30th Sept; Santa Eulalia Marina, Ibiza, to Racco des Barro, Formentera !
Well, the alarm was set for 8.30 and its breakfast at 9am – but there are no lessons for us today, as we are moving on! No showers, either, for us this morning, as the shower keys don’t work. The marina office didn’t update them when I paid for an extra night the other day. Hmmf! I am popping to Mercadona (a supermarket) for a supplies top up, while Rob and Jack prepare Hoopla. Rob & I checked us out and we slipped our lines at 12.30. Whilst still in the marina, I popped Hoopla in neutral while Rob and Jack brought the dinghy round from the bows to the stern and lifted it onto the davits. Great team work! We left the marina and met a metre swell! Not brilliant but ok. We motor-sailed in this for 1.5 hours but for the last hour, Rob switched the engine off and we are now sailing. Lovely. We dropped our anchor at 4pm in a beautiful, turquoise bay! We’ve arrived! I’ve been looking forward to coming here since planning this trip. Rob & I (mainly I!) are looking forward to exploring our last Balearic island tomorrow.
1st Oct; Racco des Barro, Formentera !
Oh. My. Life! What a very, very rolly night we had last night! Courtesy of the ferries and motor boats. Thanks! No school again today as we have all decided to go ashore and explore (and to get away from the roll!). A quick swim after breakfast for Rob & Jack before taking the dinghy to the beach beside the marina. Jack wanted to test out my phone waterproof case – and it didn’t do too bad! We had a lovely look around the town. There are loads of bike hire places but unfortunately, most shops are closed for their siesta. Rob and I will pop back later, but in the meantime we had a very nice lunch. We returned to Hoopla and decided to move bays, as it is so rolly here, and the bay near the marina looks so calm! We motored over only to then discover that it’s bouys only. So, after a little panic of sorting out the boat-hook and changing the ropes, we picked one up nearest the shore. Oh my life! It is SO much calmer here! No nasty, wasty, rolly waves. Good call Rob! A man in a rib came over to us and said its €30 per night, but he will be around in the morning. He wants us to pay then as he wants to finish for the day hahha. Later, Rob & I took the dinghy to shore again and, over a beer and a sangria, we looked at the weather forecast. Unfortunately, really strong winds are due here in the early hours of Sunday morning (it’s Friday afternoon now), for 4/5 days(!) So, we have a choice: we can stay here for another 6/7 days and explore this piece of Formentera (which is what I have wanted to do since we started back in June) or head back to mainland Spain and shelter there. Do we pay the €180/210 to stay or cut our visit very short? After much deliberation, we thought it best to head for mainland Spain tomorrow. As much as I want to see Formentera, not €180’s much! It’s an 11 hour journey, so we need to be leaving here by 7am. This means that we won’t be seeing the rib guy to pay for tonight. This will leave a bitter taste in our mouths but there’s not much we can do about it. We had a look around the shops (and bought a Formentera flag!) before returning to Hoopla. We got her ship-shape before dinner, so we can go straight to bed after. Our alarm is set for 6am. Tomorrow we officially start heading for Cartagena. Our hols are slowly ending…
Oct 2nd; Racco des Barro, Formentera, to Cala Sardinera, mainland Spain
Ouch! Our alarm woke us up at 6am and it was breakfast at 6.30. We’re both fairly groggy (we don’t do mornings) but we are quite keen to get underway, and get this crossing over. At 7.10, we slipped our bouy during a lovely sunrise. Jack was fast asleep, so we left him in bed. We have no stunning coastline to look at, as we are crossing from an island to the mainland; just sea, sea, sea and more sea….
We did have a very quick visit by quite a large pod of dolphins. I counted 7 and it was quite exciting! We mostly had a majority of a flat sea with 8 knots of wind for this passage. Two hours from our anchorage, though, we had gusts up to 22 knots(!) with a sea to suit. Not so good. It was a llooooonnngg day today and Rob did very well to get us here, in Cala Sardinera, and we picked up our bouy at 6.10. We all like this bay, its very peaceful This was our last longest journey of the season and we are now back on mainland Spain. Cartagena, we’re on our way.
