Puerto De Andraixt

We got here a couple of days ago. We pulled in just before a horrific downpour started. We were getting ready to drop anchor and a nice British fellow, Terri, pointed us towards one of his moorings. He is letting us stay free of charge and we found free internet so we are pretty happy. He stopped by the boat to visit and we found out he is a true treasure hunter. He is a professional scuba diver and he and another fellow came across a bunch of Spanish coins from the Napolean era using a metal detector, about 60 feet below the surface. He has sold most of them on EBAY and only had one onboard to show us. As we were walking through town, one of the stores had just re-stocked their gelato display (see photo). I don't know how everyone in Europe stays so thin, they have ice cream EVERYWHERE! This is a big fishing port. There is a fish market every afternoon around 5pm when the fishermen come in and then they all leave around 4:30am (they rock the boat). We had our new friends, Franc and Andrea, over for supper last night. They are on S/V Can Drac from NYC. We enjoyed great company and a beautiful sunset to boot. They left for Barcelona today but we have made plans to see them there as well.

Did we find paradise?

We thought we had found paradise. We were in our own little cala (Cala Mitjana)...no other boats around...unless you count the Glass Bottom Tour Boat that kept coming in. Surrounding us were the beautifully landscaped estate of some lucky unknown person, and a private beach. The only issues were having to lasso lines around a bollard set into the cliffs (see photos). As we found out, Jodi is not a cowgirl but lets just say we used the boat hook to our advantage. How close would you put your Island Packet to those rocks? After setting two anchors off the bow, John felt very comfortable with the situation. Jodi was still a bit leary of the situation. But all's well that end's well.

The next day we decided to dinghy out into the Med and go to Port Colom. The weather was good and the seas calm. We had been anchored for a few days and needed a people and land fix. We ate lunch, walked around town, stopped at the Fruiteria (a place that only sells produce), used 15 minutes of free internet and saw Tony (a friend from Switzerland that we met at another anchorage). It's a small world. The town is a beautiful old, historical marina town and the port reflects that. On the way home we viewed lots of the caves they have in this part of the country.

Paradise is not without its pitfalls. At night the swell would come in and just rock and roll the boat. So two sleepless nights later, we pulled up anchors and lines and moved on.

Oh...the weather

See... it's not always sunshine :) We really can't complain as we have had awesome weather all summer long. But all the guide books say it only rains 5 days in September...I think we are going on day 8 or 9 already. Our weather class always told us to be wary of the "Anvil" shaped clouds. And look what the rain brings in...I am no longer swimming off of the boat.

The Long Anticipated Archipielago De Cabrera

Cabrera was designated a National Park on April 29, 1991. It is south of Mallorca and has a semi-arid climate which means very little rainfall. There are actually 19 islands in the archipielago. Cabrera Castle (photo) towers over the harbour and was built in the late 14th century. The Park can only be reached by sea and runs a tourist boat from April 1st to October 30th. In order to take your personal boat there you must apply for a sailing permit and if you want to stay overnight you must apply for the mooring permit. The permit is all in Spanish and it asks for which dates you want to go. You must fax it in and wait two days for an answer. After submitting two applications and being denied ("Completo...which means Full) we were getting frustrated and had one of the marina employees write on our third application...give us the next two nights available...instead of us specifying dates and being denied. So we got our permit for a week later. You can see JaySeaDee in the front of the harbour photo. The only history we could find about it was that the castle was used to hold about 9,000 prisoners of war during the Napoleonic War and only 3,600 survived. If you take one of the hikes (we did) you can view the Memorial to the Frenchmen that died here. One of the other photos shows one of the prisoners inscription into the castle walls of his name and the date. You can also see from one of the photos how deep the walls are. The walls are very wide and the stairs VERY NARROW as you can see from a couple of the other photos (one is of John in the stairwell, the other is of the stairwell railing looking down from the top of the castle). Because there are few people on the islands, nature flourishes. Apparently there are turtles, dolphins, sperm and pilot whales although we saw none of those. We did, however, get a glimpse of the "Balearic" Lizard who is indigenous to the islands (photo).

And one of the best parts of this journey was we met new friends, Franc and Andrea from S/V Can Drac, from NYC...yes Americans...finally. We are meeting up with them in Barcelona too. They sailed for a year for a charity that builds wells with CLEAN water in Africa. Visit the website at SailForWater.com.

Cuevas Del Drach...Cavern of the Dragon

It was like a mass exodus around the South of Mallorca yesterday to get out of the way of the pending Gale Force Winds expected with the thunderstorms. We pulled into Porto Cristo and enjoyed a walk around town for the afternoon. John got a haircut, we found a phone store to put more money into our cell phone account, did some grocery shopping, etc.

Today we went to "Cavern of the Dragon". I am putting up photos to be seen but in reality it is something you should experience yourself (actually no photos are allowed in the cave so we purchased some postcards in the gift shop). I have been to a few caverns in my lifetime but this one wins the prize by leaps and bounds. You just stand there in "awe" looking at the formations, the stalagmites, the stalagtites, the "ribbon", and the reflections in the water. This cave has the largest underground lake in the world. They take you through the cavern and the last moments you are seated in a theater setting as the lights dim to blackout. Then comes the music...where is that coming from? Then come the three row boats trimmed with tiny lights around them (see bottom of photo #5). The first boat goes by and you notice an organist in the front playing the eery yet intense music (Study in E major by Chopin) and joining her are three violinists as accompanists. It reminds me of scenes from "Phantom of the Opera" for sure. When the music is finished they line you up and load you into the row boats for a ride across Lake Martel to the exit. What an experience!!! This "concert" was first performed on February 9, 1931 and has remained UNCHANGED even up to today...amazing.

The caves were excavated in the 1950's and they found ceramics that proved the use of these caverns approximately three thousand years ago. In 1878 they found a small Arab vase from the 11th century and a roman chandelier with the motif of Caesar's eagle.

Engineer, Carlos Buigas designed and produced the artificial lighting seen around the caverns. It took him 15 months to finish it, in 1935. He would not accept payment for it as he said "this work is priceless and he so enjoyed it". He had to use submarine cable across the lake and uses 100,000 watts.

This is truly a pure spectacle of nature. You are transferred into another world if only for a brief time. "If after passing along the countless paths of the world you need to rediscover yourself through beauty and peace, come to Mallorca where you will encounter God in that same peace and beauty which have a name: The Drach's Caves". by Rafael Ferrer Massanet, 1983

Playa De Rapita

Tired of paying the exhorbitant marina prices , we decided to find an anchorage to hang out in for a while and we came upon Playa De Rapita. We hung out here for a week it was so nice. The water was awesome; clear, turquoise, warm and inviting. The beach was clean and fun. The town marina nearby offered internet so we would dinghy to the cafe, order coffee and sit for a while. Who could want for more? We met up with Tony who was on another American boat but he was actually Swiss. He kept the boat registered in the USA to avoid the European VAT tax of up to 20%. He taught us how to catch the little fish, rig them onto a line and fish for Dorado. He seemed to always have a fish hanging off his stern but we were not so lucky...oh well, we had fun in the process. Then came the Thunderstorms. I haven't seen a light show like the one we saw yesterday in a long, long time. A gal in the restaurant today said it hasn't rained for five months so this deluge is a welcome thing.

Playa De Palma

We sailed across the bay from Palma to Arenal to get a little cheaper marina prices. We had a great sail since we were in no hurry and the wind was light but pushing us along. We found Arenal to be quite a fun place to be. The German influence is undoubtedly a factor. It seems to be the place for the 18-30 year old Germans to vacation as most signage and menus are in German...not Spanish...??? They do like to have their fun...we caught a few "Little Piggies" having a good time (photo #2). The beach runs about 4 miles from El Arenal back to Palma. There is a Mini Tourist Train that takes you up and down the Promenade. The first day we walked up and back but the second day we wanted to return to the "MEGA PARK" which is a small version of a German Beer Tent at Oktoberfest in Munich. There were lots of Germans singing their team "fight songs", the worst go-go dancers on top of tables and many tubes and large mugs of drink. We sat and had a liter of Sangria...with lots and lots of straws...maybe we were supposed to share??? (photo #4). Then we hopped back onto the Mini Train. An older German fellow sat two rows in front of us and John noticed his Denver Bronco Superbowl XXXII hat he was wearing from 1999. John shouted "Go Broncos" and the man turned around giving us a very strange look which told us he didn't understand a thing John was shouting. So John...being John...found someone who also spoke English and had him offer the man money for his hat (since John had lost his in the sea many, many years ago). When the man turned around again John noticed that not only was it a Denver Bronco Superbowl hat...BUT IT WAS SIGNED BY JOHN ELWAY. Well, John offered the man mucho Euros but he wouldn't sell. John was definitely possessed by that hat the rest of the day but we never saw the man again. It is just one of those things that makes you go hmmmmm as to why he had that hat and if he really understood the significance of what he was wearing. The same day I was rummaging through some stretchy wrist bands that the kids wear these days and low and behold there was a Denver Nuggets one. Another hmmmm.

Mallorca By Car

Today we are exploring the island interior by car. We get up early to get the car when they opened at 9am. We rented for one day from Europcar for $75 Euro. This included everything from taxes to insurance...not too bad. We had bought a Garmin Nuvi GPS loaded with European cities and so we brought that along and it was a life saver!!

First stop was the mountain village of Valldemossa. The approach to the town just took our breath away so we drove into town, found a parking spot and made our way through all the tourists to a cafe for some coffee. The interior of the island is very mountainous and the cities are built up on the hills. This was a small town with a lot of shops and an old monastery called Real Cartuja. Pianist Frederic Chopin and French writer George Sand spent the winter of 1838-39 in the monastery where they composed and wrote.

Next stop was Punta de Deia. This was a gorgeous overlook onto a very small anchorage down below. Notice the hole in the rock. There was another monastery there with gardens but it cost $8 Euro a person and we just wanted to move on.

Port of Soller was our next stop. This is a small beach town on the Northwest side of the island. As we got out of the car an old trolley-train went by so we followed it into town. By now it was lunchtime so we picked an outdoor cafe and enjoyed our lunch. The anchorage and marina looked like it would be a worthwhile stop so we hiked to the Marina office for prices and information. They said it would be about $50 Euro per night. There was a line to take the train so we just hiked back to the car.

Through a very narrow and windy road we made our way to the Northeast side of the island, to Cape Formentor. The drive was fun as we went through several tunnels and made our way to the Cape and the Lighthouse. The road to the Lighthouse was not for those frightened by heights or narrow one-car roads. The Lighthouse was worth the trip but there isn't much else there so off we went. It was getting late and although we could have gone on and on, we headed home knowing that we would be seeing more of the island by sea.

Mallorca - Day Two

Today was a sad day as we had to say goodbye to Gwinn. After he left we decided to see more of Palma and went to explore the Castle on the Hill...Bellver Castle. We walked past some of the old windmills left on the Island. The tour book said it was easily accessible from the harbour. Well, about an hour later and much whining from you know who, we reached the Castle. It was built in 1300. In 1717 it became a military prison. Between 1802 and 1808 a VIP was imprisoned there, his name was Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos. We know he was an important person because there was a whole museum dedicated to his imprisonment but it was all in Spanish so we don't know many of the details. The view from the castle was breath-taking. See the photo of the marina...Jay Sea Dee is down there somewhere. On the way back to the boat we reserved a car for tomorrow to explore the interior of the island.