Two months in the Balearics

Boat kids at sunset, paddling from one boat to another.

We spent a little over two months in the Balearics, starting at Formentera in the south and working our way north to Mallorca. A few words to describe our time there: kid boat flotilla, school, saharan dust, overtourism, pink bodies, rolly anchorages.

Kid boat flotilla

We started amassing the kid boats back in March in Gibraltar when we were moored a few slips away from Chris, Daria, and Jasper on RagDoll. We had mutual friends, we met more friends along the way, we created a WhatsApp group, and we started amassing in Formentera. The OG group (as the kids call it) was four boats, then it grew, and grew. By the time we all reached the all-around protected harbor of Port de Pollenca in northern Mallorca, there were at least 10 kid boats, Maybe even 12-14. Honestly, I lost track! We created WhatsApp offshoots, the kids had their own different conversation threads, sometimes we wished that Catran and Chris would start their own watermaker thread to geek out on, and kids and adults hopped from boat to boat, sometimes meeting at the beach, the town plaza, or a restaurant for tapas. We went on excursions together, shared childcare, and a handful of people got PADI certified together.

A beautiful hike near Pollenca.

lunch out

We bought the kids a little float which provided hours of entertainment.

classic morning routine for Freja.

We found a fun little float in Porto Colom which the kids used for maybe 30 minutes before we got kicked out of the anchorage. Mooring bouys only.

Except for one other boat, I think Positive Waves may have stayed in Pollenca for the longest. (Although at this point some boats may have beat our five-week record.) We arrived a few days before Hans flew to the states for a three-week work stint and ended up staying the whole time he was gone because it was comfortable. Unlike many of the other anchorages in the Balearics, Pollenca has all-around protection and ocean swell does not find its way into the harbor. We had already experienced a few anchorages where the wind switched or built up unexpectedly and the anchorage became untenable forcing us to leave at night or at dawn. I did not want to deal with that on my own. And then of course when the other kid boats started arriving, there was no chance we were leaving.

Most of the kid boats in Pollenca, June 2024

I found a locker under Matilda's bed with a variety of snacks.
Purchased when? I think Bermuda 2023.

Water so clear we can see the anchor from deck.

toilet maintenance/repair.

Arab baths in Palma

Palma

Matilda in old town Pollenca

fashionable even when brushing her teeth.

Some good news!
(which of course has been replaced with bad news,
but for a moment it seemed like there was justice.)

We were busy the first week, but then I got a cold which morphed into me losing my voice so while the kids had an active social life, I turned into a recluse, trying to limit my talking in order to get my voice back. The multiple Saharan dust storms did nothing to help.

Matilda and Jake, on a hunt for ice cream

cliff jumping. Not us in the air, but we all jumped, some of us jumped multiple times.

good buddies out sailing on PW.

Saharan Dust

There's not much to write about this except, blech. Southerly winds carry Saharan dust and unfortunately the wind blows from the south every ten days or so. I quickly learned to pay close attention to the weather, not for the purpose of being safe at anchor (see above, all-around protection in Pollenca), but to know when to close up the hatches in advance of the dust. Like something out of Biblical times, the sky would turn orange and then every surface would be covered in red sand. If it happened to rain at the same time, instead of a cleansing rain, it would rain "blood rain" and the boat would be covered in red mud. We were covered with dust at least three times during our 5 weeks in Pollenca and once again on the sail from the Balearics to Sardinia. And then again in the week that we've been in Sardinia. Hans rigged up the power washer to the boost pump for the water maker so we can power wash (or just use the hose) with pressurized salt water. Because, at the end of the day, we have limited fresh water and it's much preferable to have a salty deck than a sandy, dirty deck.

Normal view at anchor, blue sky day.

More or less the same view, dust added.

Blood rain and the aftermath.

School

We spent the last few weeks in Pollenca really buckling down with end of the year schoolwork. Most boat kids we meet have a much more flexible school schedule than we do and more or less do year round school. That is a non-starter for our kids who insist on a proper summer vacation. I was impressed that this year they stuck with their schoolwork until the middle of June. Freja actually pushed on a little further and worked until the beginning of July in order to finish her math curriculum so she can start at a new level in the fall. We did a week of poetry for the last week of English and invited a few other boat kids to join us in reading, listening to, and writing poetry. It was staggering how much more work they got done and how few complaints I heard once other kids were involved.

When Hans is at work we often have to facetime him to get help with the math.

Tourism

We timed the end of the school year with Hans returning from work and his mom coming to visit for a week. The northern end of Mallorca has a much calmer tourism vibe than the southern end. Mallorca is known for mass tourism, and not in a positive light. Plane loads of tourists from England, Sweden, and Germany disembark daily and fill up the resorts and restaurants, often times not on their best behavior. There were actually protests in Palma when we were visiting because the rental properties are pricing the residents out of housing. We saw the overtourism in action when we toured around the island with Karin, Hans's mom. Mallorca is gorgeous, with small towns nestled in the mountains or along the coast, but there were throngs, literally throngs, of tourists nearly everywhere we went. Tourism is often categorized as an extractive industry and Mallorca is a clear example of that phenomenon. With the exception of being shoulder to shoulder with sunburned tourists, we did have a great time exploring the island via rental car and seeing parts of the island you don't see via boat.

Which color?

Wine tourism. This is something I can get behind.

The vineyard, one of the original 8 on Mallorca.

Palma

Formentor

The goat wants ice cream too!

After another week in Pollenca, it was time to move on. We had a beautiful 42 hour sail from Mallorca to Sardinia, motorsailing only the last six hours or so. It felt great to be on the move again. Time to eat some pizza!

On our way to Sardinia. We had the pole set up for predicted winds, which did indeed hold true. We had a few hours sailing wing and wing.

Arrival in Sardinia. Look at that water!

Top priority: jump in!

We had to hide from the Mistral winds, blowing from France at 25-30 knots for a couple days. The tail end of the winds gave us a gorgeous sunset.

Over tourism at la Maddalena islands between Corsica and Sardinia.
So many day trippers.


We're actually low on water now because we use our generator to make water and don't want to run the generator in the middle of people's vacation time. So we have to wait until 6pm or so to make water as unobtrusively as possible, but invariably we don't feel like running the generator and making water at dinner time. So we're on our last 50 liters. Time to fire up the genny this evening.