Med. Spain cont...

Jan 4th - Feb 1st, 2020

Barcelona

Ibiza

Formentera

Barcelona

La Sagrada Familia, One of Gaudi's most famous work

Gaudi's Casa Batllo

Mini vacation in Barcelona

Gaudi's Casa Mila

Roaming the streets of Barcelona

We drove up to Tibidabo mountain, the highest point in Barcelona with 512 m. Beautiful place to view Barcelona from above and a famous place to watch the sunset.

The building above is actually two churches. It's called Temple of the sacred heart of Jesus. It is on top of Tibidabo mountain overlooking Barcelona.

Ibiza

Approaching Ibiza. Sailed from Dénia to Ibiza. 60 Nm and average speed 7knots ⛵️

Finally at anchor again 😊

My first birthday gift, very close to a full moon over Ibiza 😊

On my birthday we sailed from our anchorage in to Ibiza Town

Can definitely recommend Botafoc marina. Very reasonable priced. Great location and showers. Very friendly and helpful!

Biked up to Ibiza castle and Dalt City. Our marina is behind.

Great Birthday, Thank You Anders 💕 Cava for lunch on the boat and then a nice dinner at a restaurant with this yummy treat for dessert!

Formentera

Interesting day today. Started of with us sailing from Ibiza to Formentera. Hoist the main and suddenly it started to flap. It was ripped of the track in the mast. Anders went up and tried to help it down and his poor finger got caught in the flapping sail. The main sail teared at the head. Oh well after all this we had a great sail down to Formentera.

We biked to the southern most point of the archipelago of Balearic sea. Loved the Lighthouse.

Pretty clear water here in Marina Formentera

No problem to find a seat here in low season, but I probably have to wait for my drink until high season

Great day biking around Formentera, 45km. Big variety in scenery along the rout.

Wow we have really increased our range with the bikes, Love them 🙂

The beach is not so crowded in January and 14C in the water ;-)

Beautiful colors here

Anders climbing a hill

In the distance you can see the only "mountain" in Formentera, 193m. We biked all the way up there

On our way up, looking north

Back @ Ibiza

Rented a car and drove around the whole Island of Ibiza. We were amazed that the almond trees were in full bloom in January. And also a lot of the very characteristic yellow flowers were also blooming everywhere. So pretty 🙂

Anders is checking out an anchorage here on the east coast

Rugged north shore

North east side of the island is much more secluded and not as touristy as the south side. Beautiful small beaches

Looking north on the west coast

This view point was amazing. Pretty steep down here

Same view point. great for watching the sunset. We sailed past these small islands on the way in from Denia

And then we celebrated Anders birthday on a stormy day in Ibiza. We had a nice dinner in a cozy restaurant so it was all good

Don’t everybody have their electronics parts, microprocessor kit and prototype equipment with them on the boat 🤔

Anders in action in the "garage"

Perched on a small mountain next to the sea and overlooking the town of Ibiza is the fortified old town of Dalt Vila which translates to "Upper Town". Very charming and definitely worth a visit

View from Dalt Villa over the harbor.

Narrow cobblestone roads in Dalt Villa. It's all surrounded by a big wall with some gates like this, Very charming with lots of small cafe's and artist shops

Left Ibiza and our last anchorage, the island of Illa Tagomago , early morning. Had a great beam reach sail over to Mallorca, 45nm.

Mallorca

Approaching the west coast of Mallorca

Love the lighthouse on top of this steep cliff

After a short stop in Mallorca we set sail again for the mainland of Spain. Couldn't have wished for a better crossing and over nighter. 135nm, via Barcelona to avoid some stormy weather. Great Beam reach, 15-30 knots the whole time. 7-8 knots. Love it 😀

Suddenly, after hours of calm on the AIS, suddenly it's like everyone are in a race getting out of the harbour. It's 5:30 in the morning and the fishermen are on their commute to work. Fishing rush-hour...

Interesting to get squeezed between two big passenger ships. They were good though, yielding for a sailing vessel. The great part was that we got great cell reception when they were close. They must be moving cell towers. Internet for 15 minutes, and then we had to wait until we were 10NM from land.

This is what you do when you are alone on a night watch without cell coverage, you take picture of the plotter :-) This was kind of fun, Chicken Race....