3rd Octsober 2015 At 10:30am we crossed a narrow bar into Port D’Aro, this decision was made in very rough seas as Stormvogel had a continual bilge alarm going that they could not access, so it was decided to take shelter in the marina in Port D’Aro.
The charts said the entrance was dangerous in SE to NE winds, the wind we had was coming from the South, but as we got closer to the marina entrance the wind dropped, the waves, however, did not! A coast guard vessel passed close beside us but he carried on past the entrance. (Wish we would have too!)
We checked it out, it was a very narrow entrance, with natural rock on the Port side, and the manmade rock wall on the starboard side, and there were certainly waves rolling in but they weren’t breaking and the decision was made to enter the bar. We got about half way in when a large wave picked up our stern and pushed us toward the rocks on the starboard side. Robbie was driving from the fly bridge, and I was sitting in the pilothouse chair. I yelled out “robbieeeeeeeeeeeee” and he yelled back “yeah I know”. I could have touched the rocks, but thankfully Robbie got control and was able to make the 90 degree turn to Port to enter the marina.
The problem with Southern Star is that she is a heavy slow boat and in conditions like that we would have been better staying out in the ocean. We were both very shaken and very relieved that we made it through without any incident. We both agreed we will never do that again.
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5 Octsober Robbie walked into town and got a new sim card for the internet. This is the first priority in a new country, to get our communications for phone and internet. Luckily the marina is very close to a big shopping centre. It is also surrounded by buildings and structures that we presume would have been built for the 1992 Olympics. Heidi and Jo went shopping and got our hair cut. There was an excellent supermarket in the shopping centre the only hassle is carrying it back to the boat!
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After a wrong turn driving and walking for half an hour the wrong direction, we finally found the Tarragona Aquaduct, a very old stone multi-arch bridge constructed across the valley, hundreds of years ago. It was built for water and sewer and is very picturesque.
8 Octsober Robbie is on the aluminium hunt for some bar to attach our storm windows with. We didn’t have much joy with that but we went and had lunch with Colin from Albatross another Nordhavn 47. He was in a marina only 20 miles South of us. It was cool seeing another boat like ours – same same but different! It’s a really lovely boat with gorgeous black granite kitchen benches and real terracotta tiles in the kitchen and bathrooms. Very nice! Plus, they have Tilly – the cutest Lhasa Apro dog. She was so friendly and loved a tickle and scratch, I wanted to take her home with us! Unfortunately we didn’t get to meet Carole she was back in the UK. We eventually got the aluminium sorted but couldn’t collect it until tomorrow.
9 Octsober I was sick all day and spent all day either in bed or on the toilet. Not nice. Robbie had to go and pick up his aluminium and then take the hire car back. Robbie thinks I am trying to poison him as he got sick too but I am not that evil! Not sure what made us sick, it wasn’t the restaurant meal from yesterday as Colin ate the same food as I did so maybe it was my cooking…
10 Octsober We had a real quiet day trying to feel well again. Mostly read all day which is very unusual for us. I am reading the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child on my kindle and Robbie is onto the 3rd book in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. Because I am such a fast reader the kindle is great, I can download a book and be reading it in about 1 minute. I have also started the David Baldacci series John Puller, it’s also quite good.
11 OctsoberWe departed on the 150 nautical mile overnight passage from Port Forvm for Mallorca around lunchtime. We timed this so we would arrive in daylight. We had a good weather forecast but someone forgot to tell the weather that and it ended up being quite uncomfortable. The wind and swell were on our nose. We changed course 20 degrees to Port which helped a little. We then ran alongside the West side of the island and around the Northern tip, arriving into La Palma just after 12 midday. We got a berth in La Lonja marina, for gulp, 85 euros per night including power and water. It is a very nice location though and is overlooked by the magnificent Catherdral de Mallorca. Our friends David and Andrea Mackay, from Sydney on their yacht Diomedea were there and it was great to catch up with them again. We last saw them in Greece on Fournoi Island. Unfortunately we won’t see them again as they are wintering Diomedea and returning to Australia to work for a few months. Then they will return and continue sailing next season to England and Ireland.
We broke our Octsober dry spell for this special occasion and had sundowners on Southern Star with Diomedea and Stormvogel.Back on the bandwagon tomorrow though!!
13 Octsober A bit of cleaning and boat jobs and Robbie went to source new hydraulic hoses for the main engine oil lines. One of the hoses had started to bubble. Our Coffee machine has started playing up and only spitting out water in spurts and then stops. Luckily Andrea had mentioned there is a Nespresso boutique in town so we went for a walk and brought a new coffee machine and a stock of pods. We saw some very strange seeds, including Marijuana seeds. We got home and of course tried the new coffee machine and it wouldn’t work properly. Robbie doesn’t RTFM ever, and I did but it didn’t help as it was mainly Spanish and a few pictures. We were too tired to take it back then so left it for tomorrow night.
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We raced back to the boat where we were off for dinner with David, Andrea, Peter and Heidi. We went to a very nice restaurant overlooking the marina and again, we broke our Octsober pledge with a bottle of red wine. It was very nice though.
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