Monday 7 September 2015

Another Balearics cruise

We have decided to base Mango on the Spanish coast for a couple of years as we realised that we need to keep working for a while but have enjoyed the Balaerics so much that we decided to sacrifice being able to sail every weekend to be able to have longish holidays in the Med.

This year we went out for July and August and sailed out to Soller (on Mallorca), which was as beautiful as we remembered and from there went up to Pollensa and then to Menorca and managed to sail round to Mahon.  We had hoped to do more but the weather was unsettled and as we avoid going to sea when a Force 5 or thunderstorms are forecast so our sailing time was constrained.

Mahon was well worth the visit.  We did not get ashore as the weather turned and we decided to head back to Mallorca rather than get weather bound by a NE gale.  We had heard that it was difficult to moor in Mahon, but the anchorages had space and there was loads of empty spaces on the pontoons we saw near the islands.

We had driven out to the boat on our new (to us) motorhome and came back via Vielha (which took us roughly through the middle of the Pyrenees).  It was (almost) worth the loss of sailing time as the scenery is so dramatic.  We were particularly impressed by the amount of hydroelectric plants there were on the rivers - nothing wasted.

Biggest surprise of the trip was another Tiki 30 moored across the pontoon from us.

Biggest anxiety of the trip was a wheel bearing starting to make a noise after descending the Pyrenees, but after a check by an wonderful French mechanic and following his advice on driving slowly we got back without any problems.

Some photos from the trip are below.

Puerto de Soller 

Torent de Pareis

Passing Ile de L'Aire, Menorca
Clouds being sucked into a thunderstorm over Valencia

View over canal running alongside the river Ebro

Lake behind dam

Dam in Pyrenees (sorry, forgot to note the name)

Half way up

Rest area before Vielha tunnel (all downhill from here)

No comments:

Post a Comment