Adios Palma! We'll be back!!!

Monday 28th October

Our last month in Palma was certainly one to remember!!! From drunken nights in Sushi restaurants, champagne cocktails, anchors dragging and of course the unpredictable weather..... We certainly had a month to remember.

First to arrive was Hutch & Colette. The rain finally gave in and let some sunshine in for their weekend. They arrived late on the Friday night and after a few welcome drinks we all went to bed. Saturday morning, the sun was shining and we set off, we stopped in our favourite bay by the nudist beach for lunch, it was extremely relaxing as we guzzled away the rosado! As there wasn't enough wind to make it to Andraitx we went to Portals for dinner.

Fish was on the menu and we scored ourselves a table in Tahini the sushi restaurant. A delicious dinner was enjoyed by all and the wine was certainly pumping in our veins. It was towards the end of dinner that things started to go downhill. A dead cockroach was spotted in the water feature and Hutch and Matt dropped in some beef and rice to see which it would prefer. They were sure it went for the beef! Colette and I were extremely puzzled as every time we quizzed them they'd look at us and say 'Its dead!' like we were the ones that were mental! How can a dead cockroach pick beef or rice??? Then it was back to the Disco for coffees, Hutch and Colette kindly bought us a coffee topping shaker which we were all eager to try. The state of the tablecloth the following morning was really quite special!!

Sunday morning was incredibly slow and we all just sat around reading magazines and wishing the pain to go away. We enjoyed hot chicken fajitas for lunch which was certainly the start of my recovery. We motored back to Palma and were greeted by my dad & his wife, Debbie who had just arrived for a midweek break. Dinner that night was pasta - more comfort food, then we said our goodbyes as hutch and Colette headed for the airport and we headed for our bed!!

My dad and Debbie came round about lunch time, giving us time for a little lie in and to tidy up. That night we wandered down to their hotel and got a taxi round to the Old Town. We took them to a cute tapas bar and they reminded us of how they liked a drink. By the end of dinner I was feeling quite drunk. Suddenly my dad was like, 'Ok lets go there, come on!' Matt had told him about A Baco and the champagne cocktails. The place was packed out but we managed to get a table in the garden. Then my dad took charge of the ordering of the cocktails. Lethal, would be the best word to describe them. After 2 of these each, the 2 boys went on to drink the house cocktail which is served in a goldfish bowl glass. After that we were off, Debbie wanted to find some flamenco dances, a few bars later and we decided to give up and head home.

I won't go into too much detail about what happened next, I'll just say that Matt was very ill in the night, we were both ill in the morning and I only felt fully recovered 4 days later!

My dad & Debbie turned up a little later than the arranged time but we weren't complaining! We then went out on the boat for lunch, which a struggle for most of us, other than Debbie who had managed to recover or was that something to do with the shot she didn't drink and pouring her second cocktail into Matt's glass??? We then took them for a short sail around the bay, Debbie called it a white knuckle ride! But assures us she did enjoy it and my dad, he was right in there giving us a hand. That night we went for pasta, unfortunately not in our favourite pasta place, and we were all a little disappointed. An early night was really all I wanted!

Wednesday, my dad and Debbie left, saying how great Palma was and how they looked forward to coming back and seeing more of it, we'll make sure we're not there next time though!

On Thursday the good weather ended and the rain was back, Matt and I went about our usual jobs and finally our lives were back to usual. We carried on preparing the boat for her first offshore trip and for her MCA Coding. Two weeks passed with plenty of cloud and rain, with the odd pleasant day to surprise us. Photo of Matt in a Thermal Protective Aid (TPA).

We took Simon, the broker, out for dinner at Wellies, no Anthea this time!!! Then the following night Charlie was in Palma, waiting for Penny & Brains and we were expecting Scotty. We ventured up to the Old Town to try another tapas restaurant and planning to meet the others up there, unfortunately planes were delayed and they all just wanted their beds when they arrived. On Saturday Scotty was kidnapped and taken to Cala D'or, while Matt and I provisioned for our trip to Gibraltar.

Sunday morning we woke to hear someone trying to get in the hatch, we assumed it was Scotty, he then tried to open every hatch, luckily they were all locked as we'd come in the night before and just headed straight to bed. Matt then saw him disappear onto the boat next door. We got up to see what was going on. Of course he asked if we spoke English and then chatted in Spanish, we alerted the security in the marina and are unaware if he ever went back! Rob arrived that afternoon after taking a detour to somewhere on the West coast that sounds like Club de Mar!!! Once settled on the boat we discussed the weather and how we wouldn't be leaving on Monday and probably Tuesday as well. Then it was off for dinner and we managed to get jacket potatoes with our dinner - since when have they been a Spanish specialty???

Monday we checked out of Club de Mar and said adios to Palma our summer home. We headed to Cala Portals, that favourite anchorage of ours! The wind was blowing offshore so it was comfortable for us to anchor. There were only 5 of us there, all German other than us, then another 47.7 rocked up and they were from Malta. We had a fab dinner on board and watched a beautiful moon rise. We all went to bed expecting a reasonably peaceful night! Matt and I first woke up because of the wind, it was gusting a good 30 knots. Then Matt spotted that the Sunsail boat had dragged and the power boat was shining a light on them to try and wake them. Then we realised the catamaran had dragged into the rocks, time to get dressed! By the time we were all on deck with fenders in hand the cat was next to us, rather than pulling their anchor up while motoring off the rocks they left it to catch the boat next door's chain who then hooked ours! Luckily we were all prepared and managed to free ourselves without damage, well Matt and I managed to get our toes trapped in the anchor locker as a gust blew it shut. It was just crazy. The sunsail boat had taken advantage of all the space available and was anchored again. The guy on the other 47.7 was just enjoying the view and a cigarette, while the powerboat just waited for it all to calm down before going back to bed. The other 2 boats went out of the bay, where to we'll never know, but it was blowing a gale and one of them called out the Search and Rescue. After a nice cup of tea and deciding we were probably safe to go back below we all slept. The following day, more catamarans arrived and we were beginning to panic that we could be in for a repeat of the night before. The wind gusted all day and night but luckily we all stayed put.

Tuesday was Matt's birthday and we celebrated with a cooked breakfast, steak sandwiches for lunch, stuffed chicken and home made pasta for dinner and of course a BIG FAT chocolate cake. It certainly beat being in the Bay of Biscay last year!!

Wednesday afternoon we decided to head on out, the weather had improved slightly but it was going to come back in again so we knew our time had come......

Move on to Our Passage to Gibraltar

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