The last two weeks have been amazing! We visited all four islands and have had an incredible array of super cool people on the boat: professional photographers, cute and friendly Serbian girls, international models, drone pilot and at one point up to 15 people on the boat. All of this in the Balearic Islands, a nice place, but which should actually be called: the islands of “no you can’t”.
Since we got to Spain I felt like a rebel. Here we got EIGHT “no you can’t” so far:
- You cannot take your dog for a walk at Mahon port (Menorca)
- You cannot kite anywhere in Formentera
- You cannot surf with a SUP in Mallorca
- You cannot fish or spearfish around Formentera
- You cannot take your dog to the beach in Ibiza
- You cannot jump from the rocks to the sea in Menorca
- You cannot ride a skateboard anywhere in Formentera
- You cannot stop your dinghy close to the supermarket in Menorca to get groceries
“No se puede…” “No se puede…” “No you can’t…” “No you can’t…” Aahhh… I miss Greece, a much more welcoming place in my humble opinion. I have never been approached by authorities as many times as in these last few days here at the Balearic Islands.
I felt people here were a bit bitter, maybe because it is the end of the touristic season, they have worked three months nonstop and they are all really tired, I don’t know… Or maybe I am the bitter one because I was stung by a local jellyfish, who knows…
Well, we started our journey in the Balearic Islands in Menorca and our guest Duda who had made the crossing from Sardinia was still with us. What a great guy, we really hope he comes back. We stopped at the main city of Menorca, called Mahon, to fix some things on the boat and get supplies. Luckily the town is extremely charming (a nice surprise) and to make things more special, there was a classic sailboat regatta going on when we got there, so we saw some really classy vessels while we were there.
With Duda we also managed to visit some nice bays in the south of the island called Macarella and Macarelleta. A previous guest (Boaretto) had been to Menorca before and told us that these bays were a must visit, so we went to check it out.
When Duda left, we got four additional amazing guests! Sarah and I can’t believe how lucky we have been with all these people. Every guest has helped us on the boat activities, had a super positive attitude (even when the weather was not collaborating) and was able to use water and electricity consciously. The new crew was really up to experience the boat life and to anything we were up to.
Out of the four new guests there were two super sweet, polite and cute girls from Serbia, who are currently leaving in Austria: Sasha and Jelena. We have become found of the Balkans’ people, they have many similarities to Brazilians and we really can’t seem to understand how a few decades ago they were fighting each other.
The other two guests were a couple from Brazil: Thiago and Carol. To start Thiago is from Bahia, which by definition makes him cool, on top of that he is a professional photographer, entrepreneur and is up to any boat and water activity: a true companion for me. However, the best thing about him is that he is married to Carol: the sweetest and most energetic and helpful person we have had on the boat so far.
Ahh.. by the way, one remark that can’t pass by unmentioned is that, AGAIN, I had to climb the mast to change the main halyard and, again, it was a suffering moment for me since I am reeeeally afraid of heights and I have seen a mast falling down on another boat. Well, right after I climbed down felling like superman, everyone on the boat decided to climb the mast as well, just for the fun of it. Who in their righteous mind climbs a mast just for the heck of it?! Who?! Well Thiago, Sarah, Jelena and Sasha did it … suddenly I felt like a big wuss and a crybaby #alltogether. By the way, I am so proud of Sarah, she is the best partner I could dreamed of for this adventure.
Once we set off from Mahon with the new crew our first stop was in another quiet and beautiful little bay south of Menorca, called Calla Gaudana. Thiago and I went exploring around the bay and tried to go spear fishing, however… we got nothing… such a shame. These European swimming little buggers are hard to catch.
After Menorca we sailed and motored to Mallorca. Here we also found a quiet and nice beach called Es Tresc. The only shame was that on August 31st the summer seemed to officially end and the weather changed from warm “summerish” day to cloudy “autumnish” day. The only good thing about it was that it brought some small waves and Feijão and I tried to get some surfing action. During the few minutes of sun Sarah got into some serious bikini photo shoot session for one of our sponsors, Salinas. Thiago and Carol did a great job a Sarah looked like a super model!
