Andraitx, not soft, not strong and not very long

Fortunately, Mallorca is only about 45 miles from Ibiza, not such a long haul, but we still decided to leave early and by 0805 the anchor was up and we were on the next stage of the adventure. We were sailing in company this time, Zephyrus were also crossing and upped anchor shortly after us. Two other yachts had chosen the same anchorage for the same reason and although they set off even earlier, it was reassuring to have some other sails around.

As often happens, there was not much wind in the early hours and we tried to motor sail with the jib out but had to furl it in until around midday when we poled it out again. We had decided to take two-hour stints on watch so that one or other of us would be able to relax for a while, much the same as we do for night passages and it worked well. Visibility was quite poor at times, not misty or foggy particularly but a haze hung on the horizon so that when we were only four miles from Mallorca we still couldn't see land. We joked with Ian over the radio that the island had mysteriously disappeared and in fact we would have to keep sailing until we reached Menorca. Luckily it did finally materialise and we headed into Andraitx, on the East coast, slightly south east of Isla Dragonera. Chris was disappointed that it didn't resemble a fire-breathing monster but I reassured him that perhaps it got its name because a dragon lives there, not because the island looks like one!

Andraitx is a naturally sheltered harbour, surrounded by hills studded with rather expensive looking villas. It has a fair sized fishing fleet and a marina. We nosed around some of the local moorings looking for a spot to drop the anchor but finally decided to pick up an empty mooring and hope that its owner didn't turn up to claim it. As it turned out we were lucky, because the following day a motorboat lingered nearby and the skipper told us that it was his mooring but he didn't need it until next month and we were more than welcome to stay on it! Wow! Zephyrus had tried to anchor but after a couple of nights of dragging and shenanigans they too opted to pick up an empty mooring.

Ashore we realised that this was "Little Germany", many of the shops having German names and mainly containing interior decor products for the villas or designer clothes. One shop caught my eye, The Bikini Shop, and I sauntered over for a casual glance in the window and nearly fell over when I saw the price tag. £120!!! Chris said they were the most expensive triangles of fabric he had ever seen, and they were pretty small triangles! Fortunately, there was an excellent supermarket a short dinghy ride from the mooring and we were able to stock up without painful hours of walking.

The weather stayed fine for a couple of days and then a north easterly picked up and we hung on there until Saturday when we decided we had better get round the corner to Palma, ready to meet Tessa.