Ciudadella to Mahón

We had decided to spend a couple of days in Cala d’es Frares after which we wanted to move on towards Mahón. The forecast for Wednesday 14 May was for strong (up to about 25 knots) northly winds to blow until the early evening and for the wind to back to the north-west and decrease during the evening and overnight. It’s 35nm from Ciudadella south, east-south-east and then north to Mahón so we planned to leave Cala d’es Frares at about lunchtime which meant that we would be beating north the final 5nm or so to Mahón as the wind dropped. The later start also gave us time for another early morning run before the sun got too hot.

Since we had tied 2 lines to the shore and we did not want to have to recover the dinghy on board, deflate and stow it whilst we were underway, we rigged a third, very long, line that ran from BV’s stern through the ring on the shore and back to BV. We were then able to recover the other 2 lines, get the dinghy back on board and stowed away before slipping the long line and recovering the anchor in the normal way.

Once out of the anchorage we realised just how protected we had been in Cala d’es Frares where the wind indicator had shown just 7kts from the north. As we cleared away from the shore and hoisted the mainsail (with 1 reef) we were exposed to the full force of the wind which was blowing at about 20kts. Since it was nearly lunchtime (and why make cooking difficult by heeling over too much?) we sailed south to Cabo Dartuch and a short way along the south coast under mainsail only.

However, once lunch and the washing up were completed we unrolled most of the genoa and absolutely flew along at 7.5 to 8.5 kts towards the south-east corner of Menorca, Punta Prima. The sun shone, the sea was a beautiful deep blue and BV was in her element. Sailing doesn’t get much better! The view of Menorca was pretty special too. The island is much flatter than either Mallorca or Ibiza and from Cabo Dartuch at the south-west corner it was possible to see all the way along the island to the Punta Prima in the south-east.

Menorca is also far less developed than the other 2 islands and though the south coast has the island’s best beaches, around which most of the development has taken place, these beaches are quite widely spaced and there are large areas scrub, heathland and wilderness. It is very attractive, particularly on a lovely sunny day.

The wind hadn’t dropped significantly as we approached Punta Prima so we put in another reef for the final 5nm beat up to Mahón and cut in close to the point, aiming to sail between it and the Isla del Aire about 0.5nm offshore. The passage between the two is relatively shallow (minimum about 6.5m) with a sandy bottom and the sea was an absolutely brilliant turquoise as we sailed through. It reminded us of pictures of sailing in the Bahamas.

The final beat up to the entrance to Mahón was in a much bigger swell than we had anticipated, about 2.5 to 3m, which had been generated by the ongoing strong northerly winds. Consequently it was a pretty bumpy leg for us but a lot less bumpy than it was for the crew of a catamaran that we saw motoring almost directly into the headwinds and headseas, see-sawing up and down. They took pretty much the direct route from Isla del Aire to Mahón entrance, we had to tack back and forth, but we both arrived at about the same time and I’m certain that we had by far the more enjoyable passage.

We had planned to anchor in Cala Taulera, which is just to the north of the entrance to Mahón harbour itself, but we were a little concerned as there have been recent reports from the Cruising Association of people being told that anchoring is no longer permitted in the cala.

As we motored up the narrow entrance we were met by a RIB and wondered if we were going to be moved on, but the occupant was just handing out fliers for one of the marina companies in the main harbour. We took his flier and pressed on between the fortified La Mola peninsula to our right and the equally well fortified Isla del Lazareto on our left.

Certainly, Mahón’s heritage as a Mediterranean crossroads and a strategic shelter that, over the years, has been fought over, possessed and repossessed by the Spanish, French and British is very evident in Cala Taulera. Mahón’s place as a modern-day Mediterranean crossroad and place of shelter for yachtsmen was also well demonstrated to us as we entered the cala and found that, yet again, we had arrived to share an anchorage with Aldebaran (Belgian) as well as with 5 other yachts of 4 different nationalities (French, German, Swedish, Spanish).

Cala Taulera, Mahón, Menorca, Spain