Cala Tarida Ibiza

Leaving Cala Yondal    

We left Cala Yondal at 1035 on Monday 14 August, on a forecast for an easterly breeze to take us along the rest of the south coast of Ibiza and then up the west coast to Cala Tarida.

Just east of Cala Yondal is a small, apparently un-named cala, around which are a number of expensive looking villas with an impressive shared(?) set of steps down to the water. A great place to have a holiday home.

Here the wind started to fill in so we hoisted the mainsail, unfurled the genoa and drifted gently downwind towards Capo Jueu and its off-lying islands, Isla Vedra and Isla Vedranell.

Isla Vedra with Isla Vedranell in front – Never-Never Land?   

We had seen the islands from a distance on several occasions but, from the angle we had seen them, the 2 islands had been superimposed, as in the picture above. We had thought that the ‘island’ was reminiscent of Never-Never Land; the only things missing appeared to be Peter Pan and Wendy flying around it. There are relatively narrow, deep-water passages between Ibiza and Isla Vedranell and between Isla Vedranelle and Isla Vedra, and we had hoped to sail through the former but the wind dropped off, blanketed by Ibiza, so we switched on the engine and motored for a while.

Approaching Cala Tarida   

Then the wind came back in fine style and we had a good beat up to Cala Tarida.

(right) Black Legend    

Just short of our planned anchorage we came to a cala where a large, sleek and very powerful black motoryacht with red trim was at anchor with her 2 (yes, 2!) large RIB tenders, similarly styled, also anchored in the bay. The yacht is Black Legend and had passed us at 31knots, and looking like she would easily do twice that, as we had been approaching the passage between Isla Vedranelle and Ibizi. She had been preceded by her 2 RIBs (also whizzing along and also looking to have plenty of power in hand). The only member of the team we had not seen until this point was Black Legend S – the sailing yacht. As we approached Cala Tarida she was leaving the bay and as she broke open her spinnaker and flew off I was just in time to get a picture.

Cala Tarida is a large open bay with beautiful clear turquoise water and a lovely sand bottom. We found a good spot, the anchor dug in well and we all took the opportunity to enjoy the water. It was by far the best swimming location we had visited in Ibiza.

Though, to be honest, perhaps ‘swimming location’ is not the best description: ‘dip location’ may be better. By day the bay is very busy with waterskiers, jetbikes and towed inflatables, with tenders and other vessels moving through. Swimming properly, back and forth away from the boat, is fraught with danger but swimming close to BV was safe enough and where we were, close to a small patch of Posidonia, there were plenty of fish to see and all the more when Nicky and I scrubbed the weed and slime off BV’s bottom – a free meal for the sealife!

We all enjoyed Cala Tarida so much that we wondered about the options for getting Charlotte to the airport from here rather Cala Salines which would have meant leaving Cala Tarida at about 1000 the next day. Leaving Charlotte to top up her holiday tan, Nicky and I went ashore to investigate, as well as to buy some more fresh fruit, veg and meat to cover us until we arrived in Cartagena. In high season the beach is hugely busy which made getting the dinghy ashore rather ‘interesting’. We left it pulled up on the beach at the edge of the dinghy channel through the swimming area, clear of the water and tied to a flagpole. There are no buses that would have worked for getting Charlotte to the airport for her flight but a very helpful receptionist at one of the hotels, ordered a taxi for us for the following afternoon. What with the shopping etc we probably left the dinghy for an hour. When we returned, we found that it had been untied and pushed off the beach and, wallowing beam on to the small breaking waves, had ¾ filled with sand and seawater. Happily, the fuel can had remained attached but had floated up off the bottom of the dinghy so there was neither a fuel spill nor water in the fuel. It took us a good 20-30mins to bail the dinghy dry enough to use and another hour’s work the next day to wash all the sand out from under its floor using bucket after bucket of seawater and then, using more buckets of seawater, to rinse all the sand off BV’s decks. We were livid!

But we couldn’t let that spoil Charlotte’s last 24 hours with us, so we did plenty of swimming and had a lovely dinner. Unfortunately, her last morning was under cloudy skies but the sun came out enough for a final ‘I’m swimming in a swimming pool-like sea’ before she had to take the taxi to the airport.

And so we were back to just the 2 of us on board (and several kg of sand for a while!). We had intended to head off for Cartagena as soon as Charlotte had left but the latest weather forecast was for very little wind that night but the prospect of somewhat more the following day. So, we had a relaxing evening enjoying the turquoise waters of the Balearics for the last time and looked forward [Ed: ?!] to an early start towards Cartagena the next day.

Cala Tarida, Ibiza, Spain