Page 8 Five for Ibiza
Full of excitement and expectation, after weeks of meeting and planning, the famous five were ready to organise the jam sandwiches and pop needed for their summer adventure.
Sorry, not a new Enid Blyton’s famous five story, but the yachts, Lotti, Berti, Ganty, Gemini J and Baltic Moon and their 18 crew from the SAMM Cruising Group on their trip to Ibiza and Formentera. Instead of jam sandwiches and pop, each boat packed aboard enough groceries for four people on a two week sail.
The plan was to sail the 62 miles to Calpe on June 8th and cross to the islands on June 9th in flotilla. Once there, each boat could go its own way, meet up again for a birthday celebration after a week and then at the end for the return crossing.
The first day went well, the next morning was when ‘the plan’ went wrong. Ganty’s engine would not start and Baltic Moon had battery problems so they were stuck for the day. Lotti, Berti and Gemini J weighed anchor at 5am to find the bay blocked by a large fishing fleet but managed to find a way through to start their crossing. Oh the joys of boating!
The highlight of the day was a encountering a pod of about 30 dolphins. They spent 20 minutes around the boats, diving under, swimming on their backs and leaping clear of the water, a great experience. Ganty and Moon made it across the following day.
From then on everybody had a great time visiting some lovely bays and meeting in San Antonio for a meal to celebrate one skipper’s birthday. After the meal the adventurous ones stayed out to see some of San Antonio’s infamous night life, rolling home in the early hours.
Some of the highlights were seeing weddings on the beach, obviously popular on Ibiza, and examples of how the rich and famous live. One evening a massive super yacht anchored so its helicopter could land on it. On another, a different super yacht was guided in to a safe anchorage after dark by its tender. There was some great sailing, lovely moonlit nights at anchor and a chance for some to visit different places while ashore.
After 10 days Ganty telephoned to say they had crossed back early because of the forecast. The next day Gemini J and Berti left for the mainland and encountered the very strong winds and up to 4 metre swell that Ganty had avoided. In the same conditions Ganty sailed from Calpe to Torrevieja downwind surfing at up to 8 knots with just a storm jib set.
On Sunday Lotti’s crew awoke to a beautiful morning, with the sea like a mirror, to find a yacht positioned 6 inches from the stern of a power boat, a clear example of the need to be aware of a boats swinging circle when anchoring.
On Lotti’s last day she left for an overnight sail directly to San Pedro. It was the night of the full ‘strawberry’ moon of the summer solstice which rose about 1 hour before sunset so they had the full moon to the east and the red sunset sky to the west, absolutely beautiful. Everybody got back safe and sound after a fabulous two weeks.
Find more information about SAMM and the Cruising Group (you don't have to own a boat) by going to
www.sailingmarmenor.com/groups/cruising/.
QF Focus Magazine
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