From Mahon, we sailed to our first anchorage on Mallorca at Cala Varques, then Illa Gavina, then S’Estanyol, then to our present location at Es Fornas. We mostly moved to accommodate wind shifts. We stayed at Es Fornas for over three weeks. It was a convenient place to go ashore, get groceries and to visit Palma.
We have been living on “water maker water” for over 15 years. Many people have commented on the health aspects of living with desalinated salt water, which basically contains almost nothing, lacking some essential minerals. We have found that eating a diet that contains fresh fruit and vegetables will easily make up for the lack of minerals. However, it took us years to understand how laundry and dish soaps misbehave. In particular, Diane commented years ago that our washing machine failed to make the clothes clean, and attributed that to our water maker water. So, for many years we have tried to wash clothes using water “from the other tank”, the tank that contains dock or rain water – and not water maker water. This has mostly worked for us, but here in the Med – it doesn’t seem to rain much in the summer. Therefore, we became re-energized in our efforts. We have discovered that by including an inline cartridge (2.5” X 10”), we can re-insert essential minerals back into the water maker product water, as the water flows from the water maker to the tank. This is what the purchased, uninstalled cartridge looks like.
I easily installed it under the floor in the galley area. When living onboard, the cartridge is expected to last about a year. We have already noticed the difference with the dish soap and the laundry.
With our passage from Tunisia to Sardinia nearly three months ago, we had many mainsail track sliders popping out of the track on a downwind passage. The last time this happened was on passage through the South Pacific in 2015. After a quick inspection of the Tides Marine mainsail track, it was apparent that we needed to buy a new one again. After contacting the Florida office, I was put in touch with their office in Palma Mallorca – and that is just one reason that we came here. The Palma office ordered me a replacement track, and Diane and I rented a car to go fetch it. This is the old track (headed to the rubbish bin) laying on the deck.
The old one came down very easily, but the new one was quite a bit stiffer, and both of us worked very hard for several hours to get it up. The job is done now. We should be fine for ten years.
Twice, we have driven in to Palma by renting an e-scooter (125cc equivalent) similar to one of these. It’s quiet, easy to drive, and we used it to buy boat parts at chandleries and visit the downtown area. Downtown Palma is about a 35-40 minutes drive. We’re still “safe” to drive a scooter.
We bought a new 12V air pump! For years, we have been pumping up our dinghy (and chronically under-inflating it) with a manual foot pump. This is fine if the dinghy is on the dock, or even on our foredeck. However, when the dinghy is in the water, it can be a challenge as you try to balance yourself while pumping with one foot. It really also takes two people, a second person to hold the inflation hose against the valve! We stopped in at Decathlon last week and bought this nifty 12V corded pump. It has a pressure gauge, and will turn off when the desired pressure is reached. I connect it to a “large” Lithium portable battery that I bought a few years ago. This is now an easy, one-person job – and nobody needs to do a balance show while pumping up and down!
With one of our trips to Palma, we visited the Cathedral of Santa Maria of Palma (Cathedral of St. Mary of Palma), more commonly referred to as La Seu (a title also used by many other churches).
This is a Gothic Roman Catholic cathedral built by the Crown of Aragón on the site of a Moorish-era mosque. The imposing cathedral is 121 metres long, 40 metres wide and its nave is 44 metres tall. By way of comparison, the height of the central nave reaches 33m in Notre Dame de Paris, 38m in Reims, 42m in Notre-Dame d’Amiens and 48m in Saint-Pierre de Beauvais, the highest of all Gothic cathedrals. It is quite an impressive cathedral.
Cathedral construction was begun by King James I of Aragon in 1229 but only finished in 1601. It sits within the old city of Palma atop the former citadel of the Roman city, between the Royal Palace of La Almudaina and the episcopal palace. It also overlooks the Parc de la Mar and the Mediterranean Sea.
Downtown Palma is beautiful with many green spaces and parks, and we enjoyed strolling around.
A few weeks ago, our friends Kevin and Sandy on SV NOCONA MOON had to fly back to the USA to attend a funeral. We were close enough to Cartagena that they just continued on for the last two days to make their landfall and finalize their flight arrangements. After being here at Palma for a few weeks, we finally reconnected with more circumnavigators – Jim and Barbara on SV COMPLEXITY.
We first met Jim and Barbara when at Pangkor Marina Malaysia in 2017/2018 and then again as they passed through the Red Sea in 2020. Like us, they are slowly moving West on their circumnavigation.
In addition, we were also invited aboard SV SUNDANCE yesterday for evening sundowners. They were sailing together with SV COMPLEXITY and arrived at the anchorage a day later.
We first met Glen and Ola, in Belatong Indonesia in 2017. Like us, they are slowly sailing West, but will likely do their Atlantic crossing this year.
The water and beaches around our anchorage (Es Fornas, in the suburb of S’Arenal) are noticeably clean, possibly thanks to this boat sea water cleaner!
We have enjoyed walking around ashore, picking up groceries and assorted items. The city is very clean, and yes – there are lots of tourists walking about.
Lastly, Diane finally got “her tattoo”. She has wanted to get a tattoo of a little butterfly for a long time. So, a few days ago, she walked into a shop and had one inked onto her ankle. The only immediate downside – is that she can’t go swimming for 7 days! I wonder how the fly-in tourists get around this? They must get their ink the day they fly out?
