Mallorca: An old pirate hideout, Pools and Ballermann

Cala Mondrago — Es Trenc — Cabrera — Arenal — Cala Blanca — Andradtx

The crossing to Mallorca with the gennaker is varied and is accompanied by beautiful clouds. At the beginning with light winds, then constant ones, and then thunderstorms — which we spot ahead and sail around them — we won’t be bored that day. The children play below deck, listen to stories and know how to keep themselves busy more and more independently.

To be protected from the northerly Mistral, we anchor at Cala Mondrago. After the cozy Menorca, we first have to get used to the many tourists who are mainly busy taking selfies in daring positions.

At Cala Mondrago we are quite well protected against the wind, but as we realize very little against the swell. So after a restless night we move further south and enjoy the huge natural beach of ‘Es Trenc’. It is located east of ‘Sa Ràpita’, where Mirabella and Kali met 5 years ago and thanks to that meeting of two boats, we found out Mirabella was for sale in the first place. We also explore and have a delicious lunch. To our surprise, we see flamingos flying past in front of ‘Es Trenc’ and learn that they spend the winter months in the Parc Natural behind the beach.

After two nights off ‘Es Trenc’ we plot a course for Cabrera, where we reserved a buoy for three nights in the beautiful bay of ‘Es Port’ below the pirate castle. Without such a reservation you will be sent away in the evening, apparently the park guards are rather strict about it. The island of Cabrera — goat island — is a nature reserve. It is not allowed to anchor anywhere, you can only moor overnight at the buoys mentioned, and during the day you can also moor in the eastern bay of Cala Burri, which we explore on one of the days.

Of course we have to explore the pirate castle and find delicious pirate candy there — of course hidden by pirates. After descending back to ‘Es Port’ we find a lot of day-trippers besieging the only bar ‘Cantina Cabrera’. After the speedboat sets off towards Mallorca, we sit down comfortably for a tapas plate and a cider, cheers!

We explore the coastline of the well-protected bay by swimming, snorkeling and on the SUP and discover fish, seaweed, fish that eat seaweed and much more.

With little wind we sail out of the bay near Cabrera and head towards Arenal, where we can use the pool of our tenants in Switzerland. They have a holiday home here. The wind is picking up and things are moving quickly. So quickly, in fact, that we have to change the headsails during the lunch paella.

We are happy to welcome Cornelia and Lukas for a cup of coffee and in the evening they take us to a fine local pizzeria far away from the Ballermann.

The next day Andrea gets to attend a jewelry course in Sóller and Silvio spends the day with the children at the pool of our generous tenants. On one of the next days we will go right into the heart of the Ballermann to have lunch at one of the best Turkish restaurants.

After a few days we set off towards the northwest. The Mistral and its waves mess with our plan to spend the next few days on the north coast of Mallorca. We circle into the bay of ‘Cala Blanca’ and find out that the place ‘Es Camp de Mar’ right next door is popular with German audiences for vacationing. The Cala is beautiful, but unfortunately full of jellyfish. Our dinghy trip at sunset takes us to beautiful rock faces where bats live. The next day we go to what is basically a huge resort ‘Peguera’, to wash clothes and go to the playground. We definitely feel like we’re in Germany. German is the most spoken language you’ll hear on the streets.

After two nights at Cala Blanca, we continue towards the northwest to Andratx. We know that there are waves and a good 20 knots of wind and we are looking forward to this short trip close to the wind. We use it as a practise run to get to know Mirabella in those conditions.

In Andratx we arrive at the reserved buoy and explore the town, eat ice cream and visit the chandlery. The next day on the playground we meet a family from Bern with the girls Emily and Malou. Joséphine and Emily play together and we spend a few relaxing hours with the friendly family, including lunch and exploring the area. Joséphine really enjoys playing with a child of the same age who even speaks the same language.

Swiss German will accompany us for the next three weeks, because we will soon have visitors!