Van on the run: Formentera

Wednesday August 6th 2014

Ashore once more to pick up the final fresh fruit and veg, catch up with the blog and for BT to go off and do some secret shopping! I had a surprise Skype with my brother, Mike, which was the highlight of my day....when you are away travelling like we are, although we get on really well and chatter away all day, we really miss other people to talk to...especially our loved ones...family and friends, so any opportunity to chat or email or text, just to be in touch is so precious. So it was today, to hear news of home, share travelling stories and see a familiar face of someone I love, was perfect.

I forgot to mention yesterday that part of our stocking up was to refill our water tanks. Being a very basic vessel, we have no indication of how full our tanks are...we don’t even know how much they hold, so about every two weeks we try to find a port where we can fill up. We went into the marina here at Sant Eulalia...only to find that they wanted 15 Euros for water...so far we have paid nothing...we take on such a small amount compared to the super-yachts that frequent the marinas...it seems absolutely absurd to pay this much...but we had no choice., so we not only filled the tanks but gave Windekind a much needed scrub down too!

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Sailing school about to begin in Sant Eulalia[/caption]

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Leaving Ibiza behind[/caption]

Anyway, back to today, once we were back onboard and had stowed the fresh produce and ice it was time to wave goodbye to Ibiza and head to one of our favourite places, Formentera. We came here last year and had a fantastic few days together, walking the beaches, hiring a scooter for the day and generally just soaking up the beauty and tranquility of the island. We had an uneventful but lovely sail across...the wind was 10 - 15 knots and on our beam (on our side).

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The calm before the storm….[/caption]

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Our first sight of Formentera[/caption]

However, once we arrived, it was a different story...the wind was all over the place, making sailing very arduous, the sea was extremely bumphly and the traffic was unbelievable....we even thought we were going to be run down by a huge motor boat at one point...he came straight at us....chattering away on his mobile....only slowing down a few yards away from us allowing us to cross in front of him! We couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw how many boats were anchored along the beach that we walked last year...we only saw a couple of boats along the whole length then..today there are literally hundreds!

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One of the ginormous catamaran ferry boats whizzing past in front of us causing enormous waves![/caption]

We were unable to anchor where BT had wanted to because they try to discourage it now...pushing you to anchor along with the hundreds of other boast, or pay for a buoy (not an option tonight as they were all taken) or go into the marina...definitely not an option..far too expensive. So we decided to make the short hop down the coast to Cala Sahona.....I got on with making the tea, as it was getting late by this time, and BT did a fantastic job at the helm. To our disappointment, the cala was even more full than the beach...there was just no way that we were going to find a spot in there...even though we were so small...so it was with great frustration that we turned back to try and find a place along the beach. It was a horrendous trip back...all the super-yachts were bombing about, leaving for ibiza, making HUGE waves....at one point, BT anxiously told me to hold on to everything as we were being chased by an enormous wave....I looked up from the Galley nly to see a wall of sea behind us...the sky and everything else was completely obliterated! It was an interesting moment!

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Dinner….made with love![/caption]

Looking for somewhere to anchor along the beach was like trying to find a parking space at Tesco’s on Christmas eve!!! BT however, found us a great spot right opposite the shark bar...a trendy, very expensive beach bar, where we had not only a view of the beach but also a view of the sunset...perfect. As long as we didn’t look either to the left or right we could pretend that we had this beautiful island to ourselves!

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