Arriving at Menorca

Several boats pottered out of the marina as we prepared to weigh anchor so it seemed that the forecast of a west wind had spurred several of us to make the passage to Menorca. I had wanted to go to Ciutadela, on the west coast but with a Westerly wind it was not such a good idea so we decided to aim for a cala on the south coast, well sheltered from the west but apparently pretty and a good spot for a swim. Spirit were about a mile ahead of us as we set off under engine at about 1000.

I opted for first watch and it was pretty easy going since there was no wind and no hazards to dodge. At mid-day Chris took over and I went below for a bit of a kip, but only 15 minutes later I heard him hauling up the main and unfurling the jib! I can't trust him not to tinker for five minutes! A very light northerly had picked up, but not enough to be engineless so we continued to chug along. When I came back on watch at 1400 we got the main down again. The jib had already been furled and once again there was nil wind! We could already see Menorca and so we decided to give Spirit a call to see if they wanted to eat on La Premiere and they seemed keen enough and we arranged a rendezvous in Cala Son Saura. It was pretty hot and very sunny and I was looking forward to a relaxing swim in the turquoise water. With Menorca now on our port side it was only a few miles to our chosen Cala when a southwesterly breeze piped up. "Not so good" we thought, but having had such little wind we put it down to being a bit of an afternoon sea breeze and assumed it would die away in the evening.

We anchored on the west side of the cala, in about 6 metres over sand, and we could see the bottom. The log had been clogged up all the way so we changed into our swimming things and Chris dived under the boat to sort it out while I swam over to Neil and Tracey to arrange a time for dinner. Having been flat calm all day some swell was managing to wobble through and we all expressed a little dismay at the thought of a rolly night on anchor. I cooked up a curry and we played pontoon for matchsticks until about 2230. By that time the wind was still pretty much southerly and the swell was coming straight in the bay. We hardly slept!

We rose late the following morning, to the sound of a ships bell. Thursday Island was leaving, (we had only realised they were in the same bay rather late in the evening!) and decided to give us a call. It stirred us into action though and we radioed Neil to find out their plans. We thought we'd head round to the east coast as we didn't fancy another night in a rolly cala and that was about all the south coast had on offer and Spirit had come to much the same conclusion. They were ready to go, however, and so we said we'd see them later. Only about 15 minutes later we were on our way too, having decided to leave last night's washing up until we got to our next stop!
The wind had backed further to the southeast and at last it was good enough to sail. With both sails full and no engine (hoorah!) we were creaming along close hauled at 6 knots in a force 3! I was helming while Chris did the tweaking and as we caught up with Spirit (a Beneteau Oceanis 400) he suggested we radio Neil to get him to video us as we sailed. They were happy to give it a go and we were pleased with the results, even though it's a bit wobbly in places and the soundtrack includes Neil's comments on feeling ill when he zoomed in for us to wave, but then you can't expect a cinematic masterpiece from a sailor on a moving yacht!

We slowly edged away from them and the close haul became more of a beam reach as the wind changed a little. We were sailing past some amazing cliffs and I'm sure some lovely anchorages but the southerly component in the wind urged us round to the east. Three hours into the trip and we were joined by dolphins once again! They played and rolled in our bow wave for what seemed like an age but eventually they moved on. We had to pass between an island and the southeastern tip of Menorca and it felt strange to be on passage in clear blue water only 6 metres deep. We furled the jib in as we turned onto a run as we were being lazy and could not be bothered with poling it out to goose wing with only a few miles to go. After perusing the pilot book we had decided to head in to Mahon, but only just inside the entrance to a very sheltered anchorage called Cala Taulera, tucked inside La Mola and behind Isla del Lazareto. We sailed right in, through a narrow (and shallow) passage just as the wind gusted up to force 6! There was room in the cala to manoeuvre though, and we managed to get the main down in quite a swift manner and then picked a spot to anchor. What a fantastic sail!