The Palma pick up of Heather and friends was more complicated than we had expected. There were no berths to be had due to a regatta and, strangely, no place to park a dinghy. We anchored off shore, and explored some potential pick up destinations before arriving in person to see if we could find a spot in a marina despite the over phone denials. Fortunately, we did get a berth for several days. We still had to have our guests climb down a walk into the dinghy (after Tim lurked behind a boat until they were ready to board then made a move for it – there was some guy actively monitoring the wall/dinghy situation), but were able to drop them off by dock. We had a nice day sail, dropped the hook in a crowded anchorage for lunch, had a swim, and ended with cocktails at The Boat House in Palma.We’ve been at the marina for 5 days now revisiting the city, riding bikes, walking, drinking sangria and eating paella. Today we got the boat hauled and work will be done until next Thursday or Friday. Nothing remarkable, but the rudder bearings need to be replaced, some engine maintenance, painting, cleaning, passerelle repair, etc, etc. We will spend the weekend in Deia and Valldemossa and then stay in a hotel in Palma to be closer to supervise the work.
We spent 2.5 months in Mallorca when we sailed with the girls so it’s pretty cool to be here checking things out again. The most remarkable change is that people eat dinner around 7 or 8. I don’t know if it’s still tourist season or what, but 16 years ago, we were lucky to find two marginal restaurants where we could eat by 7:30. Besides that, it was 9:30 at the earliest. Now things are busy early.
We found our favorite tapas place last night (looked the same and was wonderful), explored El Corte Ingles (big department store), window shopped at art galleries, bought coffee at Starbucks, went to two movies (Bladerunner and IT), and I spent at least an hour roaming the aisles of the Carrefour. Remarkably similar to the Papeete Carrefour. In case you were wondering. Ha ha.
Well, things are wrapping up here so I better prepare to get our stuff down the ladder.
