We Finally Set Sail for Menorca — Or is it Minorca?
We arrived in the Islas Baleres on June 27, nearly four months ago, and we’re only now reaching Menorca, the last and least developed of the island group. (By the way, the Spanish spelling is Menorca, but it’s spelled Minorca in English-speaking countries.)
Vicki and I both half-thought that time would mostly stand still in our retirement, or at least slow down; but quite the opposite seems to be happening. The past six weeks have flown by in what seem like no longer than the blink of an eye. Honestly, I’ve sat down to post an update at least a dozen times, but I never seem to finish more than a paragraph or two before moving on to another project. And when I go back later and look at what I had written, most of it seems overtaken by more recent events.
What have we done since our last update, which chronicled the final leg of our circumnavigation of Mallorca? For starters, we spent three wonderful weeks in September docked at Estación Naval Porto Pí, on the western edge of the port in Palma de Mallorca. There we were once again hosted by Captain Dámaso Berenguer and his crew of officers and sailors. In fact, Initially this was going to be a review of all the things we did while in Palma. But the three weeks in Porto Pí seem like ancient history now, so this will just be a brief overview of our time there and of our recent transits and stops. Besides, we can’t wait to write about Menorca.
Porto Pí
We arrived at Porto Pí on September 1, about 2 hours before sunset, on a day in which we sailed just 5nm and motored 23nm due to the lack of wind. Renown as one of the largest homeports for super yachts and one of the most popular destinations for Mediterranean cruisers in all of Europe, Palma has an abundance of marine crafts and trades. Accordingly, we decided to take care of some nagging mechanical issues in At First Sight.
For example, we finally successfully troubleshot and fixed a problem with our inverter-charger that has been bothering us for over a year. Second, we converted our air-cooled freezer compressor to a water-cooled system. In addition, we did many other routine and preventive maintenance items, such as cleaning the brushes and armature for the electric motor of our anchor windlass. We also had the raw water pump for the generator rebuilt, suspecting that it was the source of a small leak in a corner of the engine room.
In addition, Vicki made a new wind scoop for the aft hatch using ripstop sail material from local sail loft. And during one particularly windless day, we manually pulled AFS about 3 boat lengths aft where steps went from the top of the seawall down to water level in order to learn a new skill, repairing dings in the gelcoat and fiberglass from our brush against the rocks in Cala Naó back in early August.
But it wasn’t all boat work, of course. I “wasted” two full days using the high-speed Internet in a nearby café-bar restoring files on my computer that iCloud had stolen from me! We rented a car and drove 90 minutes to Portocolom primarily to pick up Vicki’s computer, which we had dropped off there a month earlier and that was supposed to have been delivered to Porto Pí — but wasn’t. While there, we had breakfast with our cruising friends in Miles Away III, and then we delivered Ali Miles to the Palma International Airport for her €9 flight back to Yorkshire, England. And while we had the car, we used it to haul a month’s worth of laundry to a laundromat.
I write now about a routine trip to the laundromat more than a month ago only because I prophetically mentioned to Vicki at the time that it would probably be the last loads of the year with only short pants and short-sleeved shirts. And in fact, there is a chill in the air and a stiff breeze blowing, and so I am wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt as I type this today.
One of many highlights in Palma was renting patinetas eléctricas (electric scooters) for independent sightseeing around town. It was a blast zipping around the beautiful city of Palma on the scooters, venturing off the beaten track, stopping here and there for a café con leche or a tapa. The day concluded with a delicious, late night meal at a Galicia-themed restaurant, al fresco and properly masked when not seated at the table, of course, where I had beefsteak aged >45 days. I seldom eat meat; but when I do, I hope it’s always as tender, tasty, and memorable as that steak was.
Overview of the transit to Menorca
We got underway from Palma on September 23, and had a fantastic sail to the natural park at Cala Madragó, where we rendezvoused with Andrew Miles in Miles Away III, who was making his way to Cartagena, but being stymied at every turn by unfavorable weather for westbound sailing. After Madragó, though, we both spent several days on a mooring ball back in Portocolom (the opposite direction from Cartagena), one of the most charming and friendliest harbor towns anywhere, in safe harbor through a few days of rough weather. From there we set sail for Menorca with a one-night stop along the way, on the hook in Cala Maltó. The next morning, September 30, we made a short 24nm open-sea passage to the southwest coast of Menorca, stopping for a night at Cala de Talaier, followed the next morning by a day sail to the Port of Mahón, for centuries one of the most strategically important ports in the western world. Looking back, it doesn’t seem possible that six weeks could have passed so quickly. Now to fill in some details.
Porto Pí to Portocolom
We had an incredible day long sail upon getting underway from Porto Pí. We motored just long enough to safely clear the breakwater for Puerto de Palma, when we briefly turned into the wind to hoist the mainsail and mizzen and unfurl the genoa, and then fell off to a rhumbline course to round Cap Blanc. We were on a starboard tack on a close reach, beam reach, or shallow broad reach all day. And as we rounded Cabo de Salinas in mid-afternoon, we poled out the genoa to starboard, turned 45 degrees to port and made a direct course for Cala Madragó, where SY Miles Away III was already waiting for us at anchor. After setting our hook, Andrew dinghied over for a cup of tea on our fantail. After he departed, Vicki and I had dinner down below while watching “Mission Impossible” on DVD (the 1960s series on which the more recent movies are based).
Miles Away III was underway near the crack of dawn, but we lingered in scenic Cala Madragó until well after noon. In fact, we didn’t weigh anchor until 15:00, as a west wind freshened to 22kts. We set our jib & jigger while still inside the cala, and to our surprise and frustration transiting through the mouth of the cala and into the open sea was quite rough with a southerly cross swell rocking us to and fro. But the ride was as smooth as silk once we got 3 miles offshore and turned north for Portocolom. We swooshed along at 7–9kts on a deep broad reach all the way to the harbor entrance for Portocolom. In fact, we were enjoying the sail so much we briefly thought about continuing on another 35 miles to Menorca. But a hard 2-day Mistral blow was forecast, and prudence dictated laying up in the safety of one of our favorite harbor towns with super strong, well-maintained moorings.
We spent five days in Portcolom, nearly half of which we were confined aboard AFS due to high winds, including gusts as high as 38kts. But the harbor is so well protected and with so little fetch, the water remained relatively flat despite the gales. Still, it was reassuring to see the Club Náutico marineros (dock and boat hands) out in their Zodiacs at 22:00 one night, when the wind was blowing its hardest, ensuring all the boats and moorings in their harbor were sano y salvo.
When we saw breaks in the weather, we used them to test out our newly rebuilt outboard dinghy motor for runs to the town dock for provisions or to go out for a meal. We also went up the mizzen mast during one calm period in a failed attempt to fix our long-range Groove Internet antenna.
One big event was trying out our new hookah dive rig for the first time, which provides surface-supplied air under pressure to allow us to stay underway as long as we need to when working below. It’s a little like SCUBA diving, but with 75’ of hose instead of a tank. We purchased the rig almost a year ago, but we hadn’t used it yet.
With the air and water temperatures cooling off, I decided to grease our Luke feathering propeller now, rather than in mid-winter. We’re pleased to report the kit worked great.
The second, and far more important big event was doing our civic duty — voting by mail.
When the weather cleared it was time to get underway again, but
first we went to the fuel dock to top off our diesel tanks, our first fill-up since passing though Gibraltar in early January, and we were nearing our low fuel comfort level of a half tank, ~200 gallons remaining. Everyone passing anywhere near Gibraltar always tops off there because diesel fuel is not taxed. For example, we took on 776 liters (205 gallons) in Portocolom, which cost €915 ($1083), or $5.30 per gallon. By contrast, we took on 171 gallons back in Gibraltar for just $540 ($3.60/gallon).
Portocolom to Cala de Talaier
We departed the fuel dock, waved goodbye to the helpful marineros, and set jib & jigger, which has become our favorite coastal sailing configuration. Four and half hours and 24 nautical miles later, we rounded Cabo de Pera and made for the anchorage in Cala Moltó on Mallorca’s northeast shore. We started the Perkins and motored for the final hour and half in order to charge up the batteries before sunset.
Cala Moltó is near totally undeveloped. There were two dayboats at anchor when we arrived, and one large sailboat that appeared to be a charter, loaded as it was with a squad of young men and their many water toys such as stand-up paddleboards, windsurfers, and the like. But the dayboats left a good two hours before sunset, and the charter boat was on the other side of the cala, so we had the cala pretty much to ourselves.
The next morning, with clear skies, a calm sea, and zero wind in the forecast, we decided to transit the 25nm Canal de Menorca under power. We trolled our best lure almost the entire way, but did not get a single strike. Arriving off the southwest coast of Menorca several hours before sunset, we were basically at the sea-based equivalent of a fork in the road. Should we go left/north toward Menorca’s ancient capital, Cuidadela (Ciutadella), or go right/east in the general direction of Menorca’s current capital, Mahón. We opted for the latter, which would give us an opportunity to anchor out another night before the confines of a big city marina.
We chose to head for Cala Turqueta, which would give us good protection from a brisk southwesterly breeze expected to roll in that night. However, frankly, I was too loose with our navigation and when we arrived off Cala de Talaier, a couple miles to the west of Turqueta, I said “close enough.” And so, we set our hook in the azure water of Cala Talaier. Although Talaier is definitely a more picturesque and less developed cala than Turqueta, we now know firsthand why the cruising guidebook says, “Any slight swell rebounds from the rocks so it can be rolly.” The wind freshened during early evening and throughout the night, bringing with it a moderate southwest swell that did, indeed, rebound off the rocks, stir the water like a boiling caldron, and knock us around like a ball in a pinball machine. The movement was so bad we had to secure everything down below, just as if we were making an open ocean passage in unsettled weather. We were relieved to get underway for Mahón extra early the next morning.
We have a lot to share about Mahón, but that will be in our next post.
