We had a lovely sail across to Ibiza (150M), especially once we were through the shipping lanes on Thursday night – there was a lot of shipping going up and down this coast and we were pleased to get away from the main lane and get offshore for a quiet night. We enjoyed a lovely dawn then Ibiza appeared on the horizon. We’d made good time so we anchored up off Formentera for lunch and a swim before heading into Ibiza town. Unfortunately we discovered the new marina must be the most expensive in the world – Euro 190 for the first night; ONLY E140 for subsequent nights. So after Douglas and Edward headed off for the airport and Roy and I had got the laundry done and a major shopping trip, we sailed out to find a quiet and inexpensive anchorage in Cala Llonga on the east coast – and it was a great anchorage with just a few boats and a beautifully calm Mediterranean evening. However we had to go back into Ibiza to pick up Helen and Jackie who had flown from Malta (via Valencia) but who had been delayed a day thanks to Ryanair “technical problems”. Ibiza town has some interesting historical buildings and must before the tourist explosion have been a lovely old town. But now it seems to be the hedonistic capital of the Med. I’ve never seen such a concentration of bars, clubs, restaurants, thronged with such a variety of people from the super rich to the wacky and everything in between – quite an extraordinary place; but a couple of nights there was enough for me!

We sailed north for an overnight stop on the NE corner of Ibiza – unfortunately it was quite a windy night and although we were on the lee side of the island the wind whirled around the cliffs surrounding the bay and we had a bit of a disturbed night as the boat rolled and swung around in the downdraughts. Roy and I were both up several times during the night to check the anchor but it was well dug in and hadn’t dragged. It would have been nice to have a late start but the weather forecast suggested the wind might get quite strong later so we set off for Mallorca at 0700. We had a fast crossing in 22 to 25 knots of wind – even with 2 reefs in the main we maintained around 7 knots speed over the ground. So we arrived in Andraitx, a lovely fishing town in SW of Mallorca, around 1.30pm and had a lovely evening there with Roy and Jackie’s very good friend Geoff who has a property (actually it sounds more like a major construction project as he’s converting an old finca) in the hills near Andraitx. Next day, Wed 8th, Roy and Jackie were flying out of Palma so we sailed round from Andraitx again in a good breeze over 20 knots – at least until we got into Palma bay where the wind died and we had to motor into Palma. But however you enter the bay it’s a wonderful view with the great cathedral sitting above the marina.