Towards the Balearics

Our last night in Cartagena was another windy one, as forecast, though there was a beautiful sunset. The morning, however, brought much more settled weather so we departed on Tuesday 22 April as planned and headed east along the coast towards Cabo de Palos. The wind was very light so we had to motor for the first couple of hours, until we reached the headland.

Farewell to the SE tip of Spain, Cabo de Palos

At Cabo de Palos we said farewell to mainland Spain and turned north-east towards the Balearic Islands.

As we moved away from the land the wind built and from then on we had great sailing weather: warm with clear skies and smooth seas. The wind was behind us as well so we set the spinnaker. However, within an hour the wind had risen further and reached our self-enforced ‘drop the spinnaker’ limit. [Ed: if we don’t get the spinnaker down at this point, Reg gets lifted off the deck by the sail as he works to get the snuffer sock down over the sail!]  So, we dropped the kite and carried on under main and poled-out genoa, and still we whizzed along at about 7kts.

We sailed overnight alternating on watch. At one point the wind dropped away to virtually nothing so we had to motor for a couple of hours but just before dawn the wind increased again and we had a cracking sail towards the rising sun as Ibiza appeared.

L’Ahorcados and Freu Grande channel

Ibiza city (and a big Italian yacht)

We were aiming for the Freu Grande which is a narrow channel between Ibiza and Formentera. It is clearly marked with black and white towers and cardinal buoys and is very obvious with the continuous stream of high speed ferries zipping backwards and forwards connecting Formentera with the city and airport on Ibiza.

We sailed past Ibiza town choosing instead to head towards a cliff about 5 miles further north-east. In honour of the notorious club scene in Ibiza though I did have an English Lager for breakfast (at about 11am) and very cooly wore my sunhat backwards (although that was an accident and didn’t have quite the same effect as a back to front baseball cap).

As we approached the cliff a narrow gap opened up which led into Cala Llonga where we anchored. It is sheltered and, having a sandy bottom, the sea is a beautiful turquoise. Time to relax ‘Ibiza Club 40-something’ style!

Cala Llonga

Cala Llonga, Ibiza, Spain