Buenos días amigos

A fresh breeze is ruffling the surface of the water, silver light shimmering on the wavelets. Half a dozen shopping bags make our fingers turn pink and crackle in the wind. Our shopping mission complete, Lasse and I join Michael, Thomas, Gesine and little Lotta in a street side café to enjoy a café con leche and bruchetta. Lotta is officially the youngest to ever overnight on STARSHIP. She has mastered the internal stairway and finds the switchboard to be particularly attention-getting. With a click of a switch a desperate crew member materialises before her, much to her amusement.

16 month old Lotta.

We navigated the orthogonal streets with the hard morning light casting strong shadows on the buildings. Wiring for street lights and phone systems were tangled in an afterthought along the facades, washed in pastel colours. Intersections became plaças with booksellers and restaurants. People ambled.

At more than 5 kilometres long, Maó is the second largest natural harbour in the world (following Pearl Harbour). This natural feature is the reason for Maó’s existence and the source of its turbulent history from the earliest times. Maó was founded by Carthaginians in the 3rd century BC. Its importance increased greatly under British rule who valued the protected port. As a result the city has a distinctly different flavour to Mallorca. Many older buildings in the central part of Maó are eighteenth century, built during one of the three periods of British occupation. Georgian fanlights and cast iron balustrades can be seen overlooking the streets.

Armed with a trolley we paced the aisles of the Spar supermarket, whipping produce from the shelves and attempting to recall what it was we needed. The electronic cash register announced the final total in the most dreary automated voice, clearly it had had a bad start to the day. The girl in the bakery grinned as we ordered in English, abandoning our inept Spanish for the moment; instead pointing and saying “three please”.

Plaça Reial.
[ photo - James Frankham ]

It is a beautiful city making Lasse feel at home in the straight streets and three level apartments. Michael, Martin, Corinne and Lasse get closer to home by the day; Odetta and I are now 19 000 kilometres away and counting.

The wind has picked up to 20 knots and we reboard STARSHIP for passage out of the long harbour and north again to the Bay of Fornells where we will anchor for the night. Ille del Rei (Island of the King) slips past. A Byzantine basilica flanks the western side. It was the first part of Menorca to be liberated from the Moorish dominion. Later the British constructed a military hospital here and it was termed Bloody Island. It is now ruled by rabbits.

With the familiar motion of the boat we cruise at 9 knots up the coast, the bow plunging from one wave to another. Martin shifts in and out of autopilot mode manoeuvring around small boats. Tomorrow we spend the day in Fornells and head back to Mallorca by nightfall.

Stay tuned,

James