Tuesday 23rd June – Port Andratx, Mallorca

Soundtrack: Countless invisible cicadas are making the hot air pulsate around us as we climb up through the pine woods to reach a look-out torre overlooking Dragonera Island. Taking the local bus to get there gives us a glimpse of the countryside to the north of the island, and the walk ashore makes a welcome change.

High Point: We have the luxury of a proper shower for the first time since leaving the Spanish mainland, courtesy of the excellent port authority public showers. Our frugality with water has paid off, with over 200 litres still left in our tanks after well over two weeks.

Low Point: Applying for a cruising permit to anchor overnight in the restricted marine reserve at Cabrera island, only to be told after a 3 day wait that we’re on the waiting list, and to call back at the end of the week to see if we can go. It’s not looking promising.

Apart from the land breeze off Ibiza which gave us one hour’s sailing in the morning, we motored all the 49 miles across the Mallorca channel to reach Port Andratx late last Friday afternoon. A pretty uneventful crossing in flat calm, the patchy cloud at least keeping the temperature down in the absence of wind.

Port Andratx is a large sheltered harbour to the northwest of Mallorca with an attractive seafront, and beyond it, a range of wooded mountains. A large marina occupies one side and the fishing boats moor up on the quay the other side. Not feeling quite up to berthing bows-to on the public quay as we haven’t done it before, we anchor at the furthest end of the harbour out of the fairway. Roger, a long-term resident here living on an Alan Pape designed ketch, helpfully takes our kedge in his dinghy to secure our stern as there’s no swinging room. Our kedge is a Flook, an Australian anchor which is supposed to ‘fly’ when you throw it into the water. Roger just dumped it into the water, and we pulled on the line to set it, which seems to work OK.

We spend the weekend re-stocking our depleted stores; cleaning; washing - and because there’s free wi-fi - catching up on email. At long last, it’s calm enough to patch the bimini as well. It is a bit of a pig to do and we have to replace one of the zips with Velcro but it should last now until the end of the season without falling to bits.

Seeing that the fishermen are selling the catch off the fishing boats when they come in late Monday afternoon, we row ashore and buy a couple of fresh tuna steaks for supper. The selection of fish is considerably smaller than what we were used to seeing on offer every day at Ayamonte market, but we’re not knocking it - it’s the first time we’ve had fresh fish for a while.