2 Brit blokes plan a Sunday BBQ

A visit to Cala de Addaya, on the north east coast of Menorca, was a lucky addition to our plan. I’d had a message from an old work colleague that he and his family would be staying in a villa there, so we had arranged to meet up.

On Saturday 17 May we slipped out of Mahón under sail, once again enjoying the privileged vantage point that you get from being on the water.

We passed close to the fortifications on Isla del Lazareto and La Mola and enjoyed them from a different view point than that which we had had when we were anchored in Cala Taulera.

The forecast had been for very light northerly winds, up to 5kts or so, but in the end we had 8-10kts true from the north-east and so made 5.5-6kts for the 20nm passage in bright sunshine. It was a lovely sail and, because we were beating up the west coast, we passed quite close to the shoreline at some points, which provided us with some great views of beaches and nature reserves.

The approaches to Cala de Addaya are rock-strewn and shallow (and surprisingly reminiscent of bits of NW Brittany) and there are a couple of ‘interesting’ chicanes in entrance channel but once you are well inside the cala it is a very sheltered anchorage with plenty of protection from all directions. There is a marina just to the south of the village (which is primarily a development of holiday villas) and a number of moorings just south of the marina. However, and certainly at this time of year, there is also plenty of space to anchor and, in fact, a number of the yachts with which we had been anchored in Cala Taulera appeared and joined us at anchor in Cala de Addaya over the time that we were there.

Now, planning a BBQ in Spain where we have barely seen a cloud for the last couple of months seemed to be a senible plan. The morning of 18 May was warm and sunny and Nicky chose to row ashore to use the marina’s washing machine to clear our backlog of laundry. BV’s rigging was once again covered in drying linen and clothing when the real consequences of 2 Brit blokes planning a Sunday BBQ struck; dark clouds and rain rolled in. After a mad dash around the deck and some cunning rigging of lines, BV’s saloon was successfully transformed into a Chinese laundry.

What we hoped would be a short shower, however, proved not to be. The rain set in for the rest of the day (and evening) except for a short respite in which we rowed ashore and discovered that Dan, Emma and their baby son, James, were staying in an amazing villa with wonderful views down the cala.

In true British style, the rain did not put a dampener on our enthusiasm to BBQ and we had a lovely evening. Dan and Emma hosted us magnificently and between us we managed to produce an impressive pile of empty wine bottles to recycle.

The next day the weather was much kinder and we took Emma, Dan and James sailing for a few hours as well as enjoying their amazing villa (and its swimming pool) at its best with the sun shining.

We had planned to leave Cala de Addaya for Sardinia on Tuesday 20 May but the forecast was 20+kts of wind from the east and so we elected to delay our departure by a day. Instead, we spent the morning trying (and failing) to trace a suspect water leak and catching up on some other maintenance work. We also took advantage of Dan’s kind offer to drive us to a nearby supermarket where we did a last minute stock-up on all things Spanish prior to our departure for Italian or, if the wind does not match the forecast, potentially French waters.

Addaya, Menorca, Spain