Mallorca - pronounced Mayorka - 2003
After docking the boat that night, Wim and I walked up into the old town part
of Palma. Most everything was closing up by then. But everything was,
well... very ancient looking - small bars, shops and restaurants all
tucked into the non-stop stone facades of five story buildings lining
ten foot wide streets. We ended up at the Corner Bar - where we happened
to end up most every night. It caters, in particular, to the english
speaking boaters. Wim even ran into some people he knew from the Oyster
fleet.
What a difference between here and Malta! Palma is a modern city in an
old town. Quite contemporary, just placed in an ancient setting. Malta,
on the other hand, still seems to be living consistent with it's ancient
appearance.
The Oyster fleet at Marina Real. Packed in like Sardines in front
of the clubhouse. You always hated to see that last boat coming in
after the day's racing, because he was usually going to try and pull in right next to us, and there
was never enough room without a lot of pushing and shoving.
For the first half of our first day in Palma we cleaned and scrubbed on the
boat. Fortunately it was an overcast day and so it was somewhat
enjoyable - as enjoyable as cleaning a boat can be anyway.
Streets of the old town - Palma.
Most of the days followed a familiar pattern. The morning was free to
explore Palma. We were usually back at the boat around 10:00 AM to prepare
for the day's racing. Racing until the mid-afternoon. Then free again to
explore until about 7:00 PM. Then some sort of dinner/event for the Oyster
owners. One evening we got a guided tour through the Parliament building of
Mallorca. One evening's dinner featured roast suckling pigs - head and all!
And one evening's performance featured Flamenco dancers.
I would usually spend about an hour at the Internet Cafe and then walk around
exploring Palma. One day there was a lady getting a shower on the sidewalk in front
of her apartment. Of course she had all her clothes on, but her kids were pouring containers
of water over her and she was washing her hair right there! One of the street venders that
I met, a girl in her 20s, was from Argentina, had lived in Florida, and was now selling
her jewelery on the streets of Palma de Mallorca. Everyone that I ran into spoke very
good english, in fact they were hiring at the Internet Cafe, and a requirement was to be fluent
in both english and spanish.
Around town - Palma.
One day, as we were motoring out of the harbor to the race starting line, we got caught
in a horrific storm. It started to rain a little, so I had gone below to put on a
light rain jacket. With about 10 seconds warning, a fierce storm blew down on us.
We were under bare poles only, but the wind still layed us almost over flat it seemed.
Even though we were under power, we could not point the boat up into the wind. We could
only see about 20 yards in any direction and the boat was not manageable. We were
constantly afraid that at any moment the rocky breakwaters or another boat would suddenly
appear on a fast collision course. Eventually, when the storm passed, we realized that we
had been blown about a quarter mile back into the harbor without even realizing it.
We were supposed to race out to the small Cabrera islands that day, but they canceled the
race, and instead had a smaller race in the bay later that afternoon. And, believe it or not,
we almost couldn't do that race because there were NO winds!
The last day's race. Palma to Andratx. The wind was behind us and the
spinnakers were flying. In Andratx they had a buffet appetizer bar waiting for us. One of the
appetizers was dates wrapped in bacon. It doesn't sound very appetizing, but it was actually
pretty good - or else I was pretty hungry.
Sailing into Andratx at the end of the race.
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