Thursday, May 13, 2010

Arrived at Mahon, Menorca

When I have Internet again, I'll have to post a blog about our tourist day on Mallorca. The short story is that we loved the island and can understand why everyone speaks so highly of it.

We weighed anchor at Soller at 5 p.m. yesterday and motored all night to reach Mahon, Menorca, this morning. According to the cruising guide, the yellow buoys in certain areas are for visitors. We found one and tied off, but I didn't even have the sail cover back on before a nice man in a dinghy came to tell us we couldn't stay there. He's with the company that manages the moorings, but they are in the process of removing them. The port authority, he says, doesn't like the mooring buoys, so they are building more floating islands with water and electricity as an alternative. It would only cost about 20 euros for us to spend the night at one of these islands, but we're planning to be in a marina for three nights at our next stop in Cagliari, Sardinia, so we moved out to the one remaining approved anchorage at Cala Taulera.

This is bad news for cruisers who want to explore Menorca inexpensively while based in Mahon. The anchorage is fairly far from the main harbor with nothing ashore except some old people without clothes. And, of course, there's no Internet here. Still, the rates at the floating islands aren't too bad if we wanted to try Med mooring.

We plan to leave here early Sunday for Cagliari. It's an estimated 55-hour passage, and there we will be forced to Med moor. Should be exciting. We've been doing great at anchoring and catching buoys, so it's time to develop new skills.

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