Cala Pi - trigonometry never looked this good at school

Talk about lucky. We had asked Tessa to bring some good weather with her and the morning of our trip to Cala Pi could not have been more ideal for a first ever sail. The sea was smooth and there was a light southerly breeze, force 3 maximum that meant our proposed journey would be close hauled on starboard tack for most of the trip. With full main and jib we sailed the whole way, barely heeling over in the beautiful sunshine. There were a few other yachts about and a couple of enormous cruise liners were heading into Palma. Fortunately we didn't have to tack out of the way for either of them and soon Tessa was taking the tiller and learning how to helm! She found it much easier, like I do, to follow a course by lining up something on the boat with an object on the horizon, rather than follow the compass. We are enjoying getting back into eyeball navigation, much more similar to the holidays we spent in Greece before we bought La Premiere.

As we turned more to the east, off the wind our speed slowed but it was so lovely we didn't bother with the engine. Eventually, though, it had to go on to get us into the rather narrow cala. We nosed in, gingerly, worried that it might turn out to be too busy for us but Chris was satisfied with a spot near to the entrance and we dropped the anchor. Then the race was on to get the dinghy pumped up to take the second anchor out to limit swinging as it was so narrow. Tessa and I made a start but I had forgotten to adjust the valves so that when I took the pump off nearly all the air I had laboured to get in flooded back out. Chris came to the rescue and soon he had the second anchor laid and we were able to relax....almost. Cala Pi is a popular spot and all afternoon we were entertained by anchoring antics, one boat almost broadsiding us, and an unbelievable number of yachts squashing into the little cove. By nightfall there were 12 of us anchored there and we had a third anchor out for a belt and braces approach! We were glad not to have to tie up to a rock ashore, as most did, because the chafe on the warp must be considerable.

It was an idyllic spot, one of our favourite ever and with a new slave aboard to row us ashore Chris and I felt a bit like the owners of the mega yacht anchored outside who had a crew member to take them ashore in the RIB! At the top of the eastern cliffs a new development has been built but we managed to find a path up to the deserted western cliff top where we had brilliant views of Cala Pi. We swam there, the first dip for Chris and me this year. Giblet looked on, extremely confused by our decision to go in the water on purpose. Our second night there was much less busy, only about six yachts and we realised that it was probably because all the charter boats had gone back to their home ports for change over on Saturday.