Aldebaran's Mallorcan Cruise 7th to 14th September.

Aldebaran is a Dufour 390 chartered from Dream Yacht Charters in Palma, Mallorca.  The boat was available from 1700 on the 7th September. My crew consisted of Paul Banks, Archie Robertson, Anne Billard and Joy Noble Rollin. At the bewitching hour of 1700 Anne and I went on board to check the inventory whilst Paul, Archie and Joy headed inshore for the victuals. The sailing programme meant that we would either be on a buoy or anchor for the first two nights so we would need a reasonable amount of food but I was horrified to see them returning along the pontoon with 4 trolleys full of food (and beer and wine and gin!).  There must have been a famine of biblical proportions the following week in Palma! Stowing it was a problem but I was relieved to see that we still had 2 or 3cm of freeboard afterwards. Then we found that the forward water tank was only half full! Filling that reduced the freeboard even more.

Sunday, 8th September. Passage to Cabrera Islands. A nature reserve, about 30 miles from Palma or about 5 hours. I had reserved a buoy in Cabrera but it was not available until 1800 and so an early start was not required. After a fairly lazy morning preparing the boat we eventually slipped lines at 1200 and headed out of Palma harbour. Stupidly, I hadn't turned the instruments on before we left the dock. Half way through the harbour the we turned the chartplotter on and found that it started in night mode and couldn't be read in the bright Mallorcan sun. There was no obvious way (to me anyway) to switch to daylight mode and so we had to return to our berth to sort out the problem.
The engineer was waiting for us on the pontoon and jumped aboard before we had all the lines secured. He poked at the screen a bit and miraculously it brightened. I asked what he had done, fearing a repeat if we turned the set off, and he just said "it's vera complicated" He wouldn't explain any more. We set off again with me Googling "B&G switching between day and night modes".
To start with the wind was very light and bang on the nose but by 1500 it had swung round to the west and increased to around 10 to 12 knots so we hoisted sail, turned the engine off and sailed quietly towards Cabrera. Around 1730 we were just off Puerto de Cabrera at the NW corner of the island when we turned the engine on, dropped sails and motored in at about 2 knots (the speed limit). This is where I made a tactical error. I asked Paul Banks, the shortest person on board, to go to the bow to pick up the buoy. He managed to catch the pick up buoy with relative ease but this was fastened to a rope approximately 2 inches in diameter and a combination of the boat hook being too flimsy and Paul being too short he couldn't pull it aboard. We tried picking up a number of buoys but failed each time. When I looked at our track on my phone's Navionics app it looked like a child's drawing book of join the dots! A very young child at that. After a number of unsuccessful attempts I had the bright idea of dropping the transom, climbing on to the bathing platform and reversing up to the buoy. We picked it up on the first attempt. (I'm a bit slow on the uptake sometimes!)

Monday, 9th September Sail to Es Trunch, Approximately 11 miles.
We could stay on the buoy until 1700 that evening and with a short sail today there was time to explore the island which is a nature reserve. There was a castle a short (uphill) walk away and many rally members walked to it. The weather was much too hot for me to do anything so stupid, sorry strenuous, and there was a cantina close to the landing stage which appeared much more attractive and, strangely, I was drawn in that direction. Many of the other boats' crews had arrived before me and so the most of the morning was spent sitting on its terrace.
Anne had asked me to organise a Fast Cruise. I had spent hours poring over charts, looking for suitable start and finish transits. Bear in mind that I had never been to this place before and had no idea whether the objects I had chosen could be seen easily but I'm glad to say that they could but for the finish I had selected a lighthouse in transit with the start of an island. I was worried that the island would be hilly and eclipse th light but in practice it was awash and could only be detected by the spray over it. Still , it sufficed. The Fast Cruise started between 1400 and 1430, the start was when Cabo Llebeig bore due south  and then left all the Cabrera Islands to port. This meant sailing south down the western side, along the south of Cabrera before turning north parallel to the eastern side of the island and continuing north until the finish was reached just south of Playa del Trench, A distance of about 16 miles. One skipper, who shall remain nameless, struggled with the concept of sailing south when the final destination was north! At the start the wind was westerly and extremely light and made flukey by the tall cliffs of Cabrera. I made the mistake of starting too close to the cliffs and by the time I had managed to work my way offshore the other boats were just dots on the horizon. As the day progressed, and certainly when we cleared north of Cabrera, the wind started to increase and shortly before the finish we had to put a tuck in the mainsail.
With the wind now at 20+ knots onshore I wasn't happy with anchoring off Playa del Trench with an onshore wind and so decided to tuck into a little bay sheltered behind Colonia de Sant Jordi. Othe yachts were already in the bay and there was not very much room there. After a couple of attempts (the first time I decided we were too close to another boat) we managed to anchor. The anchor appeared to be holding well but I was a little concerned that there was a rocky outcrop about half to one mile to leeward and during supper I was continuously, and nervously, checking transits. Before turning into bed I set an anchor alarm on the GPS and slept soundlessly in the knowledge that if we dragged anchor the alarm would wake me up. In the morning we were inexactly the same place as when I went to bed, but then I discovered that some unknown, helpful crew member had turned all the instruments off at the main switch panel!

Tuesday 10th September. Es Trench to Puerto Anthrax    Distance 33M – Time 6.5 hours.
This was a long passage, almost the whole length of the southern coast of Mallorca and, of course, the wind was blowing dead on the nose at about 10 to 15 knots. I may have the name wrong. That's what I thought I heard it called but when we arrived I searched everywhere for four score and ten young blondes and brunettes, all between the ages of 16 and 19 and a half but I couldn't find them. (If the younger members of the club do not understand the quotation search YouTube for "Castle Anthrax".) I think maybe the correct name was Puerto Andratx. On the passage we had a "BATT" alarm go off. All batteries seemed fine, all showing about 13.5V which is what I would expect as they were being charged by the engine. I throttled back to check that water was coming out of the exhaust and it wasn't a engine overheating alarm but that seemed fine and I couldn't find anything that would cause an alarm. I rang Dream Yacht Charters and explained the problem and that we would be in Andratx by 1600. An engineer arrived at 1630 with a new bit. I have no idea what it was but he disappeared into the port aft cabin and reappeared about 10 minutes later with an older but identical part. He disappeared but after about another 10 minutes he reappeared with a sack barrow and announced he would change the domestic batteries. It took him about 15 minutes to take them out (messing up Anne's berth). He promised to return before 0900 the following morning and he reappeared about 0830 with 2 new batteries. I can't fault the service from Dream Yacht Charters.
Andratx was the venue for the cruise pontoon party and this was organised by the commodore and Celia Greetham aboard Allegro. The fleet was supplied with copious G & Ts, Dark & Stormies etc. Although Barrie and Celia took the credit I did occasionally see a glimpse of Jill Moffatt through the companionway stoving away over a hot slave!
It was in Andratx that I experienced a "four candles" moment. We went ashore for breakfast and I ordered an espresso, a croissant and an orange juice. I was still extremely hungry after this and as the waiter appeared to speak tolerable English (better than my Spanish) I asked, in English, for the same again. He returned with a half litre glass of beer. Not understanding the mistake I told him I had asked for the same again. He said "there you go, San Miguel"!
Walking back to the boat after breakfast I felt my wallet, which was in the side pocket of my shorts move. Thinking it was going to fall out I put my hand to my pocket to save it and grabbed a woman's wrist. I was too surprised to react fast enough and she ran off into the crowd before I could do anything. Maybe that was a good thing otherwise I might have to explain to the Spanish authorities why she was swimming in the harbour.

Wednesday 11th September. Puerto Andratx to Soller Distance 25M – Time Approx. 4 hours.
Today was a relatively short sail to Soller, about half way along the north coast of Mallorca. Of course the wind had swung to the north overnight but remained at 10 to 12 knots. We left Andratx at around midday and motorsailed inside of Isla Dragonera along a funnel shaped passage which narrows to about 5 cables at its narrowest. Isla Mitjana, with its rocky outcrop to the NW narrows the channel even further. Once past Dragonera the mainland coast falls away to a SW/NE shape and we were able to ease sheets somewhat a sail towards Soller. On passage we made a small detour to see the hole in the rock at Punta de sa Foradada. At first I couldn't see it and thought that someone had stuck a brown and a blue sheet metal goat on the rock. then I realised I was looking at the sky through the rock.
The two nights we had been on a buoy and at anchor in Cabrera and Colonia San Jordi had bee uncomfortable with the boat surging and rolling and rigging creaking and straining that we decided that we would go into the marina rather than "drop the 'ook" However parking the boat was rather difficult. There was only a narrow gap to reverse into and every time I tried to line up to reverse in a side wind pushed us in front of a boat and I had to go forward and realign the boat again. On about the fourth or fifth attempt a sudden gust swung the bow right round and I ended up at right angles to the slot. A lot of pushing and shoving by everyone on board and the other boats' crew squared us up and we managed to make ourselves secure.
Going into the marina was no better. The pontoons were temporary and were not fastened to any pillars as is normal in the UK. As a result the whole pontoon surged backwards and forwards with the swell that had a fetch of very nearly 100 miles from Barcelona.

Thursday 12th September. Soller to Sant Elm. Distance 22M – Time 3.5 hours.

Today we retraced our steps sailing west and then south between Isla Dragonera and the mainland. We departed Soller just after 1000 and once out of the harbour we attempted to sail. It soon became obvious that the wind wasn't strong enough to sail and so the engine was restarted and we motor-sailed towards our destination of Sant Elm, a small village overlooking Isla Dragonera.
We arrived at around 1400 but when I looked at the receipt to find the number of the buoy I had booked I saw that it said that the buoy wouldn't be available until 1830!
We therefore motored over to a small cove off Isla Dragonera and dropped the anchor. The pilot book advised that the bottom was rocky and I was obsessed that the anchor would become stuck under a rock and that we would lose it. I insisted that we rig a trip line. This was easier said than done because the boat had a small pseudo bowsprit under which the anchor was stowed and which made it almost impossible to access the anchor. Archie ended up astride the bowsprit like some ancient figurehead. At least he wasn't thrusting his breasts towards the horizon. I'm rather glad we decided to anchor. Those boats that went in and picked up buoys before the allotted time were stung for an extra 20 euros! We picked up our buoy about 30 minutes early but were not charged any extra.
Anne had arranged a rally dinner at a restaurant recommended by Tim Solway just a short walk from the moorings. I disappeared to the heads for a shower and when I re-emerged Paul had already volunteered to be dinghy coxswain and he and Archie had gone to search for suitable landing places. The dinghy could only take 3 at a time so Paul took the ladies ashore first. He appeared to be gone for a long time when I received a phone call. He had run out of petrol for the outboard. Guess where the spare petrol can was! After a very long three quarters of an hour a small rubber dinghy with oars flapping appeared round a small headland and Paul eventually arrived back at the boat. I don't think Steve Redgrave need to be too concerned. Archie and I refilled the outboard, and make sure the spare can was in the dinghy,  while Paul went for a quick wash and brush up (they don't like it up 'em) and a change of clothes. Eventually we reached the restaurant. After an excellent dinner we were just finishing desserts when a gust of wind swirled all the napkins off the table. This was a bit worrying. When we returned to the water front the sea was rather disturbed with a short chop evident. The ride back in the dinghy was exceedingly wet.

Friday 13th September. Sant Elm to Palma. Distance 21M – Time 3.5 hours.

Friday morning dawned cold and grey with spots of rain. When I say cold I mean around 20 degrees as opposed to 35 degrees at the beginning of the week. The wind the previous evening must have been a front coming through because, not had the temperature dropped, but the wind had veered round to NE, the direction we would have to travel across Palma Bay.
We slipped at mooring at 1000, initially sailing SE with a beam wind but after passing Cap de Cala Figuera and turning NE we started the engine to motor up to Palma harbour arriving back at our departure berth at just after 1500. I do wish I had taken some warm clothes for this journey as it was quite cold.The commodore's boat had arrived just before us and as our berth was next door and to windward of him we had something "to Lean on" as we reversed into the berth. All he formalities for the return were completed and we were free to go to "the last supper" as Anne kept referring              to it. (No, we didn't all have to sit on one side while Leonado da Vinci painted us.) The last supper was a short walk away from the marina at Can Eduardo where we all were treated to copious amounts of Tapas accompanied by copious amounts of wine.
The following day we had to leave the boat at 0900 and we all winded our separate ways back to the UK to complete another fine week of sailing, eating and drinking in good company.