Soller
We awoke this morning rather rudely, we were not quite tossed out of our beds but it was a near thing. The wind had shifted westwards and so we were no exposed to the waves and our perfect little anchorage was now a horrid rough bay and we needed to get out.
Jane had a friend with a super yacht and he had left it in Soller which is a perfect looking bay on the north west coast of Majorca. The only problem with it is that there reports are very mixed. Some people love it others mention bad holding and an unwelcoming marina and katabatic winds from the surrounding mountains. So as it was a protected bay and Jane was very keen to go we headed off. The journey was quite unpleasant with the sea state quite moderate however as we entered the harbour calm descended and we found the perfect place to anchor.
We decided to go ashore and take a look at Jane's friends boat and to have a drink and possibly a meal. The boat was huge around 110 feet long with a professional crew on board, it was a shame we missed the owner who had returned the day before. the girls had mojitos and I had a bier int a very smart bar on the ned of the pier. We then walked into the town, it consists of an Esplanade of about two miles with lots of restaurants to choose from. We decided to stay and eat but where. The first place we fancied was fully booked so we kept walking, eventually we found somewhere we liked the look of and they gave us a table and told us that they were very busy and they could bring us drinks but would not take our food order for half an hour. This was no problem we were not in a hurry… I said that I thought I out to rush bak to the boat and out the anchor lights on just in case it was dark when we got back.
I arrived at the boat leaving Linda and Jane to drink cocktails to find that another boat had dropped anchor and was no more than twelve feet behind us. I glared at the skipper, it was most un-seamanlike to be so close as we could easily swing into each other, without me saying a word he said "it's ok we are here, we are just sheltering from the storm", STORM what storm? Looking over the mountain/hill behind me I could see a dirty black cloud with flashes of lightening and my heart sank. I immediately looked for my phone and called Linda and Jane and told them to return to the boat immediately. I could feel the tension in Linda's voice as she agreed, clearly she thought I had ruined the evening. I re-launched the dinghy and collected them from the pier. By this time the winds had started and as we returned to the boat all hell broke lose and we struggled to get back on to Sea Crusader such was the battering we were now taking. Very quickly nightfall fell, the dark clouds ensuring that dusk arrived an hour early.
Soon the VHF was alive with messages such as "has anyone seen an Oceanonics 42…" chaos ensued with boats dragging and the dancing commenced. Soon we saw a Moody 62 being driven single handed being followed by another 50+ foot yacht and with that BANG the 50 footer has crashed into the back and burst the tender. It was pitch back and there was lots of yelling going on. On closer observation I could see that the Moody had dragged its anchor and then pulled up the anchor chain of the next boat and now they were linked together. It is a horrid situation for a single handed yachtsman to have to try to disengage two boats at the best of time let along in the dark, with a storm and other boats in proximity. As he left the helm to try to disentangle the two boats they drifted towards a beautiful classic boat with a long bow sprit and a professional crew. More shouting.
Later we saw the two boats return to the bay and re-anchor. Needless to say I was forgiven but we had to stay up all night on anchor watch.
Jane had a friend with a super yacht and he had left it in Soller which is a perfect looking bay on the north west coast of Majorca. The only problem with it is that there reports are very mixed. Some people love it others mention bad holding and an unwelcoming marina and katabatic winds from the surrounding mountains. So as it was a protected bay and Jane was very keen to go we headed off. The journey was quite unpleasant with the sea state quite moderate however as we entered the harbour calm descended and we found the perfect place to anchor.
We decided to go ashore and take a look at Jane's friends boat and to have a drink and possibly a meal. The boat was huge around 110 feet long with a professional crew on board, it was a shame we missed the owner who had returned the day before. the girls had mojitos and I had a bier int a very smart bar on the ned of the pier. We then walked into the town, it consists of an Esplanade of about two miles with lots of restaurants to choose from. We decided to stay and eat but where. The first place we fancied was fully booked so we kept walking, eventually we found somewhere we liked the look of and they gave us a table and told us that they were very busy and they could bring us drinks but would not take our food order for half an hour. This was no problem we were not in a hurry… I said that I thought I out to rush bak to the boat and out the anchor lights on just in case it was dark when we got back.
I arrived at the boat leaving Linda and Jane to drink cocktails to find that another boat had dropped anchor and was no more than twelve feet behind us. I glared at the skipper, it was most un-seamanlike to be so close as we could easily swing into each other, without me saying a word he said "it's ok we are here, we are just sheltering from the storm", STORM what storm? Looking over the mountain/hill behind me I could see a dirty black cloud with flashes of lightening and my heart sank. I immediately looked for my phone and called Linda and Jane and told them to return to the boat immediately. I could feel the tension in Linda's voice as she agreed, clearly she thought I had ruined the evening. I re-launched the dinghy and collected them from the pier. By this time the winds had started and as we returned to the boat all hell broke lose and we struggled to get back on to Sea Crusader such was the battering we were now taking. Very quickly nightfall fell, the dark clouds ensuring that dusk arrived an hour early.
Soon the VHF was alive with messages such as "has anyone seen an Oceanonics 42…" chaos ensued with boats dragging and the dancing commenced. Soon we saw a Moody 62 being driven single handed being followed by another 50+ foot yacht and with that BANG the 50 footer has crashed into the back and burst the tender. It was pitch back and there was lots of yelling going on. On closer observation I could see that the Moody had dragged its anchor and then pulled up the anchor chain of the next boat and now they were linked together. It is a horrid situation for a single handed yachtsman to have to try to disengage two boats at the best of time let along in the dark, with a storm and other boats in proximity. As he left the helm to try to disentangle the two boats they drifted towards a beautiful classic boat with a long bow sprit and a professional crew. More shouting.
Later we saw the two boats return to the bay and re-anchor. Needless to say I was forgiven but we had to stay up all night on anchor watch.