17) Mellorca, Spain

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

Last night we agreed that we would depart today if it looked good outside.  I went to the Internet café (3 Euro per hour) last night and studied the weather charts.  It appeared that there was a window of opportunity that we needed to take advantage of.  Also, we have cabin fever from being in this port and we are ready to move on.

The satellite picture shows the weather system directly over Mellorca.  We’ve been waiting for this to move east so we could move west.  It has been looking pretty ominous in Pollensa but it never really stormed hard.  We think it is because we were in the eye of it.  The locals kept saying that it was horrible offshore everywhere.

Woke up this morning to heavy rain, thunder and lightning.  The run-off quickly turned the bay brown.

 We kind of figured that we weren’t leaving today and then it cleared up!  Let’s blow and go!  We readied the boat and off we went by 1:30pm. 

The red line at the highest part of the picture is where the fuel dock is: it shows that we backed off that dock a few days ago and then went to the dock in the lower right corner for our extended stay.  The confused red line represents our departure from the marina.  We used the wind to blow us off the dock.  This boat does not have bow thrusters and it is a challenge in tight quarters.

The bay was nice with no waves or much wind. 

As we approached the point the swells became much larger.  Then, the wind waves mixed with the swells and it became a ride.  This boat was up and down, left and right but still moving forward.  I managed to get several video clips, as the seas and the boat action were impressive.  I did not get many still shots.  And, the one shot below does not graphically illustrate that it got bad.  We all hung on as the boat swung wildly up, down, left and right.  There was no turning back as that was too dangerous.  The good thing about this 60k lb boat is that it fights back really well.

 Loose things below in the cabin were getting all over.  That was our fault due to a lack of preparation.

Within an hour of this washing machine Alan was sick and down again.  Ultimately, he was down for this entire run.  John and I settled in and figured our route.  We knew the farther we got offshore and away from the land the smoother it would get.  It was an hour of the big rough stuff and then several hours of confused rough stuff.  This turned out to be one shitty ride.  We had to constantly strategize as to whether we would duck in to another bay on Mellorca, head to Ibiza, try for Cartagena, or duck in at Alicante, Spain.

As soon as the rough seas hit, the galley pretty much closes.  That means you have no energy to go there and get something to eat.  It is much safer to stay in one place whether in bed or in the cockpit.  I was in the cockpit from the time we left until midnight.  This passage I kept myself distracted by listening to audio books and music.  It was too rough for me to read and that is a great distraction.

During the sunset hours I managed to get the bag of sunflower seeds and kept myself busy.  The seas settled down during the early morning hours and I actually got some sleep on my time off between midnight and 6am.