Change of course ... Mallorca, Spain

Because of stormy conditions, it was unsafe for us to attempt to sail to Corsica (Ajaccio, France), so we changed course and headed to Mallorca instead! Palma is a great little city on a beautiful island full of adventures. The best part was that it was HOT.

We spent our shore leave hopping on busses and taking them to random beach towns. In one place, we found a wind surfing board and tried it out in the water. There were also deserted huts along the beach and a winding, sandy trail that hugged the coast. A lot a time was spent relaxing and lazing about on the beach. It was very pleasant.

An impromptu port program was arranged to go on a snorkelling tour outside of Palma. We all suited up in full (very tight) wetsuits and flippers and hopped on a couple of Zodiacs. They took us out to some smaller islands right off the coast. We dove into the cool water and unluckily discovered a swarm of jellyfish. It was crazy. The guides where quite shocked and we had to give up our cave adventure because there were just too many jellyfish. I got stung three times. It seems they really liked me because almost everyone else came out of the water unscathed. A jellyfish sting feel like a cross between being stung by a wasp and burnt by a hot poker. YIKES! The discomfort only lasted about twenty minutes and by that time we motored the boats to another location and happily dove and snorkelled again - sans jellyfish this time. It was really awesome!

I also took the time in Mallorca to do extra deck work. I hung out with the AB’s (able-bodied sailors - this is the qualification that our maritime deck crew have) and varnished lifejacket boxes for a couple hours. It was fun … really it was.

We stocked up on snacks to sustain us on the eleven-day sail to Morocco that lies ahead … Africa, here we come!