Palma

3 Dec

After a good night's sleep, we were ready to set off again, with the forecast calling for winds of up to 10kts for a brief spell, from the rear and for 5kts the most of the day and way. I re-checked the bilges and there was a bit of water, about a cup full in one of the sections.. So we set off and I would check the bilge every hour with the intent that should I continue to remove any water, we would have to stay in Cagliari and the trip would be on pause again, not a very cheery thought..

So we set off, just shortly after sunrise and we were escorted the first few hours by a pod of seadogs... The Med was back to Summer mode - flat, which was really nice given the beating we had taken the previous two days... I was diligently checking the bilges every hour and they stayed dry, which was really nice and so the trip continued, with my eagerly checking the bilges and optimism growing every hour... To help matters, the forecast proved to be spot on and the first day was spent motoring in a calm pond-like med. The second day, we were greeted by another stunning sunrise and the trip continued..

After another great day of motoring, we were ready for dinner - Braai, in the middle of the Med, as one does...

After dinner, I went to bed as I had the 10-2 watch, no sooner had I laid down, when I thought I heard the slave change pitch... I thought maybe the engine oil was low.... So we stopped the engine, I had a look and everything was fine, so the slave got back to work... Evelyn also said the slave had a different pitch.. I thought no further of this as I assumed, that we were hearing things as this was now going on the second day with the engine on and we could be hearing things...  The rest of the night went calmly by... I was back on watch duty, shortly after 0600 and I walked round to the helm, and I felt a bit of a vibration, which I recognised as something fouling the prop..  So I stopped the engine, , woke Evelyn, tied myself to the boat and went for a morning swim in the Med...

I immediately noticed this around the prop... We fired up the slave, and got under way again and the boat was back to it's usual sound, with no vibration...  I would appear, that I have a princess for a prop, this little bit of plastic was enough to make it vibrate... The rest of the day was overcast with just a glimpse of sun... As we approached the Balerics, we were greeted by another pod of seadogs, this time it was spotted by Evelyn..

Land ahoy..

On our approach to Palma, there was about 1kt of wind and the surface was perfectly smooth..

For the last 40NM, we had between 05 - 1kt of current and no prizes for guessing the direction.... We arrived at Real Club Nautico at approx 2100..

The approach to the port proved exciting, a boat had been following us for the last 30NM and they were slowly catching up with about 2 NM from the harbour entrance, he decided he was going to overtake, between me and a west Cardinal bouy..  he sensibly decided to slow down and follow me in, instead of overtaking at an entrance to a port, we were doing 6.5kts as we approached the port... Inside the port, I slowed down to 3kts to get the fenders out and motor slowly to the pontoon as this was a new harbour and speed wasn't the objective... I got in touch with the port staff, who directed me to the fuel pontoon, where he would guide me to the dock... I was about 6 boat lengths away from the  fuel dock, when the joker in the other boat, had the grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat idea, that he too, would like to go to the fuel dock, and so he was positioning himself between me and the fuel dock.. In his defence, he did call out and ask if I was heading for the fuel dock with about 3 boat lengths to go.. I rather unamused replied that he should stand down and turn away..  He finally got it and turned away....  After this little episode, we docked and were done......

The next day, we did a bit of sightseeing around Palma...

boatlets in a row

Snugged away next to the big boats