Well, the headline already tells what to expect for the next 157 nautical miles in terms of sailing; nothing worthwhile writing about. The prevailing wind direction in this part of the Mediterranean is northeast, often calm, or turns southwest, when trouble shows up, meaning thunderstorms. We had no wind for the days to come and took the engine to a test. That’s the story regarding sailing or, better motoring. Yet, nature was notable. The air was filled with salt spray when we sailed the North coast of Mallorca from Alcúdia to Port Soller. Beate said the boat had turned into a salina, wiped with a hand over the deck, and showed me a white-covered skin. The windows had become blind by all the salt. Port Soller welcomed us with summerlike temperatures. The marinero appreciated my few words in Spanish, didn’t do any paperwork like registration and passports – presumably before I babbled too much – and I realized on the spot that learning Spanish pays off sooner than I had dreamed of. Another dream was the marvelous view from the surrounding hills over the Med. Pink Floyd sang, Wish you were here, and I thought, I’m happy to be here. After nightfall, the port became a nightmare. Port Soller is the main vacaccion side of mosquitos. And like two-legged tourists, there were too many of them. We locked the boat and quickly secured all hatches with inspect-proof nets, yet those little bastards robbed us of a night’s sleep. In the small hours I got up, forgot all my positive attitudes toward any creature alive, made my teeth as long as Draculas, thought of a mass murderer in a Harry Potter novel, took my ultimate weapons, a flashlight and a patch, and went on hunting adventure. And I scored twenty times that night. All the good people criticizing my killing of animals, I have no regrets at all! The opposite, I felt terrific and got two hours of peaceful sleep. That was Port Soller in brief. 3 Travel © Athene-Tour.com Port Andratx, on the west coast of Mallorca, was next. The highlights were Banyalbufar halfway, where the American actor Michael Douglas supposedly has a holiday home. Traveling along the coast, I asked the web for more information about him, but I only got a picture showing Douglas standing on a balcony with a town in the background. I might be wrong, but for me, it looked like Valldemossa. In an interview he said that his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, likes the place, and he concluded, happy wife easy life. Andratx itself was too much tourism even at that time of the year. The vast majority of them spoke my mother language as well. In conclusion, I better go back home if I desire to hear that.
Port de Alcúdia to Andratx – motoring
