In and around the Balearics - end Aug - Sep 2009

Balearics

It seems strange being almost settled in one place after so long on the move,so I'm not charting each trip any more. Now we’re in the Balearics we’ve turned into a floating hotel with guests arriving or leaving every few days.
The first few nights in Majorca were spent in Andraxt which is gorgeous, everything a Spanish port should be – good facilities, a pretty town, a supermarket nearby, a few interesting looking shops (by that I don’t mean chandleries…) and a swimming pool! Greg joined us there before we moved onto Santa Ponsa for one night, where his friend Vish came on board and the two of them enjoyed the delights – or otherwise – of Magaluf. On Friday, Christian, Adam and Leonie arrived, by which time we were in Puerto Portals, an upmarket marina where the small shops of Andraxt were replaced by designer boutiques and matching price tags. I did a quick restock at the local supermarket and almost keeled over when the tab came to 135e (I was expecting it to be about 50e, but I should have realised how ridiculous the prices were when I saw “fish bread” for sale – it was actually yesterday’s stale bread which you could buy to feed the fishes!)
With the kids keen to sample the nightlife, we took them over to Ibiza and spent the day at anchor in a delightful, unspoilt bay where we jumped off the back of the boat into the clear water and the boys took the dinghy and headed off to the nearest beach shack. In the evening we went into San Antonio. The place gives a dump a bad name! English tourists of the worst variety were drunk on the streets by 8pm, some of them dressed in nothing more than their underwear – when a bunch of 20 somethings tell you that the place is vile, you know it’s bad! However, they all went out clubbing at one of the clubs they’d heard about and returned to the boat a couple of hours before us oldies were getting up the following morning.
As a complete contrast, we then went back to Formentera, where the beach is so perfect it’s hard to believe you’re in Europe. Lunch was at one of those beach cafes where your feet are buried in the sand and the fish is so fresh it has barely stopped swimming. Frank kindly took us for a stroll in the afternoon, ostensibly to see the view but strangely enough, he led us straight to the gay/nudist beach! We spent the night at anchor in the bay, sharing a glorious sunset and apparently there was a glorious sunrise to match the following morning but Frank was the only one up and about to see it. Later in the day we had a reasonable crossing back to Majorca and returned to Portals, and the following day Greg and Vish left.
We headed next for Cala d’Or, stopping en route for an afternoon on the beach at Es Trenc – what a gorgeous place. The water was crystal clear and the beach lovely, although again quite a few people strolling round wearing nothing more than a smile on their faces. Christian was positively traumatised by an overweight woman of an age when she shouldn’t even be topless rising from the water alongside him completely naked!
Cala d’Or is lovely, a small port tucked up a meandering inlet with the town perched on the hill above. From here we went out to spend time at anchor at Mondrago, just 3 miles away and the last afternoon with Christian, Leonie and Adam ended with all of us diving from Zaffina into the deliciously warm water of the bay. They left us on Saturday and Frank and I are still here, waiting now for our next guests to arrive in a couple of hours.