Day 9
Not such a good nights sleep, we had to move around to the other side of the pontoon yesterday and most the night the boat was rocking. Mahon is a busy port, fishing boats , ferries and big cruiseliners. Me and Mary went to stock up on food and to get a weather forcast. Liam , Jordan and Nathan took us over to the shore in the tender, Our plan was to go to Cala n’ porter which is up the coast. We would have to have been on anchor overnight. There was some restaurants in the caves which would have been nice. The forcast was really good today but tomorrow the winds are getting up and the sea getting rougher. We decided to make the crossing back to Alcudia, Mallorca today instead. We needed fuel and as usual it took us ages because there were 4 other boats waiting. By the time we got away it was 2.30, a bit late to do a crossing but we had to go. Sea conditions were fantastic, very flat hardly a ripple in the water, bright blue sky and the scenery was stunning. We put auto pilot on and we were away! Just had to watch out for any obstacles in the way. It was at this point i thought, “This is the life!” Part way across the sea went a little choppy , the waves were hitting us side on, most of us got a soaking at some point, even on top deck! We were going along nicely at 17/18 knotts, we were about 16 nautical miles roughly an hour from Alcudia when suddenly one of the engines cut out. My heart sank. The engine had been overheating slightly and that morning Marcus had topped it up with coolant and oil. It’s at that point you realise that perhaps “this isn’t the life”. We have 2 engines on the boat so we could go back with 1 engine, but the boat dosen’t run very smoothly on one engine, lots of vibration and also there a grinding noise which was a bit worrying. Also because you can’t do the same speed the boat rocks alot. We tried the engine again and it started , so we just kept it on low speed and we managed to get into Alcudia. As we were approaching Liam and Jordan put the fenders out. I came down and saw a fender so picked it up and threw it in. Suddenly i realised it wasn’t attached to the boat and there it was floating down the sea! I shouted up to Nigel to go back and get it. The problem was we were in close to the rocks and the fender was floating towards them. We couldn’t go too close to them other wise we could end up catching the boat. I couldn’t see any other way than to Jump in and get it. The only trouble was i couldn’t go in with the engines running otherwise they would have drawn me in, so we would of had to turn them off and i would have to be quick. Nigel was trying to manover the boat close to the fender which isn’t easy. I quickly took of my dress,( I did have my bikini on underneath!) Mary quickly got the buoyancy aids out, i put it on. Mary said your not going in on your own, I’m coming with you, so with that whipped off her dress only to remember then that she did’t have her bikini top on!! By then it was too late she didn’t have time to go and get it. On went the buoyancy aid. By this time Marcus had managed to pick up the fender with the boat hook. We were all creased up laughing, apart from Nigel who knew nothing about it! All the worry of the last hour suddenly had gone. The boat was covered in salt from the crossing so we cleaned the boat off and showered. We went out to eat. I will finish today leaving you with the quote of the day Mary said “Do Spanish people get bitten by mosquitos!!!”