Cala d’Or

From Portals Vells we made a short run around Mallorca to Cala d’Or. A small marina in a small town that is obviously a popular summer resort. On the way in I noted advertised depths of 3.0m throughout, although the depth shallowed to 2.6m at once stage.

Portals Vels to Cala d'Or

The next morning was an early start. All hands on deck at 0530 for lines and departure prep. We slipped on time at 0545 but then, only 5 minutes later, we ran aground in the channel! Our draught is 2.31m and I saw 2.4-2.3 a moment before we stopped. It took us over an hour to get clear – our tender motor kept stopping and a fisherman who came to help got our line tangled in his prop. Eventually a mariniero in his tender managed to pull our stern around and off we floated.
62 nm later we arrived in the harbour of Mahon and spent 20 min searching for the Club Maritimo of Mahon. It looks more like a town quay. We’ll see.

Cala Portals Vells

Clogged with salt

A nautical generator expert came on board this morning and fixed the generator in 45 minutes. He disconnected the cooling water outlet and the connection was clogged with salt. We had already checked the cooling water inlet, the impeller and the outlet in the hull, but we would never have found this particular connection. All good, and we’ve learned a little more about the boat.

Ibiza and Palma

Wednesday: A short run to Santa Eulalia marina, a few miles north-east of Ibiza town. An excellent marina with lots of facilities, but pricey.

Thursday: A 10 hr/62 nm day today, so we left early at 0600 local. A good SW wind so running downwind all day. We used the preventer on the boom and also experimented with two foresails and no main. It worked, but one of the foresails needs to be poled out to stabilise it.
Jane left her hatch open a crack not realising that the sea wasn’t as calm as the day before – the bed got soaked…


There was a Mayday during the morning. We plotted the position but were too far away to assist.

We welcomed Shirley on board on Friday and said goodbye to Jane on Sunday. We’ll be sorting a problem with the generator (overheating and shutting down) in the morning then it’s off to Cala d’Or on the east coast of Mallorca.