After another good morning of school and chilling out in the heat of the day after lunch, we dec
ided to explore further, this time up to the city walls. We climbed the steps alongside the coastguards office and soon were at the city walls looking down to the marina below. The kids climbed to the top of the walls and experimented dropping stones of different sizes to see which would reach
the ground first. We discussed how to most accurately measure the time it took to fall and decided that it was best just to drop them at the same time. Once they saw that the stones hit the floor at the same time they remembered talking about the same experiment being done at the Leaning Tower of Pisa by Galileo when we were there last year, reminding me that it is always good to revisit learning and make connections in different ways to cement their understanding.
We then followed the city walls for a while before heading back into town, spotting an interesting bug and a fascinating tap en route.
It was a bit of a magical mystery tour, following narrow cobbled streets until we finally found a small playground in such a sorry state that the kids even contemplated if it was worth stopping for!
Back to the boat for dinner and then just as the light was beginning to fade I spotted a kid boat moor up on the other side of the pontoon to us. It often surprises me how sometimes the kids can still be reluctant to make friends with kids who don't speak their language although with a little help they usually get over their nervousness. This was not one of those times... having had a day or so without their boat kid friends they were keen to make the most of "new blood" and soon made friends with the Swiss kids Ivy and Sascha.
Thursday 13th September 2018
Having found out that the Swiss kids did school in the afternoon to stay out of the sun, and that they may well be leaving that afternoon, we decided to take all the kids to a museum I had found on trip advisor, but not before Esmé took a leaf out of her dad's book and checked out the Force 4 catalogue while she was waiting for everybody else to be ready. The map on TripAdvisor said the museum was opposite one of the piers and Patrick thought he had seen it on our previous day's adventure so off we went. After scouting around for 10 minutes at the suggested location we began to smell a rat so I asked in a nearby shop, only to be told it was about another 1km away from the marina... on we walked. Up a small track to an industrial area, it didn't look promising so I asked at a small car workshop, this time being told to turn right and another 200m! We finally found it.... CLOSED!!!
The kids were by this time decidedly unimpressed as we turned round and started the traipse back. Realising their little trip was coming to an early demise the Swiss begged a detour to a playground to which the Laurin kids took a little persuading, (they knew how bad it was from yesterday!) However we dragged them there again and the view of the salt pans in the opposite direction were not unpleasant.
The playground entertained the kids for all of about 15 minutes before they negotiated a stop at a café for a slushie!
School was duly done in the afternoon followed by cleaning sails for Esmé and Ivy!
Friday 14th September 2018
Friday was a quiet day with us doing school and then prepping for our departure the next day. We had been watching the weather for several days now and had finally decided that we should leave in the early hours of Saturday morning to allow the swell to die down a little but to also give us a chance at getting in before dark on Sunday. Anticipating more swell than we would usually set out into I prepared a stew, made sandwiches and boiled some eggs as well as preparing goodie boxes full of sweets, chocolate, fruit and cereal bars. This way if I could minimise time down below prepping food on passage which can often lead to me feeling seasick. We don't normally like to risk arriving in the dark however we had been waiting a long time for a window and there were thunderstorms forecast for Monday morning which we would prefer to avoid. We were lucky that our friends on Hullabaloo sent pictures and a really good description of the anchorage at the entrance to Mahon so we were feeling confident of a night time entrance if needed. With alarms set for 3:30am Patrick and I got our heads down by 8:30pm, leaving the kids to watch movies "as late as they liked"! This was a ploy to ensure that they slept as long as possible in the morning as we anticipated the swell being quite uncomfortable until lunchtime.
Saturday 15th September 2018
I have to admit Patrick and I were a little sluggish at 3:30am, taking time for a final study of the weather and to mull things over, eventually managing to leave at about 4:30am. We were both alert as we took the short cut between two islands on the way out, doing everything in our power to make best speed towards our destination of Menorca and as we turned away from the protection of Sardinia the waves began to build as forecast. The motion was uncomfortable but surprisingly we were making good speed. After an hour of rocking and rolling in the darkness we both looked at each other;
"are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"keep going until daylight and then decide whether to turn back?"
"Agreed!"
As the sun came up, luckily everything seemed better in the daylight. I had put the mizzen up and rolled the headsail out while Patrick was catching up on sleep (still keeping the engine going) and we were screaming along at 6.2 knots. It would have been nice to just sail without the engine but we would have dropped speed and this passage was an exercise in getting there as quickly as possible.
It was a long day and I was very pleased I had prepared so much food in advance. Even just serving up the stew that was already prepared was tricky but as the evening drew on the waves reduced a little and Esmé and I started our night watch. Esmé went down as soon as she had eaten her allotted half a Mars Bar but did keep popping up to check on me as the night wore on. We've taken the same approach as our friends on Soledad for long passages which is to let kids have free reign of electronics and bed times as long as they are independent and don't disturb the off watch parent's sleep. Some people manage to continue to do school on passage but they are usually on much larger boats or even Catamarans which don't rock and roll quite so much. This works for us and for the few long passages we do, we catch up with school later.
There was lots of phosphorescence on this night watch but unfortunately no dolphins. Dolphins swimming in phosphorescence (tiny glow in the dark plankton) is one of the most amazing sights you will ever see sailing at night in my opinion. Since we last saw them we have met Siara on Arakai who told us she calls them spirit dolphins... a term I love! In any case, watching a few programmes I had downloaded onto my iPad meant my watch passed quickly and I was soon putting on the kettle ready to wake Patrick with a cup of tea and a Mars Bar!
Sunday 16th September 2018
I woke early after only a few hours sleep but didn't feel like I could go back so went up on deck and let Patrick get some more sleep. His watch from 1:30am onwards, I think is the most tiring so I always try to relive him as soon as a can. He also sleeps better in the time just after dawn when the kids are still asleep and the temperature hasn't crept up too far just yet. We then tag teamed catching up with sleep (and getting out of the sun) for the rest of the day, eagerly awaiting both sight of land and mobile coverage. It's not that we are addicted to electronics, but I was keen to see where our friends on Mrs Chippy were as I had a feeling they may be in Mahon too. I was right! We quickly figured out they were in a marina and diverted course away from the anchorage towards the town; Patrick and Esmé hurriedly raising our Spanish courtesy flag. No sooner had we moored up than the Manzanos were there to greet us having spotted our orange mast on the way back from their walk. It was amazing to catch up with our friends from Ragusa who we hadn't seen since April!
The kids were bouncing off the walls, climbing lamp posts and very quickly on board Mrs Chippy; after a quick shower and tidy up Patrick and I joined them for drinks. Eventually thoughts turned to food and the Manzanos headed out to a restaurant while we settled down in the cockpit to finish off our stew and get our heads down for an early night.
Monday 17th September 2018
The Manzanos were planning a morning of exploring the town followed by an organ concert in one of the many churches in Mahon so we decided to ditch school and join them. We got the lift up a level and then walked into town, the kids still delighted to be in each others company. The views looking down into the harbour were amazing and Patrick and I commented on the fact that we really weren't expecting this. In fact (like Lyon in France) we had done no research on Mahon and were absolutely blown away by the place.
First stop was an old Monastery which now housed a market of sorts, selling everything from locally produced gin, cheese and meats, to clothing and souvenirs. We enjoyed mulling around, tasting cheeses and admiring the architecture before congregating in the courtyard to let the kids burn off some steam.
We then visited the church next door which was beautiful before the kids had a funny face pulling contest on the steps.
On through the town, via a toy shop for fishing nets, to the church where the concert was. 30 Euros got 6 adults and 7 kids in to listen to this half hour performance on an amazing 200 year old church organ.
After exploring the church we very quickly joined the kids who had found a balcony seat with a view of the organist and were enjoying watching his hands and feet work wonders with this magnificent instrument. Interestingly the acoustics seemed better on the balcony than down below!
Back down to the boats for lunch and then I headed out with Jessica, Paul and Doug (Jessica's Dad) to search for a supermarket. After finding the first one shut we consulted google earth and Paul saw another supermarket chain that he had used before nearby.... and it was a cheap one! We walked on and were delighted to learn that they would deliver (me especially as our granny trolley had finally given rusted to oblivion). We are trying to run our dry stores down before we leave Laurin in Spain but our beer and soft drink stocks were somewhat depleted so I took the opportunity to load up, leaving precious little space in the trolley for the few fresh goods that I needed! We then raced the delivery van back down the hill and began the thankless task of unpacking! We then ended the night with an impromptu BBQ on Mrs Chippy. A lovely end to a lovely day!
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