We are back! Or at least the blog is back. Andrew & Emma’s Gap year part 2 is preparing to kick off in just 8 weeks time.

Since returning from Torrevieja last October we have been very busy spending time here and in France, catching up with family & friends and preparing for the next leg of our Mediterranean adventure. It’s getting close and it’s exciting.....

Andrew spent a week back in Torrevieja in late January (I managed a weekend there) doing the boat service & overseeing the annual lift & clean. It was his first time doing the service without Dave (our expert Prestige Cummins engineer) but he was well prepared & very capable. We were lucky to have friends Taff & Lis from the island here with us on this trip & Taff offered his help with the service which was greatly valued. Lis & I provided more moral support & company outside the hard work that the guys did. We managed to find all the best eateries & cocktail bars in town & make the most of the sunshine.

VA was in pretty good shape when we returned after 3 months away but had sustained a bit of a bump on the starboard side. We think from when our neighbouring boat was removed!! Difficult to prove sadly so we just had to suck it up. \240Luckily the excellent boatyard at Torrevieja were able to fix her up whilst she was out of the water and she was relaunched looking as good as new after 4 days in dry dock. The result of Andrews week back onboard is that apart from needing a good clean & restock when we return in April we are ready to head out to sea.

Cant believe the time has flown so fast and so much has been crammed in to the last few months & that soon we are off again.

For those who are thinking of joining us this year our outline plans are April May - Balearic Islands & Costa Brava, June - South of France, July - north Italy, Corsica & Sardinia, August - maybe visit back to UK, Sept/Oct - South Italy & Sicily.

We are back on board Verano Azul & almost ready to kick off our 2020 adventure. Only 3 months later than planned we escaped Covid 19 lockdown UK at the earliest opportunity (as soon as France would accept us).

We had 2 ferries cancelled before we finally \240managed to get a DFDS Newhaven to Dieppe ferry & arrived in France on the 17th June. We quarantined in our French Normandy farmhouse La Jouverie (plenty of time to do all our jobs there) before driving 8 hours down France to just before the border, spent one night in the lovely chateau D’Urturbie (pictures) & then another 8 hours drive across Spain here to Torrevieja. We spent 3 days & nights on board sorting & cleaning & then did another 4 hour drive to Banoo Villa. We have just spent 6 days doing our jobs there & then picked up Chris & Alina from Malaga airport on Monday (eerily quiet airport). We spent a few days with them and then today they drove us back here to our beautifully cleaned & teak restored boat. Chris & Alina are going to spend some more time in Banoo Villa before driving our car back to the UK where it will wait for our return sometime in the autumn.

Escape plan successfully achieved & now we can get on with our planned travels for 2020. Our later start means we do have a few challenges to get around. We should have been visiting the Balearic Islands in the spring, low season, instead we are hitting them in high season (expensive & busy) so we are not yet quite sure what we can do and how long we can afford to stay there. One early quote we have had for a marina in Evissa Town is €448 per night & they told us they had no space 😱😱😱. So we will see how we get on. Current plan weather permitting is to head off up the coast on Sunday 12th July & then over to Ibiza a couple of days later. Next blog will tell all.

Here are a few photos from our escape journies and arrival today.

First trip of this year successfully achieved although a lot more rocky & rolly than we would have liked. We left the wonderful Marina de Salinas in Torrevieja after 9 months berthed there. A fantastic & cost effective winter berthing with all the facilities we needed despite the town not being quite so nice. We arrived here 6 hours later reminded that the marine weather apps are just a forecast and they can be wrong, instead of .9m waves we had at least 1.5m and instead of light winds we had gales but hopefully it stops us from getting complacent! Our lovely clean & shiny boat that we left with was covered in salt water by the time we arrived 😫😫.

Calpe is famous for its huge beautiful rock and terrible architecture. A town that has been somewhat spoiled by tourism and being close to Benidorm. The beaches are beautiful fine white sand but behind them are ugly tower blocks of flats - such a shame. However it is a good & cheap stop for us ahead of our long trip tomorrow over to Ibiza. Last night for dinner we had a first - an Escorpa fish (Scorpian fish) grilled - it was really delicious, it was even better than the rodaballo (Turbot) that we had too which is one of our favourites so a real discovery 😋.

It’s very hot here now but we hope to explore the small old fishing village at the other end of the bay today & if we have the energy climb the 330m treacherous path to the top of the lovely rock for sundown later.

We finally made it to our first Balearic Island - somewhere neither of us have ever been. We made the 7.5 hour trip over from Calpe & got drenched by a rain storm halfway (luckily it’s warm so we dried out). \240We are in Eivissa Town & the poshest (and most expensive marina) we have ever berthed in - Marina Ibiza. It is eye wateringly expensive & unsurprisingly full of motorboats much bigger than us. In fact I have never seen so many super yachts in one place, and so many uniformed crew all cleaning & polishing. Here we are dwarfed but it doesn’t matter because we are doing it ourselves & don’t want crew (maybe just a couple to do the cleaning 😂). After these couple of days we are anchoring up to make up for the fact that 2 nights here cost more than a whole month in Torrevieja.

So far Eivissa has been a wonderful surprise & not at all what we were expecting. Firstly it is pretty quiet here & unusually so, secondly it is just beautiful. We spent yesterday exploring the Dalt Vila (old town) & climbing to the cathedral at the top. We meandered around all the streets in the old port & had a lovely lunch half way up the hillside - just perfect. We did a bit of shopping and 24k steps later got back to VA for a relaxing evening on board watching people & BIG boats.

We have been at anchor here in Cala Saona this perfectly beautiful bay in Formentera for 2 days and love it so much we are staying for another night instead of moving on today as planned. The sea is turquoise and clear, the sky is blue & it is just stunning.

We have been ashore to walk the amazing stratified cliffs in both directions. We have taken TT VA (Tender to VA) around the cliffs to see the caves. We have finally got the paddle board out of storage & I am re-mastering it. We have been swimming multiple times in the crystal clear waters & also snorkelled. We are in paradise.

Our only complaint (as bonefide grumpy old people) are the huge motor boats that come in daily with gyrating women and blokes old & young blasting out music and hairing around on jet skis trying to kill everyone in the sea. Luckily they tend to arrive mid pm & leave either by 7 or at sunset leaving us & the more civilised yatchs to our tranquil heaven.

If you want to find us you know where we are 😀.

We left the heavenly anchorage in Formentera this morning early to get into Marina Botafoch (yes that’s what it is really called) to fuel up before heading here. Sadly we hit the Sunday fuel rush and only got on a pump an hour after arrival & then it took an hour to fill up!! Still we needed the fuel to get to Mallorca tomorrow so we had no choice.

We then did a leisurely cruise along the whole of the south coast of Ibiza around the east coast to this beautiful Cala and anchorage in the north east of the island. In contrast to Formentera it is very very quiet here with no loud party boats or jet skis at all. There are fewer boats & it is much more sparsely populated than the south coast of Ibiza- I think we will like our one night here.

A little tour of the Cala

A long run of 7.5 hours \240from Cala Xucla to here in Palma, Mallorca today but reasonable sea conditions and otherwise trouble free trip.

No dolphins, no whales, no turtles just a few Balearic Shearwaters to watch - a bit dull really.

Jump to Part 2

Mallorca to Menorca