West Mallorca by sea; Frothing for a sail… & a terrible knot!

39° 47.762’N 2° 41.687'E Port Soller, Mallorca

Jasmin and her fiancé Chris took the time to visit from Palma for lunch and a swim in Port Soller. I adore her.

Chris hadn’t come this far to spend all his time in port and was absolutely frothing for a sail, so we spent the next few days exploring the bays along this coast, we didn’t have to go far before we could drop anchor and wile away the hours playing in the water…

Sa Foradada

With it’s distinctive hole in the rock jutting into the sea and restaurant perched on the edge, only accessible by foot or boat.

Cala Deia

As mentioned previously, Cala Deia sits below the charming village of Deia, has a carpark and a seafood restaurant with a terrace literally on the rocks. No sandy beach, so swimming inevitably requires some rock clambering.

Ses Combres

There are so many little bays along this coast which are walking or boat access only. The water is divine so if you can hire a wee boat for a day to play ( try Nautic Soller) then go for it.

Cala Tuent

We glided into Cala Tuent, the rustic charming pebble beach at the bottom of Sa Calobra Road, previously ventured by car. We anchored and wasted no time getting in the sea.

How simple it is to throw one off a paddle board.

Example A;

Example B; Too easy …

After lunch, we watched Chris fall off the paddle board, a lot. He copped a bit of stick for his inability to stand up but not as much ribbing as he got for tying up the tender with a limp knot. Captain spotted it being pulled onto the rocks by a local fisherman & Captain and I launched the paddleboards towards him without hesitation, terrified he would take of with our little pumped up friend.

We’ve heard horror stories along our journey of locals ’salvaging’ vessels and claiming ownership. We needn’t have worried, he’d literally hooked our tender with his fishing line and dragged it up the rocks to untangle it and free himself. My terrible Spanish couldn’t apologise enough and thank him profusely, mainly for not nicking it.

Chris has now lost knot tying privileges until further training is provided!

Sa Calabra

We moved on to a ruggedly beautiful bay called Cala Calobra. Rock faces slip into royal blue water and narrow neck towards a tiny pebbled beach. We dropped anchor and poured a gin in the late afternoon sun.

We wanted to go explore, the boys swam ashore and I strapped the dry bag, containing all our shoes, to the front of my paddleboard and followed them. The swell was crashing itself against the tiny steep pebbles so I got down on my knees and, with the help of Captain working as a weight on the tail, rode the breakers in, with Chris catching us on landing. We had a solid audience of tourists watching, I considered taking a bow but my landing went without applause.

Calobra is a little exploration in itself, the bottlenecked beach opens up on the adjacent side to a lagoon which stretches back into the rugged hills. It's accessed in its most simplest route via a couple of floorlit foot tunnels through the cliffs. Children must love a trip to Calobra (if they can stand the car sickness to get there!).

The unrelenting swell is too much for us to get any sort of sleep here at anchor so we don’t have much choice but to head back to base again at Port Soller for another night.

Slow morning. We were becalmed, which is sailor chat for no wind power. We’d also had wine the night before, so we had no wind in our sails both metaphorically and literally. I may have had a nap …

Cala Castell

Accessible only by boat this bay feels carved out of rock. The anchor had barely touched sand before Chris hit the water. Keen bean.

We strapped Chris into a Bosun’s chair and we winched him up the mast. It takes guts to do this, you are 16 meters above sea level and the boat sways with the sea like a pendulum. You also have to trust that your crew will let you down again!

Thank you for doing this mate because…

Cala Figuera

Later that afternoon we found ourselves the only ones in this spectacular bay so, just for a change, jumped on the boards for a paddle.

Knot tying lessons

As we settled in for the evening the wind really picked up, more than we expected, we tried to anchor ourselves in the most sheltered place possible but as darkness fell the valley acted like a wind tunnel and there was little reprieve. Chris took one for the team and went for a swim in the dark after a gust of wind blew a cushion overboard!

We didn’t sleep a wink. I say ‘we’ being Captain and I. Chris slept through all of it thanks to last nights red wine, plus you sleep better on a boat if your not responsible for it.

I couldn’t wait any longer than dawn to get outta’ there so as the sun broke I nudged Captain up, he’d barely shut his eyes but we had to move before I lost my sleep deprived mind on watch.

We read somewhere ‘Mediterranean winds are typically too much on the nose, too much on the tail or non existent.’

Port de Pollenca

The plan had been to collect our friends and head to one of the nearby bays for a day at anchor but just as the wind had ruined our sleep last night, it was also putting a dampener on our day at sea.

So we moored up and had lunch with everyone aboard in the marina. A bit of a disappointment, you can’t do anything about the weather but you can choose your friends and we have chosen well so it didn’t dampen any spirits!