After a very uneventful but beautiful, full lmoon trip overnight from Sardinia we arrived in the Mahon River on Menorca. We were moored at one of the "islands" - floating pontoons in the river where you either use your own dinghy to get ashore or take the water taxi. They have a very strict 4 knot speed limit so it takes ages to get from place to place. Especially noticeable if you get caught in rain! Mahon was as lovely as we remembered from 5 years ago when we were here on our old boat just before Covid. We took the opportunity to go round to Binibeca to anchor for one night and to visit the pretty, pretty little white painted town there and the crystal clear water. First swim of the season! There have been big demonstrations against over tourism in parts of Europe recently especially the Spanish Islands. Binibeca is one place the residents are thinking of closing off altogether as the thoughtless, intrusive tourists are getting on private balconies and stairways for selfies etc. In Palma 10,000 locals marched in the streets. I can see their point - but on the other hand it amounts to over 45% of their income. A hard call to balance it correctly. We, on a boat are fairly low impact, I think it is more the cheap package tours and over large cruise ships that cause the main problems with density.

We are now on the hard in a yard in Palma. Which, unlike Didim, is clean, well organised and efficient. We feel like small fry amongst all the super yachts here. Chris, from Doyle Sails, who we met 6 years ago doing a sail for Chat Eau Bleu and saw again 3 years ago came over to see us. He racing sails with Max's father! A very small sailing world it is. Max has already run into a few people/boats from his days of working on super yachts. Borja from Balearic Boats is once again being marvellous and we have an endless stream of people coming on board to talk about work we need doing.

It's very nice being back in Palma. We are living onboard this haul as the yard has been able to supply big tanks so we can use our galley and showers - the toilets are on their holding tanks. It is not too hot either which is nice. Much simpler being on board for meeting workers etc rather than travelling each day to and from a hotel not knowing if you've missed someone. Palma is a lovely city with fabulous restaurants and bars etc many in unique settings with great décor. The shops leave nothing to desire either.

Just a few days to go before going back in the water. Just the survey and antifoul now to go. Town is getting busier now so I've got a list of cruise boat arrivals so as to avoid the busiest days. In a couple of days time there will be 14,000+ people arriving on 4 boats! I'll add to this after the kite sail additions are installed.