Our crossing from mainland Spain to the first island in the Baleares went much faster than we had planned. After we had pulled up anchor in the harbor at Calpe and set sail for Ibiza, we had to motor to get out from the influence of Mount Ifach. Once out a few miles the winds blew quite strong from southeast and soon we were under sail only. During the afternoon we played cat and mouse with some big ships, and of course it was our little boat that gave way. Most of the time we were sailing along over six knots, so by 0300 on the morning of May 5, 2001 we arrived about 20 miles outside the islands of Ibiza and Espalmador. We had come 62 miles in less than twelve hours! Since we didn't want to arrive in the dark, we pulled in the sail and just drifted in the sea until daylight arrived. It was getting a bit uncomfortable drifting at the mercy of the wind and the waves, and both Dan and I didn't feel great at all. We both were dead tired and that's when I, at least, felt queasy. I believe we both nodded off a few minutes now and then, without even realizing it. About 0500 we started the engine and headed towards the islands. We still had about 20 miles to go, and it would be daylight by the time we arrived.

We were heading for the northwest corner of Isla Espalmador and Torretas, where we knew our friends on XTC were anchored. They had found a very shallow lagoon, where only catamarans and small powerboats could enter. Our first try through the opening was not a success! We ended up getting stuck on a sandbar. With the engine in reverse and the waves helping, we slowly rocked off the sandbar and backed out into deeper water. On our second try we made it through, and finally we were inside the lagoon in calm and the clearest water I had seen. It looked like we should be hitting bottom, but somehow it was enough water under our keels. Once we were anchored and secured, both Dan and I needed some sleep, so we were off to bed for a couple of hours. When we woke up again, it was shower time for us, clothes needed to be put in water to soak, the boat needed picking up, and soon a fresh pot of coffee was prepared. Tom and his lady friend Val came over for a cup of coffee, and we got invitation for dinner onboard their boat for the evening.

For five relaxing days we enjoyed the solitude of our lagoon, and of course we went ashore to explore the little island of Torretas and the bigger island of Espalmador. There were no houses on Torretas, and only one on Espalmador. Now and then smaller craft had ventured into our lagoon, but only for day visits. While we were still in our lagoon, we noticed strange orange colored clouds to the south one evening. When the rain started falling, our boats got covered with red sand that fell with the rain; it was sand from Africa that had gotten blown up into the clouds and finally dumped on the Baleares. I guess it's not an unusual occurrence, but to us it was strange to say the least. Our boats were covered in red sand, and it was not easy to wash off either.

By Thursday, May 10 it was time to leave our safe and secure lagoon behind and head across to the island of Ibiza. We decided to spend the money for a spot in the marina at Botafoch, where we paid about $25.00 per night, without water and electricity. We stayed in the marina two nights, and during that time we took a small ferry across the bay into the heart of the city of Ibiza. First we were looking for an Internet store, but since our departure from Almeria, those stores were getting harder and harder to find. When we did find one, the price to use a computer had at least doubled if not tripled. On the left side of the entrance to Ibiza, high up on the rock, sits a fortified cathedral with a wall around it. We walked around and looked at the beautiful view from high above the city the last day we were there, but other than that we didn't take time to see more of Ibiza.

On Saturday, May 12 we were ready to continue, but first we had to fuel up. Once that was completed, we powered out from the port of Ibiza, and our next stop would be a cove on the north side of the island. There we anchored over night and got ready for the bigger crossing to Mallorca the following morning. The alarm rang at 0600 on Sunday and as soon as we were ready we pulled up anchor and headed east. Once we were out in the open sea, we had 10-20 knots of southerly winds, so for quite some time we flew our jennicker. When the winds changed to southeast, that sail had to come down and the genoa now pulled us forward. By 1600 that afternoon we had reached Mallorca and lay on anchor in a bay on the southwestern corner of Palma Bay. We had come another 45 miles farther east! The bay, Cala Portals, where we threw over the anchor, was very crowded to begin with, but even so we managed to squeeze in. By nightfall most of the boats had pulled up their anchors and left; our cruising guide had said this Cala to be very popular with the local people, and one beach was supposedly "nude". We did see some people ashore, who enjoyed the sun in their birthday suits!

We had called ahead to Palma and secured two spots in a marina for Monday night, so during the day we headed about eight miles farther up Palma Bay and arrived at the very busy port at Palma! Even two United States navy ships were tied up to one dock, but the rest of the docks and marinas catered to commercial freighters, cruis ships and private yachts of all sizes and shapes. We marvelled at some of these yachts; how could anybody have enough money to own one, let alone be able to pay a crew to run and maintain it! Way out of our league! We were shocked at the price for one night bow-to at Pier 46 for our boat - $41.00, but of course that included water and electricity! Why we ended up staying for four nights I don't know, as we didn't like the city at all. It was too big and busy! What was real nice, was a train ride across the mountains up to the northern town of Soller, but once in the city it didn't offer much. A short open tram ride down to its port was nice, and there we saw some sailboats laying on anchor. We wished we had gone there instead of to Palma!

Back to Cala Portals on Friday, May 18, where we lay anchored and waited for suitable winds, so we could continue around Mallorca's southerly tip and up along side its southeastern shores. Not until Monday did we hear some favorable winds for our journey, so then we decided to pull up anchor and head out. Once away from our anchorage, the winds came from northeast for a while, before they totally died down. We motored, but our friends on XTC tried to continue sailing and got farther and farther behind. Of course as soon as the wind increased and came from the west, XTC pretty soon caught up and passed us. When we rounded Punta de las Salinas, the southern most tip of Mallorca, the winds came straight on the nose. Once again the motor was turned on and we powered all the way up to our next port, which was at Puerto Petro. There we were able to find anchorage in a nice protected cove, and once we had found a sandy spot on the bottom, to set our anchor in, we were dug in. We had to try a couple of times before our anchor dug in, because when it fell on the grassy areas, it would hold but not very good. XTC arrived after us, but they were also able to find a suitable anchorage spot.

Puerto Petro was just a port and tourist town, a few stores with food was available, but for anything more we had to take a taxi up to the next town, which was Cala D'Or. There we even found the Internet Cafe. Wednesday, May 23 we just took it easy and tried to get some updated weather reports and on Thursday we decided that it was ok for us to continue again. The winds were ok to begin with, but as so many times before, that didn't last. As soon as the winds started coming right on the nose, we pulled in the sails and motored forward. Our plans were to sail to a bay on the northern shores of Mallorca, where we could easily get across to Menorca, but when the winds changed its direction, so did we. Instead, we looked in our cruising guide and chose Cala de Canamel as our destination. It was an open bay, but somewhat protected from the winds, except from northeast! It had the clearest water and at a depth of 30 feet, we could see the bottom! Once we were anchored, the water was so beautiful and beckoned me to come in for a swim. I changed into my bathing suit and slowly went down the swimladder; the water wasn't that warm, but very refreshing!

We found out that a grocery store was available on shore, behind the row of hotels, so in the afternoon on Friday, May 25, Dan, Duke and I rowed ashore. We rowed over to a cave along the shore to have a look first, and as it was a pretty narrow opening into the cave, we just made it. Inside it was gloomy and the strangest hooting noices came from the edge of rock and waterline. The water made that noice as it tried to find its way under the rock! Not a place I wanted to linger in, so soon we were on the way over to the pier and tied our boat up. Once some groceries were bought, we returned to our boat and prepared to continue our journey towards Menorca the next morning.

By 0800 on Saturday we were on the way, and to begin with we had no wind at all. That is not unusual close to shore and early in the morning! A couple of miles out from the island, we encountered northeasterly and light wind, so we could fly our jennicker for awhile. If the wind wouldn't increase by noon, we had talked about changing course more for the middle of Menorca, rather than the southeastern corner, we now were heading for. By noon the wind had picked up some, and by the middle of the afternoon we had too strong wind instead. It now came from more east-northeast and gusted up to 38 knots, so it was getting a bit lumpy. The biggest problem we encountered was the dinghy. Dan had opted to tow it, as we were just going across to Menorca, and what could happen in that short a distance? Well, the wind increased and so did the waves, and the dinghy started filling up with water that splashed over its edges! Nothing we could do but continue and hope it wouldn't swamp totally, as there wasn't the slightest chance for Dan to hoist it up by then! As the winds were coming on the nose, Dan started the engine to help us point more towards shore, as we had given up the plan of continuing up the eastern side to the city and port at Mahon. Instead, I looked in our cruising guide and picked out some options for safe anchorages along the southern coast. By 1630 we had come 36 miles farther east and were safely anchored inside some rock islands in a bay called "Cala de Binibeca". The winds continued to howl in the rigging, but the water was very calm in the bay, and we felt very safe and secure.

Early the next morning, before the wind had a chance to start blowing from any direction, we motored our way around the southeastern point of Menorca and made our way up and into the big port at Mahon. The city and main port lie quite a distance inland, but since it's a natural and very deep port, big ships can maneuvre all the way to the end. We went all the way up to the end, before we decided to tie up to a floating pontoon, along the eastern side of the bay and straight across from the city. The charge to be tied to the pontoon was for our boat, about $11.50, and that included water and electricity. Of course we had to use our own dinghy to get ashore, which wasn't a big deal. We stayed on the pontoon for three nights, before we moved to a mooring close by for an additional three nights. The charge of $6.70 per night for the mooring was worth it I thought, otherwise we would have had to anchor in a cove almost at the mouth of the bay.

Dan was able to get his moped ashore on Menorca, and he did quite a bit of sightseeing with it on the island. A couple of days I went with him, but I just didn't want to ride the whole time, so instead I made Dan stop at historical ruin sites to have a look. There are quite a few ruines on the island, where people lived thousands of years ago, and we couldn't help but be impressed by the ingenuity of placements of huge stones for roofs over their dvellings. We entered a few caves, natural and manmade, where people lived, and we could still see the black soot on stones, where their fire had been. I even crawled through a small opening in a burial stone building, to see what it looked like on the inside. There was two floors inside the building, otherwise just open space where the dead were placed. The archaeologists had removed more than 50 skeletons from this particular burial site!

In the city of Cituadella, on the western side of the island, we found a Burger King, where we decided to have lunch one day while sightseeing. Has a whopper ever tasted that good or the french fries? Both Dan and I thoroughly enjoyed our whopper meal! Most of the time we eat onboard and meat is not on the menu often. The beef here doesn't taste very good, but the pork and chicken is quite all right, if a bit pricey! Anyway, everything we needed we found in the city of Mahon! Almost every morning a big cruise ship arrived and unloaded its passangers, but one hardly noticed the tourist in the city, and by night fall they were gone. I liked Mahon much better than Palma, as Mahon seemed to be a living and working city and not just a big tourist trap! Even as much as I liked Mahon, of course we now had to start thinking about continuing our trip. We wanted to be in Corsica by the middle of June, and on June 2 we were still on Menorca. We had been listening to every possible weather station we could hear, but none seemed to be very accurate for the weather we experienced on the island. An Irish boat, that had just returned from a round-the-world cruise, listened to and printed out NavTex weather reports for us, and our friends from the Dutch boat Mrs. Jones on Corsica did the same. Finally, we decided that on Sunday June 3 the weather sounded good for the overnight crossing, so we prepared to head across about 200 miles of tricky water in order to reach the most northern tip of Sardinia!