We needed to leave Palma on April 2nd at noon because our berth was needed by another boat. One of the things I’d hoped to do that morning was mail a package. Despite my efforts, I had not been able to mail a package to our friends in Corfu.

Let me give you the background. I’d purchased some flower art – made on handmade paper – in Amalfi, Italy the previous September. I bought two pieces: one to keep and one to give our two friends as a thank you for hosting us at their lovely villa in Corfu. I wanted to frame both, so we took them to the U.S. when we visited in October-November. I boxed up the one for our friends and took it to the Post Office. The cost of mailing it to Greece was beyond anything I would have imagined. The woman working the window suggested I mail it from an EU country, as that would be cheaper. She also told me that I needed to put the box inside another box to protect it.

So back to Seahike went the artwork!

But Seahike (and we) were in Tunisia, which isn’t an EU country. We’d visited EU countries in January and February, but we wouldn’t have had time to find a bigger box and a Post Office, plus we didn’t have a big enough carryon bag in which to put the box. So we waited until we sailed to Sardinia in February. I went to a Post Office there and asked if I could purchase a larger box and mail it. They didn’t have boxes and had no idea where I could buy one. They suggested the market. The market didn’t sell boxes.

So back to Seahike went the artwork!

When we got to Palma, I felt certain I would be able to find a box and Post Office. I took the box with me to the Post Office the morning of Holy Thursday (or whatever you want to call the Thursday before Easter) but it was closed.

So back to Seahike went the artwork!

I went back with my precious box the following Tuesday morning, the day we planned to leave Palma. I first went to a store I thought sold boxes. It didn’t. When I arrived at the post office, I saw that they had boxes. I was elated! I asked if I could buy a box. They told me no. They told me I needed a bigger box. I asked where I could buy a box and they wrote the name of a place on my phone, but I couldn’t find it. By now it was about 10:45 a.m. (I’d been working on this for over an hour), and I needed to buy groceries and get back to Seahike before noon. So I took my trusty box with me grocery shopping. I carried it with me as I walked around the store, set it down to put stuff in the cart, and picked it back up again. At one time I left it sitting in an aisle and forgot it. I was glad it was still there when I went back for it. It was quite a hike to Seahike and I now had the box, three grocery bags (two heavy) and a backpack full of groceries. I got a bit of a workout.

So back to Seahike went the artwork!

The story of “the artwork that would not be mailed” will continue in another post. I know, it is so exciting! What a cliffhanger!

We didn’t go far that first day. In fact, we went to an anchorage about 10 nm away. The name of the anchorage was Cala Portals Vells. We anchored in sand in 14 feet of water. We stayed on Seahike that first day with plans to hike the next day. It got quite busy during the day, but only five boats spent the night.

NOTE: We had traveled 8,547 nm at this point!

We awoke to a beautiful morning on Wednesday. The sun shining on the beach to our starboard side (yes, we were at anchor, but it was usually our starboard side) was lovely with the morning sun shining on it.

Boats started arriving at 10:00 a.m. We wanted to go to the beach and do some hiking but no one had taken their dinghy ashore by early afternoon, so we assumed it wasn’t allowed. So we both took the dinghy ashore about 1:30 p.m. I dropped off Michael at the beach, took the dinghy back to Seahike then swam ashore. Boy did the water feel cold! It was 61° F. (Later, two groups parked their dinghy on the shore so we knew we could have as well.)

I gave my feet some time to dry, then we walked to the right to check out that side of the bay. It was really cool! There were caves and wonderful views of the bay.

Cave time! It was obvious that they had been carved out given the square shapes, but we don’t know anything about them other than they were fun to climb in, around, and out of.

Time to go to the other side!

It was about 3:30 at this point. We talked about getting a drink (me, for liquid courage to swim in the cold water again), but then I suggested that I swim to Seahike now since the sun would only get lower in the sky. So I jumped in and said “it’s cold” to myself about a dozen times while swimming to Seahike. When I got there, I took a hot shower. Then I took the dinghy back to the shore and Michael and I went for a drink at the beach restaurant. We drove the dinghy around a bit after that and went back to Seahike.

After we got back to Seahike, three folks stopped by in their dinghy to chat. One of them was from Colorado! Small world! (I was born and raised in the beautiful state of Colorado.) Customs boarded us at 5:30 p.m. Two pleasant men took our information and left. We had dinner on board. It was a great day!

It was much quieter in the bay on April 4th. It seems that the folks who had been on Easter vacation were back at work – or at least back home.

Now let’s talk about our starboard engine – yet again. (I am as tired of talking about it as you are of hearing about it.) It had been shaking for some time. And when I say shaking, I mean the aft end of the boat actually vibrated. You might remember my mentioning that we had it looked into when Seahike was on the hard in Tunisia. We were hoping that they had found and resolved the problem. We later learned that they hadn’t.

Here’s the thing: You can’t easily/inexpensively take the boat for a “test drive” to see if the problem still exists. That would mean splashing it, running the engine(s) for a sufficient amount of time, then hauling it out again if the problem still existed. That gets very pricey since each haul out/splash is a separate fee. And you can’t run the engine when the boat is on the hard because it needs water to keep it from overheating. These engines are designed to run in the water. All of this is to say that you hope they fix the problem (the first time!) but you don’t really know until the boat is in the water again.

So. . . we had originally planned to go to Ibiza after Mallorca. I was really looking forward to it! I wanted to stay for a week. But toward the end of March, Michael told me that we needed to go somewhere where we could get Seahike hauled out again since the engine was still shaking.

I had a little snit.

But I caved within a few hours (or was it a day?). I agreed that we wouldn’t have many opportunities to haul out Seahike, so this seemed to be the time.

We put a request on the Med Sailing Facebook page for recommendations of places to haul out/get work done on Seahike. We received several suggestions. One was Valencia. So, rather than heading to Ibiza, we left for Valencia at 8:00 a.m. on Friday, April 5th. I mean, how lovely to go to Valencia (for real!! – and I was glad we did in the end), but still. We never made it to Ibiza. 🙁

We left shortly after 8:00 a.m. on the fifth of April.

We saw land for a bit, then it was just water.

It took 25.5 hours to go 135 nm to Valencia. We arrived at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday. The weird part about that trip was that we got 5G signal for about 15-20 minutes halfway through the journey. How weird! Ibiza was about 44 nm to our south, Mallorca was about 47 nm to our east and the Spanish mainland was 52 nm to our west.  (Actual coordinates: 39º 51.51 N  1⁰ 21.00 E.) And yet we got 5G. Did I mention that it was weird?

I walked into the city on the 8th to buy groceries. I learned two things:
1. Valencia is very bike friendly! 🙂 🙂
2. Valencia has some really cool buildings! Also 🙂 🙂

Here are some of the cool buildings I saw that first day. Oh and the bike path I walked along a fair amount of the way into the city.

I bought quite a few groceries and didn’t want to walk the almost four miles back to Seahike, so I asked Michael to take a cab and meet me at El Bar for drinks and a bite to eat. He showed up about 30 minutes later. We had some excellent nachos with our beverages. We recommend El Bar! There appears to be a Scrabble theme, but I am not sure why . . .

We took a cab home to Seahike.

That’s a wrap for today. More about Valencia and our amazing day trip to Xàtiva in the next post!