Sundowner II log – 2005 update 16 – Ibiza


Ha ha well there's nothing like good ending and as for a while the log had involved mostly negative tales it was nice to end with a happy finale but I suspect most people recognised a bit of Spanish torro pooh at the end and it just couldn't end so well and of course there is a lot more travelling to do and our goal of landfall in Kailua Bay Oahu is still in our dreams not to be ended on Ibiza with Dennis sparking a latent drug craze or a menopausal craving for blow jobs off pimple boobed young girls and fleeing to Thailand, with Sandra being rescued by a sophisticated loaded Mediterranean hunk. The reality was that the wind died later in the afternoon and from there on things went pear shaped badly and would take pages and too much time to relive and relate much the same as the dark night spent in the traffic lanes outside Cherbourg which never got retold and is placed somewhere in the back of the mind to pop out now and again and bring on a shudder and cold sweat. Suffice to say the next 24 hours involved a lot of dramas of our own making because if you relax and don’t keep a good watch a very fast large ship will try to run you down unless of course the drumming engine a stones throw away alerts you and you change course and sail alongside for the entertainment of passengers and crew popping out behind the stern like a piece of discarded litter and if you make a mistake in your calculations on fuel consumption and don’t top up from the German can you will run out and fill the whole system with the sludge from the bottom of the tank and after a long dark night instead of a few hours motoring to the anchorage you will spend 12 hrs beating into the strong head winds missing rocky headlands by meters crashing into big seas meant only for white water rafting and sailing into the crowded anchorage settling under bow of the type of boat you had only before seen in a Bond movie the only thing missing the purring fluffy white cat. But there is always a bright side, sailing sometimes 40° to the wind on occasion and when at three in the morning after being totally alone for the dark hours moving blindly ahead a light appeared on a collision course moving quickly from ahead starboard after a shout from Dennis Sandra appeared on deck as the beam of light moved ever closer getting larger as it approached silently with an eerie glow then with a beaming smile the quarter moon rose above the now visible horizon - umph.

The day after our arrival in Ibiza Sandra's friend from work, Sally, arrived on the Saturday afternoon for a two week break and having never spent any great time on boats just the odd holiday day trip adapted very well and was great company. The ability to drink, smoke and talk football a great bonus although when it came to football she did talk out her Arse sometimes which is of no surprise for as well as being a Yeovil fanatic her favourite prem club are the Gooners. It was pretty brave of her as she arrived with just her rucksack just the flight booked previously and if we had been delayed she would have been on her own but as it turned out we had a fantastic two weeks very seldom leaving the boat anchored off beaches waking up in the mornings with a splash into the clear blue sea, the same sea that decided to kick up for the long row back to the boat in the dark from the bar on her day of arrival which she assumed was the norm but with the extra oar rowing it was no problem and she had such a chill out time not even wearing her watch also not burning in the sun due to the amount of olive oil in Sandra's excellent cuisine. Sally suggested chartering the boat for short breaks and said that we would be of more benefit than any of those mega expensive health farms or rehab clinics until she finally realised what she had said and copious laughter was heard as we polished off the next carton of wine before her Ibiza medicine drink Hierbas. As it turned out instead of a long tour circumnavigating Ibiza we spent three day stints in locations around Salinas and only travelled 30 miles in the whole two weeks. The first a 10 mile trip to Ibiza town to supply the boat and wait for some strong easterly winds to pass,and a quick 6 mile run to the island of Espalmador sailing up to 6 1/2 knots which was fun, 4 miles took us to the island of Formentera then back to Salinas which is only a ten euro taxi ride to the airport. And in one Sally waved goodbye bawling her eyes out Patrick Viera stylee.

We stayed a couple more days becoming firm friends with Laurent (BOB) originally from Nice but now being so well travelled is just international and we hope to meet again in the future. A few more days were spent in Ibiza town restocking Sundowner taking great pleasure in anchoring in the prohibited anchorage area outside the expensive marinas one of which does a good deal where you pay 10 euros and you can stay for two hours and use as much water as you like as we had done on the previous visit with Sal only this time we had the hilarious prospect of med mooring for the first time which consists of no pontoons just squeezing between the boats and picking up long ropes and tying up fore and aft. It was so funny the surprised looks on the faces of the occupants on the huge mega yachts overlooking as we just cruised in and the harbour attendant passed the ropes explaining to the monied folk how it was our first attempt but with the boats being three times the length of Sundowner and very tall it wasn't much different to the lock at Paimpol just a lot narrower with fenders floating like hot air balloons only less colourful. We happily washed ourselves,the boat and laundry and it wasn't until a week or so later we learnt it's quite a big fine for putting soap in the Balearic's water.

The anchorages can be amusing being so crowded and it being the holiday period. We had a funny episode with a big German Sunseeker owned by some arrogant Germans who had come rushing from the beach bar as their boat dragged through the crowded anchorage, obviously caused by not having enough chain out. They then re-anchored close to us and as the wind changed blew within metres of our stern. We didn’t panic, as they would surely sort it out which they didn’t. So just as the main guy fell asleep on the front deck was wake him from his slumber and ask him to release more chain which he did but only the bare minimum possible which resulted in a while later with the wind changing more they were again above our stern and as he had fallen asleep again it was great fun waking him up again to release more chain which he reluctantly did clearly not impressed to be woken again by the island monkeys in the little day boat under his bow. But we are chilled out now and just laughed and when they left happily waved goodbye to which they returned waving farewells but the smiles fell away as Dennis turned revealing his Utd 1999 European Cup Final shirt and they thought it was all over ‘football bloody hell eh!’ There was one unsavoury incident involving what looked like the cast from Eastenders on a very large Sunseeker who not content with driving their jet ski and high powered dinghy at 30 knots around the anchorage then proceeded to blast out at mega volume some gangster rap crap which was very offensive to the ladies and suggested demanding the smoking of cigars. So Dennis totally loosing the plot jumped in the dinghy furiously paddling his one oar and confronted the Queen Vic mob to which they backed down even their ‘F*****g Ibifa Mate’ couldn’t placate Dennis as he retorted ‘that’s no reason to act a total w**k**’ and went on to say how they were a disgrace to the Guernsey name where their boat was registered and their seamanship was as bad as their choice of music. So then on FIM became our main word. Another phrase we have is ‘peni wash’ not a male hygiene solution but the large wash produced by the pricks helming the hundreds of motorboats even out at sea every couple of minutes waves of peni wash batter the boat setting it rocking and sails flapping one even cut across our bow one day at great speed and it wasn’t until later the next day when we went to leave Formentera that he had rocked us so violently that the alternator mounting had broken luckily that was all and a bit of metal was shaped as a replacement. The first morning after anchoring in Ibiza Town in a no anchoring area that all the books give as an anchorage the pilot book came around early beeping his loud horn waking the occupants of the numerous boats, well, not an opportunity to be missed Dennis got Sundowner’s fog horn out and repeated his beeping note for note much to the amusement of the yacht next door and they joined in the fun but they were the only ones it would have been quite amusing having a morning chorus of beeps we never did find out how much the fine was but became good friends with the Turkish owner next to us he even towed us to town to do our large shopping and if we ever get to Istanbul have an instant friendly contact. But Ibiza more than makes up for any minor hassles being such a chill out place with happy people and stunning scenery and nearby islands we even found for the first time in nearly 18 months a Veg Café where we could eat shame it was on our last day and after talking to Laurent chartering has come to mind and we may send some posters to our local pubs with the idea of returning next summer for a couple of months, we will have to see the response but a week or two chilling out pets, piss heads and children welcome should go down well and if only a few respond we can always stay around our base in Italy – just an idea.