13) Mellorca, Spain

Puerto de Pollensa, Mellorca, Islas Baleares, Spain 39° 54.2 N 03° 05.2 E

Did not sleep well at all last night.  We are swinging on the hook and it’s cloudy outside and raining in the hills.  Alan and John went ashore on the dinghy to scout for fuel, laundry, phone cards, misc.  I stayed behind and made pancakes.  When the craving hits…  The boat was moving around a lot.  The bow was up and down and then we’d roll.  We still had 15-20 knots on the nose.  They returned and then John ferried me to shore and dropped me off.  We agreed to communicate at 3 as to when they would up-anchor, come in to get fuel and meet me at the fuel dock.  I managed to get a phone card in a Tobacco store and made a call to Tina.  This is the first time we talked since I left San Francisco.  The other time I tried to call was in Bonifacio and that didn’t work out.

I managed to have some time to walk through a little of the town before we took on fuel.  Once again, it’s off-season and almost everything is closed.  I had a coffee at the Internet café.  It seems there is one everywhere but not all of them are open when they say they will be.  It was quite cold and windy when we took on about 100 gallons of diesel.  John has the ability to strike up a conversation with anybody and he managed to ask if he could borrow the freshwater hose adapter (it costs $20 in the store) so we could fill up on water, too.  Across the marina are the water spigot and a dock big enough to handle us on a side-tie.  Then, John managed to get us the OK to dock there until we leave Tuesday morning.  Oh yeah, we’re here till Tuesday!  We get the water; Alan finishes the electrical box to go from 230v shore power to 115v; John asks if we can hook up to shore water; we find out we can use the showers, etc.  We’re in a great spot now.  The only things we hear at night are the fenders being squeezed between the boat and the dock.

While I was alone ashore today John and Alan had a “coming to Jesus” meeting in John’s words.  While tied to the new dock, John and I had a conversation and he told me that they had a little talk that needed to be done and things were a little better.  Apparently, Alan wants to “fix” everything to factory standards and he is going overboard.  Today while he was at the engine he wanted to fix something and he broke a fuel line.  We don’t have a spare for everything and there is a time and a place to attempt repairs.  We are in a place where a water pump that costs $60 in the U.S. is $700 here.  Mariners get ripped off all the time.  There is polite friction between those two.  John is confiding in me and finding some camaraderie in the reality of where we are, what we have and what we are attempting to do.  We’ve compared notes and I said that I am concerned that the memories Alan will have of this adventure will be the engine room.  When it is all over he will look at the pictures and ask if that’s where we were.  John and I joke and say why do today what you can do tomorrow.  We want to drink coffee, beer and wine, eat the local food and experience where we are.