Wednesday, 23 July 2008

Mar Menor









The parts finally arrived Monday evening - extortionately expensive...600 euros for a small piece of steel and a couple of o-rings. We sailed south on Tuesday morning and had a gentle sail in light winds. We used the time to try out our mizzen 'tween sail but it didn't add any speed and we've decided we need to modify it slightly so it sets better.








We are now anchored in the Mar Menor, a huge inland sea. Entry is through a canal; the bridge over it opens up every couple of hours.








We plan to make a few more stops down the coast before Gibraltar. We are now looking at exploring Morocco before we get to the Canaries. More news soon.

Monday, 21 July 2008

Finally on our way




We finally set off from Ibiza on 19th after having wait out a few days of storms. We had a great sail across to the mainland and are now anchored just south of Alicante in a place called Santa Pola. Not the most attractive place to be but some essential parts for our generator were air-freighted to a dealer here on Thursday. I made use of the time by doing 5 washing machine loads - the laundry was hanging everywhere!


Typically it's now Monday and they still haven't arrived. We are hoping to have them by tomorrow morning and sail down to the Mar Menor and La Manga.

Friday, 4 July 2008

The last week
















We stayed anchored in Salinas until Wednesday 2nd July. Then it was around to Botafoch marina, Ibiza town to take on fuel and water. After a brief stop in Talamanca we sailed down to Formentera and spend a couple of nights anchored across from Juan y Andreas. Today we sailed (light winds, cruising chute) up to Cala Jondal.

We are waiting for some parts to arrive the beginning of next week. As soon as we are sure they are there, we will sail over to Alicante to pick them up. Then on to Gibraltar.

Thursday, 26 June 2008

Sailing with Chrissy


We had a lovely week sailing with Chrissy (Nic's mum). We left from Talamanca, Ibiza and first stopped in an incredible cove on Tagomago (opposite St Eularia). The next day we set off at dawn for Mallorca. It was literally dead calm – a glassy, oily, still sea and we had to motor until after dark to get to our destination.

We anchored at La Calobra, the site of a huge gorge called Torrent de Parreis. After breakfast we went to explore and ended up having a 2 hour walk which included a lot of tough going over rocks and boulders. We turned around after stopping at a place where a natural spring was coming out of the rock face where a tree had taken root.

In the afternoon we headed back down the coast to Soller, a pretty little port town. We had a delicious gourmet dinner at a restaurant run by a German chef. The recommendation came from an English guy in a puzzle shop!

The next day we were trying to get to a fantastic beach called Cala Trenc. It’s a bit like Mallorca’s Formentera – miles of white sand, turquoise water and no development as it’s a protected nature reserve. Unfortunately the wind and waves weren’t complying. After another long day of motoring we had to give up and anchor the other side of the bay to Palma.

In the morning it was hazy, cool and windy – not the right conditions to get to Cala Trenc so we decided to use the wind and sail to Formentera, leaving about 11am. The wind held and we sailed the whole way arriving into Es Palmador at 2am. Sadly we woke up to high winds and a huge swell – no time even for breakfast, we decided to sail up to Salinas. Tina (Nic's sister) and Millie (her dog) came on board for a night and Chrissy stayed on board for a further night.

Tuesday, 10 June 2008

Back on the hook at last

Well, we finally made it out of the marina. We are anchored in Cala Tarida - crystal clear turqouise blue water. Sadly the weather is very unsettled and looks to continue that way until Thursday.

All being well we are planning a family trip up to Majorca and Menorca next week. Then it will be back to Ibiza for a few days and on our way to Gibraltar.

Monday, 26 May 2008

Latest news

Hello everyone - just a quick note to say we are still in Ibiza, still working away on Irony but hoping to get going in the next couple of weeks. I will start posting some news when we manage to get moving again! Best wishes to everyone we know.

Wednesday, 5 March 2008

Latest news

Hi everyone - We are still here in Ibiza. We had a lovely family Christmas and New Year and have just had a fantastic ski holiday in Austria. We are now preparing Irony to head off as soon as the weather warms up. Best wishes to everyone we know.