Porto Colom, Mallorca.

Not much to write home about, except I had a great sail from Santa Ponca to Porto Colom, which I think was a good 60 Nm and I arrived here at 18:00 two days ago.

Then we had strong wind and thunder, as well as dirty rain (again). I was at anchor and as the wind increased to 28 kn, I felt it better to move away from the mooring blogs. They have in June put mooring blogs almost everywhere in the bay and would be charging me EUR 52/day, which is a negative correlation with what I pay while at anchor; read EUR nil.

The trouble is that there is hardly any anchoring space left, for the poor sailors. In any case I moved in the strong wind and anchored on the far E side of the bay, where the holding, in my opinion, is not great and I had to re-anchor three times. And again this morning I re-anchored three times to get a better position.

I have polished for two days above the decks and still have the toe rail glass fibre to do and the SS list around the yacht; as well as the cockpit. It is a big job and I wonder how many hours I have spend on it. But the result is good.

When the wind calmed a bit I went to the supermarket and the bank, which was badly needed. Still need to go once more, if time permits. Impossible to get the mobile Spanish phone (Orange) recharged in this town, so I have lid up the Luxembourg number.

Each year on 16 July Porto Colom celebrate their Saint for the fishers. The party consist of making a procession of the fishing boats, all tied together, proceeded by the Church Staff. Some play music and sign and most boats are dressed up and its participants dressed for the occasion. They start at the inside of the harbour and sail slowly out to the exit, where I was anchored, and then round the last yachts before returning back to the harbour, for the fire works and some partying. At the end they all come zooming at full speed and it is impressive to see all these boats come pass New Dawn at full speed; it felt like I was in the middle of a storm with waves splashing on my decks. But it was fun. In fact, Chris and I was also in Port Colom on that same day in 2004 and it was the same show.

The weather in the Golf of Lion, is a total mess, with NNW winds of 35-45 kn and one system after the other coming across. At least  the next 2-3 days I have to stay put. Then I hope for a window that can get me to Menorca's S coast and then wait there till the next storm will pass. But then there seems to be a gab, which seems to have no wind in it for my passage. But by end week it will blow again like mad. So can I make it in between, and with the risk that Auto will not work, is a big question for me at the moment. We shall see. But it is, as usual, very unpredictable, as well as dangerous to cross the Golf of Lion.

This Solar Driven Boat Anchored Behind New Dawn.

Well look at this solar driven boat that came in yesterday and anchored behind me. I believe it is or has sailed around the world at a slow speed and apparently using only solar energy to power it. More information on: http://www.planetsolar.org/ and also: https://www.google.es/search?q=turanor+planetsolar&hl=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=PE78T__OOM368QPT55WWBw&sqi=2&ved=0CE8QsAQ&biw=1366&bih=643

Back In Cala Santa Ponca.

Well after the storm last night I went back to Cala Santa Ponca, to pick up the Simrad chap so he could install the Drive Motor. After he left I still have to order/decide on the replacement of the instruments and get them here and installed, before I can get ready for France. In the meantime, I polished the SB side of the blue line and it has now received 3 times care. Left are the Port side and then the rust spots and SS, etc, etc. Will it ever stop?

As I was waiting for the Auto Pilot, Wind Instrument and Freezer to be fixed, I could not move away from Santa Ponsa. Lise & HJ arrived Mallorca the day after the storm and the following week they visited my briefly.

 A little chat with HJ in the cockpit, while Lise acts as the photographer.

Cala Fornells, Mallorca.

For the third day we have had a nasty W swell and have done a non stop Rock'n Roll. It rolled so much that I, in the end, gave up polishing. Today as we were Rocking and Rolling, we had a thunderstorm and a great clean rain which washed New Dawn wonderfully well. 

Late PM the wind dropped, but within 30 sec it sounded like a freight train running wild down a hill and we received 55 kn wind right into the bay. Panic all over. Fortunately I don't like to be squeezed in between all the other yacht and was anchored well out from them. That paid well for me again. Most yachts dragged, many banged into each other and dragged together. It was only a question about time before we all would be in a big mess. I started the engine as a precaution and to take off the pressure of the anchor. 

But it became clear that I had to move, so with great difficulty - remember I have no Auto working - I lifted anchor, but was unable to lower the anchor riding sail, and sailed slowly up against the wind. The waves were large enough to roll over the deck and bye bye clean New Dawn, as she is now covered again in salt. Many of the yacht that also tried to leave, did not have the engine power to sail against such a strong wind and the waves were quickly building up.

I dropped anchor on the other side of the bay in Cala Fornells, where it is deep at 12 m and also has poor holding, so I let out 65 m chain. The sun shines again as I write this at 19:10, and the wind moderated. So we can hopefully get a good nights rest. About ten other yachts followed my example and are now anchored around me.

What an evening; ugh, that was a close call.

I will have to move back to Santa Ponca early Monday morning as the Simrad chaps will arrive hopefully with yet another Drive Motor.

 My new Anchorage for just a night as the wind was moderating.

Cala Santa Ponsa.

It is a nice bay, but the wind change all the time. The pattern, I have worked out, is that we have W wind during most of the day and at night the wind dies to nothing and early morning we get a E land breeze.

No problems in general, except that the anchor and chain has to cope with 180° change a couple of times each day. Many yachts drag and New Dawn did it once. I noted it quickly and moved further out and let out 55 m of chain and since we have not dragged. But it is a constant worry, as the bay is busy with also large yachts coming and going all the time.

This yachts had some nice toys, for the four kids on-board and they had two great days on the slide. They were active from morning to evening.  Giggling all day.

In this W facing bay, we can get a nice sunset, which is watched with pleasure from my deck and with my  sundowner(s).

The last two days I amused myself polished the Port blue stripe 2 times and SB 1.5 time. Need more work, and a final Wax, but we have a swell coming in from the W and it is not easy standing in the tender and the waves from passing boats don’t help. It will be done - later on. Then it will be the SS and thereafter the windows, etc, cockpit and finally the inside. Ugh there are loads of work after such a long trip hand steering where my time was limited for these tasks.......

I spoke to Nicolas yesterday, as he was packing for his home trip, and we arranged for Beauvallon. He seemes to have had two nice weeks at the house, which is always a pleassure to hear. I believe Stephane will also go to beauvallon sometime in August, so we might meet up there, which would be nice. 

Murphys Law Applies Again.

Well after the long wait, Murphys Law applied yet again. The best way to explain todays mishap might be to quote my todays email to my friend Odin of Simrad in DK.

QUOTE

Hi Odin,

Believe it or not. The motor arrived from Holland and we installed it, but it did not work. We tested the brushes and one is stuck and can't be removed. So after a lot of calls, Navico is sending another one from Holland. 

What a MESS!!!

The chap seems good though and he speaks English which is seldom here. He expect the new motor to arrive Friday and I asked him to test it before he come back to me. But he will be off a few days so I think I will only see him Monday. Time waster again.

How is all this possible?

Best regards.

Paul 

END QUOTE

What else can I say at this point?

Things Don't Come Cheap On Yachts!

Today the Simrad agent was back and did some, what I think, good work. When we tested it, unfortunately the 8 devises (allowing current to pass only in one direction) he had installed instead of the relays did not work and it transpired that they only work with constant current, which is not the case with Auto, as it works on impulses. So off they went shopping again. 

In any case we have time, as I ran into another problem. I wanted the Auto Drive Motor serviced to ensure it was not part of the Auto problem. I have noted it take a lot of power, I feel it makes noises and heats up too much.

So here the fun started. First in Spain they can't get just the motor and I was told to buy a complete new Auto system, costing well over EUR 5.000. Then I said we could have the old motor repaired. OK but only in Holland do they do these repairs and it would take 3 weeks (at least). Then Holland told us they don't repair these motors, etc, etc.. Then I was told that Simrad Barcelona had an old repaired motor, but I never received its cost. Then we worked on a swap an old for a new, but that too fell apart.

Finally I went back to my trusted Simrad friends in DK and N and DK gave me the part no, which we communicated to ES and NL and DK also took contact with NL.

And voila we could now get a new motor, but the cost is steep at close to EUR 700, plus installation and the lot. 

So there we are and it proved again that some persuasion can give results.

Still have to sort out the wind instrument that stopped in St Martin. Am told it will cost over EUR 500 plus...? But can it be connected via the NMEA 0183? Still to be checked.

As I had again for the X no of times the aft cabin taken apart, I serviced again the batteries. I have 8 x 165-185 Ah batteries and I serviced them before we set out from St Martin 1 1/2 months ago. Interesting just the 5 of them needed 5 litre of distilled water. This is sailing in warm climates.