Sat 9 Jun

When I think of “a day at anchor” I think of lying around, sipping a nice cold drink and maybe reading a book. Well, our first day at anchor was a bit more exciting than that. We woke up early-ish (for unemployed people anyway) and had breakfast. I love these quiet mornings, there’s just something very peaceful about sipping your coffee while sitting in the cockpit in a quiet bay. In the spirit of “cruising is just fixing boat in exotic places” we got started in a few boat jobs. Rigging new snubber lines (they’re stretchy lines which absorb shock from the chain, which being metal is far less forgiving), hoisting our curtesy flags (German and English beside the mast) and then it was finally time to test our water maker. After installing the thing a few weeks ago I was super nervous and really hoping it wouldn’t flood our bilges as we started it. We held our breath and started it up, and after a few clunks and clicks it worked like a charm! It’ll give us 5 litres an hour, which is enough drinking water for a couple of  days at least. We’ve got two big tanks too which we’re being really careful to conserve – no long showers for us. We were a bit concerned about what the pump would do to the batteries but with the solar panels we’re still managing to change the batteries at the same time which is great.

Around lunch time I hopped in the dinghy and went to get us some bread. About half way back to the boat I realised I’d lost my bloody phone. Crap! I was convinced it’d fallen in the water as I was wrestling the dinghy back into the sea, but thought I’d have a look on the beach anyway. With slight panic in my eyes I arrived at the beach just to see my phone happily sitting on a little rock … phew! Note to self: always bring a dry bag when going in the dinghy!

Back on the boat I found a hungry and slightly concerned Camilla. The wind had shifted and we were being blown pretty close towards Sally, a nice Swedish boat next to us whose owners were thankfully on shore. We pulled in a bit of chain hoping that’d fix it (we had quite a lot out anyway) but after the wind picked up we ended up bumper-to-bumper, with both of us hanging over the side having to push ourselves off. We decided to pick up the anchor and find a better spot, which is easier said than done in a crowded anchorage. Under the watchful (and judgemental) eyes of our neighbours we had to set and reset the anchor a few times before we were sitting in a spot we were happy with. Distance over the water is really hard to judge for some reason and everything seems far far closer than it is in reality. Something you get better at with practice hopefully.

About an hour later a French couple had the same fun and games as we’d had. Camilla snuck in a photo which really captures the thought processes, “Will the anchor hold?” and “Are we in a good spot?”. Shortly after they moved.

After lunch we went for a swim. As I got out I managed to slip off the back of the boat and do a judo roll into the water, wearing nothing but a towel and some sunnies. Must have been quite a sight! Thankfully it was only my ego and my shin which were a little bruised. A cold coke can acting as a cooler brought most of the swelling down.

In the early evening we went ashore and had a wander along the esplanade and a G&T in the sun. Back on the boat we cooked dinner and finished off where we started – anchored in a quiet little bay in Mallorca.