DESTINATIONS MAJORCA | SPAIN & PORTUGAL Balearic Joey Tyson seeks out


Majorca’s authentic side on an off-season escape without the crowds


m travelweekly.co.uk


iguel cuts the engine a few metres from Far d’Alcanada, a tiny islet just off the coast of Alcudia. An


old lighthouse peeks out over a copse of low pines; the surrounding, shallow waters reflect pure turquoise colour in the sunlight; and there’s not another soul around. For a moment, we float in silence. “Come here in summer and there are boats


everywhere,” says Miguel, our captain, first mate and cook, as he serves up dinner on a low, wooden table at the centre of the boat. Everything on the menu is Majorcan; local to an intimate level. The pig for the sobrassada – the island’s signature lobster-red, cured sausage – was slaughtered


blues


by Miguel’s father. The olive oil, spicy and thick, is from a neighbour; the wine, from a vineyard in the next village over from Miguel’s; and the dessert, a local ensaimadas pastry topped with fresh fruit, from a bakery in Alcudia. Even the boat is pure Majorca. A traditional wooden


llaüt, it was built for fishing in the 1950s. When Miguel decided to set up his own excursion company, Llaüt San Francisco, he wanted a vessel that would represent his island. After a year of painstaking renovation, it’s finally seaworthy and business is good. Authenticity has wide appeal, it seems. “The boat is Majorcan, the food is Majorcan, I am


Majorcan”, he says, as we finish the last bottle of wine. The idea of Majorca as the simple, classic package


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