long. That, of course, will all depend on the weather.
The highlight of our day, however, was receiving photographs from Brooke of the three grandsons, dressed for their first day of the new school year. It was definitely a tad sad to see them all so grown up, but we wish them a great year ahead at their new school.
