Tres Playas Colonia de Sant Jordi

We woke up this morning to find ourselves just coming into Palma de Mallorca. Mallorca is the largest of the four Ballearic Islands – part of Spain and Palma is the capital. Very pretty little city and extremely well organized cruise ship dock – with ramps like at an Airport that you use to get yourselves into a covered walkway that takes you to the exit where you can pick up taxis or a bus into the town – ...

And at long last we are on our way ... can't quite believe we are actually starting this journey after all the work, planning, talking .... And we know we've been to San Telmo many times before but this time it is different!! And so good to have Simon's old friends Max & Linsey onboard - after all they were really the people responsible for him ending up in Port d'Andratx to begin with.

We arrived in Cala de Calobra around 5:30. We anchored in the small bay and took a tender to shore. The little village has a small pier along one side of a steep hill and the village is crowded on the hillside raising between two much larger and steeper hills. The whole thing looks like some Hollywood set because of its idyllic setting on the small bay. There are several bars and restaurants where we got drinks and ate an early dinner.

... lunch was served buffet style on the main deck so everyone could eat at their leasure and were it was the most convenient for them.

Waterskiing is very exhausting and after a few hours of playing on the water, the crew loaded everything up and we headed down to coast to the small village of sa Calobra on the Cala de Calobra.

Just south of the town of Portocristo are the Cuevas del Drach, which are really four caves all connected to each other. This cave however has a large lake in it, called Martel Lake. It's large enough to ride a boat in and to see all the stalactites hanging from the ceiling. It’s a beautiful place ...

The night before all of the guests, Stee and I went to a dance club in Ibiza. We didn't arrive back onboard until close to 7 AM. We then began our cruise to Mallorca, the island just north of Ibiza. The crew had food for those who were hungry, but most of us went straight to bed.

Just after noon, around five hours later, we arrived off the coast of the playa ex pregons gran, a nudist beach just a few ...

... from Germany. Good music, dancing starts up. We leave at 1:30 to catch the last bus. I am relying on my roommate who is totally confident about the schedule. Well, we wait with others but find out the last bus left awhile back. We need to find a cab which is difficult since everyone is trying to get to a bar/club somewhere. We finally get one. A late night by my standards but just starting to get going. My back could not take any more.

... afternoon at the beach back in Playa de Palma. It is so nice to have warm weather with sun. Quite a contrast from Scandinavia. This is an area full of German tourists. Mostly Spring break atmosphere. Apparently it is dominated by package deals. I have seen very few other nationalities here. As an indication, at the airport, Air Berlin dominated the airlines (even though this is Spain it is not Iberia or SpanAir).

... has 4 beds). He is from Madrid but speaks English well. A good chance for me to work on my Spanish. He is 24, in Mallorca for a week to get away from it all. A very nice guy. He had met a woman from Slovakia which keeps him busy during much of my stay.

Dialects of Spanish make it much harder for a novice. I learned Playa for beach in Spanish while in Mallorca it is Platja. Even names of places Mallorca vs Majorca, Ibiza vs Eivissa. This part of Spain speaks Catalan, a ...

... my friend Sanny, with whom I worked together in the sailing school some years ago.
We managed to go Catsailing two times, and always had some good wind to ride the double trapez! Always getting me into adrenaline rushes ;-)

An evening with a big barbecue at Sannys terrasse and a night out for some fantastic guitar livemusic...

...unbelievable how fast time is passing!