From Cabrera we had a pleasant enough sail with a bit of motoring to Puerto Petro.  The highlight of the passage was being accompanied by several, what we think were, bottlenose dolphins for a while.  One in particular seemed to hang around longer than the others, swimming off and then returning, rolling over to show his lighter colored underbelly as he approached our bow.  The water was so beautifully clear that it was easy to spot him coming before he surfaced for air.  Puerto Petro is one of many “Callas” indenting the southeast coast of Mallorca, breaking through the stratified rocks.  The photo at the top of this post, although maybe not of the best quality, is a typical example of caves formed in softer rock below a layer of harder rock above along the Eastern shore.  PP is also typical in that many Callas now have mooring balls in order to reduce the damage done by anchors to the Poisidonia grass that is vital to the marine ecosystem.

Puerto Petro – a quiet mooring field with better-looking villas around it. Also a small marina and pricey restaurants in town.

The next day we did a short hop up the coast to Porto Colom which is marked at it’s entrance by a lighthouse and is much larger but shallower than PP.  We had hoped to take a berth so we could meet our watermaker guy there but he couldn’t make it that day so we opted for a mooring ball instead, not the cheapest at €39/night, especially when there were no facilities ashore!

Lighthouse at entrance to Porto Colom

Now we are in Cala Ratjada at the most eastern point of Mallorca, clearly very popular with German tourists.  As is usual, the wind picked up in the afternoon, having been calm overnight but was fortunately southerly so we had a good downwind sail in 12-22 knots of wind.  Docking was a little tense as it was still rather windy, space was limited for manoevering behind the concrete breakwater where we wanted to dock and we had not been able to raise the marinero on the radio for assistance.  Thankfully, we managed it unscathed, whew!  This berth is controlled by Ports Iberia and is very much more reasonably priced at just €21/night including water!  The boat got a good washdown next day while Adrian reinstalled our watermaker, having replaced a few parts including the membrane. However, following the installation it was a new speed controller for the pump that finally solved the problem. It seems it had never been working properly since we owned the boat as it now sounds quite different and runs much more smoothly, producing around 15 gal/hr with low salinity.

We have decided to remain in Port Ratjada for two more days as the weather has deteriorated, rain and wind, before heading directly to Menorca. A visit to Pollencça and Sóller by car tomorrow will enable us to learn more about the more mountainous N/NW coastline of Mallorca.

Howard is contemplating trying a fish spa tomorrow, where the fish nibble at the dead skin on one’s feet. Will let you know the result!

Mazu docked inside the breakwater, bow to bow with the training ship, Sir Robert Baden Powell that arrived shortly after we did.