Sabbaticus Travel Log: Altea to Palma, Mallorca

Winch Repairs

This passage to the island of Mallorca, which is one of the four main islands that forms the Balearic Islands (Spanish territory), was a short 150Nm distance but took us three days. Fortunately we did not have to be in Palma until 8 Apr to collect our spares so we had the luxury of time. With light winds for most of the passage it was a busy trip with tacking, sails up, engine off, sails down, engine on ...repeatedly! During one tack in the early hours the port winch failed (in manual mode) under load and then failed to turn. This was the same winch we had replaced the control box and switch in Gibraltar (we were scheduled to uplift a new control box for it in Palma to enable electric operation). With the wind dying we decided to anchor in San Antoni Bay in Ibiza and fix the winch. While I had a hot shower and prepared breakfast John had stripped the winch and replaced the pawls. While the winch was tested (manual mode) and working we decided to stay the day to wait for the wind and catch up on sleep.

Entertained by windsurfers at anchor

After a leisurely midday departure and a couple of hours of sailing we then diverted into another Ibiza bay to wait for wind. Setting the alarm clock every 2 hours we finally left at 0530hrs when the wind shift came through. We then had a great sail to Palma in Mallorca. With 2NM to go the wind picked up suddenly to 45kts and caught us by surprise. It was then a lot of shouting to get all the sails down - thankfully achieved without damage. We then anchored off Isle de Porassa for several nights before moving around to Palma Nova and anchoring off the beach.There was a small marina close by so we were able to go ashore most days for the obligatory coffee for wifi and leave our dinghy in the marina. While at anchor enjoying the sundowners on deck we were visited by Spanish Customs - thankfully it was a short visit with no search required.

We caught the bus into Palma (approx 530,000 population) which is the capital

Cathedral Sainta Maria

of the Balearic Islands and visited the predominately Gothic Cathedral built in 1601. The medieval old town surrounding the cathedral was the perfect place meander along the narrow streets soaking up the ambience and history. Palma's main industry is tourism and yachting with the marinas/waterfront at the heart of Palma. This is the superyacht capital of the Med and has the infrastructure to support it. For once we were able to purchase all our spares and have a choice of chandleries - luxury after Gibraltar.

Superyacht mecca

As expected, being the superyacht base the prices matched - we arrived in mid-season and a berth was E75 per night, in high season the cost is E199. There are six marina's in Palma with several thousand yachts in the marina's so plenty of activity and sights to see.

The installation in progress

The key reason we came to Palma was to install a new hot water cylinder and install a new (the second) control box for the port winch (again). Sam from Oyster customer support in the UK provided excellent logistics support ensuring all parts for the hot water installation arrived in Palma, complete with colour photo's and instructions on how to hook up the various inlets and outlets. Likewise, Lewmar couriered us a replacement winch control box to install.

Job completed

This stopover was a busy time for John completing the installations and testing the systems. I kept busy washing the boat down from all the salt which takes about 4hrs to complete by yourself, doing several loads of washing, defrosting the fridge and freezer, purchasing spares, grocery shopping, updating the inventory, re-locating the extra stores and updating the blog. Our three days in the marina quickly passed and we are now ready for the next passage to either Sardinia to Sicily. This will be a relatively slow passage based on the current wind, but if we don't depart now it will be another 10 day delay.

Below are some photos from Palma.