Having dropped off the family and picked up Gordon we headed north to go round the top of Mallorca over the next few days and thence to Barcelona .Heading inland on our bikes from Porto Pollenca on the north west tip of the island we stumbled across this rather splendid arch in the middle of nowhere - left behind by the Romans. It had the top corners repaired in 1850 but otherwise was original, not bad after 2000 years!
We had a good forecast of 10 knots of wind on the beam for our trip to Segur de Calafell, 30 miles south of Barcelona where our new boat to be is kept.Half way across we picked up a couple of passengers who traveled in the rigging!
A clear starry night made for a beautiful sail arriving in the early hours of the morning and tied up at the jetty, right next to a rather smart looking catamaran, soon to ours!
We spent the following day emptying all our gear out of Moondance and into a locker room they had available in the marina; you would not believe the amount of clobber that gets tucked away on a 45' boat!On Saturday we took the train up to Barcelona to show Gordon the sights, not least of which was Christopher Columbus telling anyone who cared to look to go west.
After Barcelona the plan was to head back to Mallorca where I would leave the boat with a broker to sell her.
I use auto gas on the boat because it is easy to fill everywhere and, wanting to keep the bottles for the cat, I put them into the lock up and turned to our little blue camping gas bottle which we carry as back up. Unfortunately - it didn't work! We changed the regulator, it didn't work. We tested the old regulator on a new bottle, it didn't work. We tried a new regulator on a new bottle, it still didn't work! Oh well, cold beans for tea tonight!
Once at sea I had a play and got a little gas out. Thinking this just be enough of a trickle to get a cup of tea I connected up to the cooker and blow me down if it didn't work perfectly! I then twigged; the reason I had got no gas flow was because when the regulator was on the bottle but disconnected from the gas system too much gas tried to flow and the regulator shut down sensing a leak - I'm wiser than I was!Another lovely overnight sail slicing through the water at 6 knots under a star lit sky took us to Soller on the mountainous west coast of Mallorca.
What a lovely place this is. All the crowds have gone, its still 25 degrees in the sun, the harbour surrounded by very steep mountains towering over us at 3000'. We set off for a walk that after 7 hours left us both pretty sore the next day! We cheated somewhat by taking a taxi to the top and headed down - then up - then down - then - you get the gist! Dropping off the tops we were met by an extraordinary sight - everywhere you looked the incredibly steep slopes were covered in terraces, used back in the day for growing olives.
The labour that must have gone into these, no doubt over several centuries, is mind boggling. And through it all ran an immaculately maintained cobbled path winding its way down 2000'of mountain.
The following day, somewhat sore from the previous marathon we headed into the smaller hills on the coast and passed through many more ancient olive groves; these trees are said to be as old as 400 years! - if only they could talk!
Tomorrow is my last sail on Moondance as we head for the port where she will go on show to be sold but before we set sail there is another sad last. I love prawns; I remember many happy days sitting on harbour walls as a kid with my Mum sharing a pint of fresh Cornish prawns. Sadly I have recently developed an allergy that causes a horrid tingling in my mouth and throat that has stopped me eating prawns but oddly the allergy hasn't yet stretched to the king of crustacae, lobsters. It was last year in France that Melanie and I last bought a couple to boil up on Moondance; it was time for another treat before this years end. It was just as I popped the last bit of succulent tail into my mouth and was about to break open the claws when the tingling started; I dropped the claws like a hot potatoe. No more lobster for me, a sad day indeed.
So, after 6 years of adventure and nearly 10,000 miles through 12 different countries my time with Moondance is coming to an end. I will be very sad to part with her but we are moving to a boat which, although she does not have the sailing grace of Moondance, is every bit as beautifully built and I hope Melanie will enjoy the sailing part of our adventure much more with a stable platform under her feet. I too look forward to the lack of rolling!
Something else I will miss is our dependable little pink rubber dinghy which has been Moondances signature on her travels and has done almost every one of the miles that Moondance has done with me following dutifully in her wake!
Thank you all for reading the blog over the years and all the nice comments I have had about it.
This blog will now close but will rise again under another name!
Moondance out.
