Back to the Rock

After leaving Mahon we spent several days exploring the calas on the the southern coast of Menorca. At first the calas appeared to be delightful anchorages but because of the wind direction we ended up spending several rolly and uncomfortable nights on the hook. We finally decided to abandon Menorca and made a quick trip of thirty two miles to the northern shore of Mallorca where the anchorages were much more comfortable. On August 20 we sailed into familiar surroundings – the harbor of Palma to await the arrival of our last guests of the season. In 2009 we spent the month of June in Mallorca using Palma as our base. This time we set up “shop” at Port Mallorca Marina, a great marina in the heart of the harbor.

On August 24 Alicen Swift and Tiffany Tarrant joined us for several days cruising. Alicen is the assistant director of our favorite charity, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and Tiffany, an Ob/Gyn Doc is her good friend and partner in crime. We spent 3 nights on the hook in three interesting anchorages. Our first stop was Port Soller where we took the tram to the interior town of Soller on of the many places reported to be the birthplace of Christopher Columbus. The second evening we anchored in Santa Ponsa Bay which has one of the best and largest beaches on Mallorca. The girls enjoyed some much needed beach time while Captain Craig enjoyed some solitude on board Lone Star. Our final night we dropped the hook at Portal Vells Cala where we explored an ancient sea cave and enjoyed the best snorkeling of our entire three years in the Med. Back in Palma we spent our final day with Alicen and Tiffany exploring the old city and enjoying a wonderful dinner out. A & T jumped ship on August 28 and on the 29th we left Palma for the last time and pointed Lone Star toward Gibraltar.

We spent the next week retracing our 2009 route as we headed west toward the Rock. As in 2009, we anchored off the island of Ispalmador which is off the coast of Ibiza and also like 2009 we waited out a storm in the Puerto Genoves anchorage. Our final night before arriving GIB was spent in the Benalmadena Marina which we renamed “Wally World” back in ’09. On September 6 at 1640 hours we arrived in Gibraltar, the western gateway to the Med. Our home was the Alcadesa Marina, Spain, just across the Gibraltar border. From our slip we had an excellent view of the Rock from our cockpit. We spent the next few days “buttoning up” the boat and hanging out in GIB enjoying pub grub. On September 13 we said goodbye to Lone Star and started the trek home after traveling 3,243 nautical miles this summer.