Ibiza, Ibiza, Cala Talamanca

We collected Arno Today for a few weeks sail with us. Our first Mediterranean moor experience went well at the Ibiza Marina, squashed between a couple of other yachts. Pricey ! The most expensive marina we have stayed in at 130 euro’s/night as its still high season rates till the end of September.

Jen and I dressed up and taxied to the airport to meet Arno, then we all headed out for a night on the town. I gave up early..2am, and Jen and Arno partied on with a guy from another yacht till dawn..

We decided to anchor in the next bay for the night before heading North. Cala Talamanca is a nice protected anchorage and we had a good night before heading of in 20k Easterlies to Portinax.

Cala De Sal Rosa

We had a nice sail up from Espalmador. The wind is turning west and we are picking up Arno from the airport so this is a stop off anchorage before Ibiza City. A nice small Cala, well protected but unfortunately we ( I ) picked the wrong spot  to drop the anchor…

Around 2am I felt the wind shift to the North and thought I better check things out seeing as I had expected Westerlies overnight. Hmm 25kn from the North and we are in 1.5m water and getting shallower. We decided to up anchor and move out a bit. Its a pain in the ass in the middle of the night with no lights to get bearings from the shore, but we trusted the chartplotter and reset the anchor. It wasn’t so easy in the conditions, but better safe than sorry. Its always a challenge to pick the right place to anchor. Anyway, we  stayed here 2 nights and decided to book into the marina in Ibiza too make picking up Arno simple.

Formentera – Espalmador

Had a nice 8M sail from Port Roig to Formentera. We booked a buoy online to tie up to for 2 nights at Punta De La Pedrere as well as Espalmador after that.

Formentera is a small island just South of Ibiza. It was our first time on a mooring and after a couple of attempts we managed to tie up Sephina safely.

Its a nice protected bay and a short dinghy ride into the town of La Savina for supplies and sightseeing. We headed into town and bought groceries and ate in one of the marina side restaurants. You can leave your dinghy in the lagoon right by the supermarket. Its too shallow to take Sephina in but its filled with local fishing and pleasure boats as well.

We met some other cruisers there, Tony and Di from Tiger, and Ana and Nicolas, both skippers on privately owner Lagoon 440’s.

Ana and Nicholas invited us for a drink and we had a look around the 440 as well. Nice boat! We liked the upper bridgedeck as well as the spacious seating and the wet bar. Ana and Nicholas have been busy all Summer with charter guests and just now its come to an end for them. They will head back to Barcelona and probably to the Caribbean for their Summer. Not a bad lifestyle! They are both artists and Ana showed us some of her natural fish creations, very beautiful..

Tony and Di are skippers on an owners yacht. Basically they sail where they like and occasionally the owner and some guests fly down to join them. The owner wasn’t on board so they were enjoying cruising and slowly making there way back to Gibraltar for the Winter.

After a couple of nights we headed 5m North to the smaller island of Espalmador. Its a beautiful protected harbour as well and once again we picked up a mooring buoy. We ended up staying more than we had booked for, but there were plenty of spare buoys to choose from. We just had to move once or twice.

We swam to the beach with Balrog, but Jen stopped halfway when she saw a jellyfish! I saw him too, the only one ! grrrrr…

The next day we spent some time on the beach and walked around the island. Found the hot mud baths but didn’t go in as it didn’t look (or smell) too beneficial for our health! We did see lots of other tourists caked in the grey green mud walking along the beach though.

I had a couple of Kite surfs, but the wind wasn’t quite strong enough to kite for very long. Still fun though! Balrog and Jen watched from the beach…

The sand in the beach is squeaky white with a pink tinge on the shoreline. The water is clear aqua blue, like I would imagine the Caribbean. It sure beats Point Wilson..

A couple had dropped anchor from there dinghy to enjoy the view…funny ! Behind is one of the party cats that makes daily trips to the Island from Ibiza. Their lunch menu sounded yummy.

 

The weather is forecast to change a bit and we are planning on picking up our friend Arno from Ibiza so its time to leave Espalmador for now and head toward Ibiza..

Ibiza–Cala Port Roig

A nice lazy sail down to Cala Port Roig. Only 6 knots of wind but we enjoyed sailing and drifting at 3-4 knots most of the way, it’s nice not to be in a hurry for a change.

Port Roig is on the South coast of Ibiza and the sailing book describes it as serene. They’re not wrong, its a beautiful anchorage, not much around except a few houses and fisherman’s huts on the beach. Its well protected from all except the South West.

We came into the anchorage and saw a large empty bay in the Northern corner with clear aqua water and sandy bottom, slowly shelving from 3-4m. Perfect !

Dropped anchor and snorkelled around to explore a bit and check the anchor. A light sea breeze kicked in and blew a few jellyfish into the bay so that's the end of swimming for today.

The mauve stinger can apparently hurt a bit, although I’ve heard some guys say they just sting a bit for a while, no problem..but Jen definitely isn’t convinced!

 

We had planned to head to Espalmador today, but decided Port Roig is too nice to leave, so we will stay a few more days and enjoy the Serenity!

We swam to the beach and went for a walk up the cliff track. A definite contrast to the Ibiza city scene..

Later in the day after a yummy juice we saw a couple of girls staring to do Yoga on the deck outside one of the fishing huts. We swam in and asked if we could join them and they said sure thing. We stretched and tried to remember some postures and had fun. Turned out it was a Yoga instructor and her Mum and they invited us to do a class with them the next morning. Jen woke before me! We swam to the little jetty and did an hour and a half of Hard Yoga, it was so hot in the morning sun, but we felt great after..another beautiful way to start the day!

We could stay in this anchorage a lot longer but unfortunately the wind is heading to the SW so its time to explore somewhere else…

Calpe to Ibiza

IBIZAAA !53 miles, great sail in perfect conditions made Ibiza in 9.5 hrs and anchored off Cala Horts.

Finally it feels like we have arrived at our destination instead of an anchorage or marina on the way somewhere. We have no immediate plans but plan to spend some time exploring Ibiza before heading to Mallorca.

Sailed up the coast in the morning to Isla Conejera, a beautiful island and really nice protected anchorage from the 15k SW blowing. Lots of fish and nice snorkelling. We swam to the beach and 2 minutes later the Park ranger turned up in his boat to tell us we weren't allowed to walk on the island ! Pity because our guide book says we can walk on the island to the lighthouse, but anyway, no biggy. He came to Sephina to write up a notice and I guess they will try send a fine in the mail

Yeah somewhere on this sign in supposedly ‘international language’ it says you cant walk on the island

Maybe its the one in the top left that looks a bit like..don’t tie your boat to a rock..I’m not sure why they need the other 4 pictures if that's the case, its probably a bit hard to pat the lizards. pick the flowers, make a fire or pick up the rocks if you can’t be on the island in the first place ! Maybe just a sign saying Keep Off in a few languages would be more effective! Anyway, the rangers were nice enough, kind of like how a cop tries to be nice as he is writing you a speeding fine…

We swam a bit more and enjoyed the beautiful surroundings anyway and headed into San Antonia to do some groceries later in the day (10/9)

I phoned the marina to ask if we can tie up for a few hours while we shopped. Sure they said, no problem ! I asked how much they charge and she said no problem, ask the guy on VHF when you enter. OK I thought, maybe they dont charge or its 20 euros or something. So we headed in and I called ahead on VHF, oh BTW, how much is it I asked..

‘Oh no problem, talk with the guy on the pontoon when you come in’

Ok Ok, so we went in and came alongside…’Um, how much do you charge for this?’ I asked…

Oh, no problem, ill ask the other guy, he’s not here’ he said.

OK so we tie  up, make sure all the lines are ok and wait for him to come back so we can go get some groceries. 12 euro for 30 minutes he tells us NOW…

hah, thats going to be 50 euros minimum, if we rush ! No thanks mate ! So we depart promptly and head for the bay to anchor and take the dinghy in instead. We anchored nearby Vaughan and Lynda who were here to pick up Julia for a weeks sailing. Dingied in and looked for groceries and Junk food.

Wow lots of drunk poms here, tattoos and bikinis everywhere. Looks like we have really arrived in IBIZA!

Had some food and did some groceries to keep us going for a week or so.

Headed to Cala Port Del Torrent for the night. Nice Anchorage. Swam to the beach with Balrog and checked the anchor and saw a little stingray on the way.

Off to Cala Port Roig tomorrow !

Cartagena to Calpe

Set sail from Cartagena to Isla Tabarca. Had a nice sail and anchored off the island. Nice place and we planned to have a look around but the wind started to blow onshore early so we up anchored and headed East to find somewhere more protected. The sea was lumpy and not very nice to sail or motor into. Jen  had a nap and I explored a few options (zig zagged) until we ended up at Calpe. Calpe is a beautiful anchorage overlooked by Mt Ifach. The water here is really clear and warm and we spent a lot of time snorkelling and trying our new flippers !

Went ashore for a walk and icecream.

Waiting for a good day to sail the 50 miles to Ibiza.