We finally were back in the water in Palma and all jobs finished at the end of June. One major drawback to Palma is the red rain! It is dust from the Sahara that arrives and hangs in the atmosphere usually until it rains - then it just comes down and covers everything, boats, cars, houses, roads etc, this also coincides with the summer water restrictions meaning that not much after we left the pressure is reduced to save water and people are banned from hose cleaning. You can imagine… It is not just Palma but all of Mediterranean Europe but as far north as Luxembourg sometimes. We struck it in Turkiye, Greece, Morocco, Tunisia and Montenegro but somehow it seems thicker in the Balearic Islands. Anyway, you just wash it off. We had only just had the boat polished and waxed and Max had cleaned off all the dust from the antifouling when we got hit with it!

Next we went back to Santa Ponca where we could anchor, swim and get rid of the dusty yard feel, also we were still waiting on a few final bits and pieces to be finished or delivered from Palma. Shaunagh has had to send her passport off to South Africa for a visa so we were waiting on that too before we went much further afield.

Andtratx was the next stop along the west coast. the marina quoted 699 euro for one night so we took one of their mooring buoys in the bay for 80 something a night! it turned out much nicer and cooler, good for a swim too. Max managed to clean the whole boat using our tank water and watermaker. We'd not done it that way properly before, usually relying on marina water for big cleans - but not at that price! Andratx is a lovely town from where we left 5 years ago to go to Turkiye via Sardinia and Greece with Michael and Melissa. Time flies (thanks also to lost Covid time). I met a lady the other day who has taken 2 years off her stated age thanks to Covid. A good sound idea, I thought!

Further along - Port Soller was our next stop after Shaunagh and I went by bus to Palma for her to collect her passport and for me to try and sort out how to pay our Vodafone SIM for the boat internet. (There were no resellers etc in Andratx) It turned out that the guy who sold it to me didn't set it up at all so Vodafone wasn't recognising it as a valid number. Somehow we got on a post paid plan which is supposed to be impossible unless you ae an EU citizen with a bank account and permanent address. Anyway, not complaining as it is a very good plan and I now know how to pay it.

We anchored at Port Soller which is a quite nice little coastal town with an olden days wooden tram that takes you up to the main town of Soller which is delightful. We remembered a very nice courtyard restaurant from 5 years ago but couldn't find it so went to a different but equally as good one for lunch one day.

My brother, Mark, joined us in Soller. He lives in Luxembourg so quite a quick plane flight for him but he had to get the bus from Palma, that turned out to be no problem. We had a great 5 days - swimming at different little Calas, drinking Martini Expressos, eating Shaunagh's great food and generally catching up. We hadn't seen each other since before Covid - 5 years! While he was here he helped me set up a web site/blog for the WINGit kite sail experiences. Here is a link to that if you're interested. Not sure if I can make it a live hyper link so it may be a cut and paste jpb.

https://flossy-gourd-ed2.notion.site/Hello-everybody-81059138453c4111b57b1a59d3b9e68b

I had got just so far with it but got stuck on a few things so it was great to get his help - he does this sort of nerdy techy stuff for work. He left us in Pollenca from where we left 2 days later for Barcelona.