Baby steps between Botafoch and Cala Portinatx

On April 11 in mid-afternoon, we leave the Botafoch Marina in Ibiza for a short sailing to Cala Llonga, 5M up north. Well, it’s a long cala as its name says whom you can see the entrance only once you almost passed it. Here again the water is clear, we choose a sand patch to drop the anchor avoiding the weeds of poor holding.
Unfortunately this cala has endured a heavy bad taste touristic development with big social housing like buildings. We meet again Vida Vagabond a Dutch sailboat we saw quickly in Espalmador but that we first met last year in July in Camarinas, Galicia. The “town” is as dead as it can be in low season, not a single bar or shop open. We stay there for 3 windy nights as the mountains in the background form a bottle neck in which the wind funnels down. We take off on April 14 at 11am, we feel like anchoring off Santa Eulalia for a couple of hours and go for a walk in town but the swell makes us change our mind. We go on then, passing by the Tagomago island and arrive at the beginning of the afternoon at Clot d’es Llamp [11M]. It’s a spectacular cala, circled by high cliffs, folded and bended in every direction and pierced with caves at their feet.
We anchored on sand very close inshore, right under the wall. It’s a good shelter from the wind which is still SW force 5. We go with the dinghy to have a look at the caves, say hello to pink jellyfishes. Ludo collects some wood to repair the support of the compass he broke this morning by falling down on it.
Just before sunset, Elendil, a superb 20m steel ketch arrives. We know her from last year, she was out of the water at the same time than us in Kerpalu in April. She was under repair after a not so friendly encountering with a sperm whale that damaged the bow and fooled the propeller shaft. We made friend with Thierry her former skipper who sold her to a Swiss family we are now laughing at as they had to try 3 times to finally anchor. The next day at 10:30am we leave to Cala Portinatx up north west. The wind is variable and weak until Punta Moscarté where at last we get the forecasted SW force 5 wind to cover the last Mile… This cala has 3 arms but isn’t a good shelter neither from wind nor swell. We anchor in front of the beach and it’s rolling, it sucks. Today, April 16, the sky is blue again and the wind seems to be favorable to go to Majorca tomorrow, about 50M away. We’ll try to get up early and with some luck we should land before dark.