6/10

Hi from Tapestry,
It is Friday afternoon and Andraitx (rhymes with crotch) is filling up for
the weekend. We now have five American boats anchored out front of the town.
In addition to Tapestry and Triumph, we have Sugilite, from Seattle, Haven, from
New York, and Incognito, from San Francisco. A Spanish boat across from us
asked, when the fifth one showed up, "Are you escaping?" There are
German, English and Spanish boats anchored out, too, but by far most of the
European boats are in the marinas. It is interesting to me the number of large,
powerful, multi engine yachts in the 50 and up category that there are here.
Although there are many sailboats, I would say there are about the same number
of powerboats. People have made us feel very welcome.
There is a small sail auxiliary that is popular here. It is a lifeboat
shaped double ender with a diesel engine (or two) under the deck. It may be
fifteen to 30 feet in length, it may or may not have a cabin. The stem is
vertical and is extended upward to carry a kind of "totem" over the
bow. The mast is two piece, like a sunfish mast, I believe it is called a
lateen rig. The two pieces are lashed together with rope and somehow supported
by the stem extention mentioned earlier. The rig can be easily lowered for
passing under bridges. I haven't seen one actually sailing, but they are so
prevalent they must work. Then, of course, there are many charter boats here.
Sunsail and Moorings do lots of business here, to name but a few. The
charterers are a story in themselves. Several days ago a young couple sailed
into the harbor in their 35 foot Beneteau charter, threw out both anchors and
headed for town. A breeze came up and the boat drifted into the dock area
reserved for the fishing fleet. The fishermen were furious, so a German fellow,
single handed, climbed aboard, started the engine, raised one anchor and marked
the other with a float and then moved the boat and anchored it properly.
Trouble was, there was no way to shut off the engine from the cockpit and the
cabin was locked. This was at around five in the afternoon. By midnight the
engine was still running and no one had shown up. In the morning, the young
couple picked up their anchors and motored off. They didn't want to hear
anything about what had happened, they were embarrassed enough already. A huge
catamaran anchored near us yesterday and has been dragging his anchor all day.
He finally moved. Amazingly, there is almost no wind today.
We made reservations to fly home from Rome to Tampa on September 1. We had
planned to come home in August, but we are really enjoying this place. We have
a lot more to see in Mallorca and Menorica before we go to Corsica and Sardinia
and then on to Rome. We are going very slowly, but it is a great place to be.
The bay here is clear and about ten feet deep, great for anchoring. It is
surrounded with steep hills which are dotted with condominiums and lovely homes.
The shops in town are first class. There is a supermarket, hardware, pharmacy
and marine store all of which are reasonable and well stocked. The fishing
fleet comes in every afternoon with fresh fish, and the bars and restaurants
along the waterfront are wonderful. We have coffee or tapas ashore most days,
but eat most of our meals aboard. There is wireless internet service available
everywhere in the harbor for about a Euro per hour or 20 Euros per week. We
have really been taken by this place. We visited Palma earlier in the week. In
that city, there are hundreds of megayachts. I have never seen so many in one
place. We visited the Cathedral and Palace there and were duly impressed. The
Cathedral was begun in 1234 and "finished" about 400 years later. It
is still under construction.
On Sunday, we will leave here to head toward Island de Cabrera, a small group
of islands to the south of Mallorca. It is a marine preserve. We have two day
passes to moor there. They say it is beautiful. It will be difficult to leave
Andraitx, however. Our best to you.

Hank and Julie