Shudda bought a villa in Menorca !!
Menorca just does not want us to leave ! We rented a car on Friday and toured around the island… visited the farming town of Ferreries in the center of the island & hiked up to an old castle with beautiful views of both north and south coasts. The island is truly beautiful… rugged but lots of greenery! The soil is a deep red and farmers have tilled as much of it as possible. Visited Fornels on the north shore… very rugged with super high cliffs !! Definitely not boat friendly.. but stunningly beautiful! The landscape felt like you were on another planet. Then onto the eastern coast which was just as rugged and desolate. Definitely worth the drive!
Unfortunately on Friday we received the bad news that our life raft would not arrive until Monday… but we did pick up our winch which was repaired perfectly. Then a couple cart fulls of groceries, beer & wine while we had a car! Still have not paid more than 5Euros for a bottle of wine… average price is around 3E. Saw a bottle for 1Euro, but we did not want to chance it! Groceries are pretty reasonable here… the only thing pricey is bacon & beef !! But their beef is locally raised and is very tasty !!
So, after stocking up with groceries on Friday afternoon the plan was to head out just down the coast to Cala Caves on Saturday morning… started out with a beautiful downwind sail about 15miles. Got into the cove which was bordered by 200’ cliffs with ancient cave dwellings. This area was occupied more than 6000 years ago. Had hoped to explore the caves… but… the anchorage was quite tight.. we would need to tie up to both shores with lines. Just as we were sorting out how we would do it, one of our engines quit! One engine means limited manoeuvrability… with rocks all around us we got the f— out while we still could !! Seems we might have a problem with the sail drive… or hopefully maybe just something got wrapped in the prop. So back to an anchorage near Mahon.
Oh by the way, did I mention that on the way to Cala Caves Scott discovered a problem with our boom ?? That is the part that attaches to the mast & holds our sail down,… Seems we have a small crack in the boom side of the goose neck fitting… I know you all know what I’m talking about !! Not a good thing !! Worst case scenario really bad weather could bring our mast down.. well f—!! Back to Pedro’s boat shop Monday morning to pick up our life raft, and more f-in boat parts !!!
Yup.. boat ownership is doing boat maintenance in exotic locations !! Any bets on when we will finally be able to leave Menorca… if its not boat repairs, its weather… are we having fun yet ?? Had great home-made pizza tonite with Menorca chorizo – yummy !! Think we’ll dig into the beer & wine, watch a movie & hope our boat problems magically disappear overnight!