The Diamantgracht then left Newcastle on the 6^th and arrived in Tauranga, NZ on the 10^th, loaded a couple more boats and cargo and left on the 17^th for a non stop run to Gibraltar via the Panama Canal.  We don’t have an ETA Gibraltar yet, but suspect about the 4^th week of April depending on whether there are any delays getting through the Panama Canal.  We will leave in time to allow a week in the UK catching up with family before heading to Gibraltar.

To comply with the Schengen rules, after 90 days in Schengen countries (which includes all EU countries other than UK, Ireland and Gibraltar), we have to spend 90 days outside the Schengen area, which means either Croatia or Turkey since Tunisia and Morocco are out of the question. Therefore, while it is impossible to be accurate with our cruising plans, which will always be  dependent on the weather, we do have an outline which will give you folks an idea of where we will be if you want to come visit.  Unlike cruising in Vanuatu, around the Mediterranean there are lots of transport options; airports, hire cars, trains, buses and ferries.

• May
  • 1^st week working our way up the Spanish coast from Gibraltar to the Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera)
  • 2^nd & 3^rd weeks of May in the Balearics
  • 4^th week of May Barcelona and crossing to Marseilles
• June
  • 1^st week South of France
  • 2^nd 3^rd & 4^th Corsica and Sardinia
  • 4^th week crossing to the west coast of Italy starting around the Isle of Elba
• July
  • The whole of July working our way down the west coast of Italy and Sicily
• August, September & October
  • Cross from southern Italy to Dubrovnik in Croatia, then cruise the coast of Croatia, returning to the north Aegean area of Greece, where the boat will be left for winter

Update 1st April
We have had confirmation that the Diamantgracht will be passing through the Panama Canal on the 5th April, is expected in Gibraltar on the 19th April and Buena Vista will be unloaded on the 20th ...... woohooo. 

Therefore we have booked our flights and will leave for London on the 11th and proceed to Gibraltar on the 15th so that we can hire a car and look at some sights like Granada before we get into some serious preparation for the summer cruise.  

 28th April
The ship Diamantgracht carrying Buena Vista arrived on Wednesday evening on the 20^th April at Algeciras in Spain and once off loaded on Good Friday, we took it across to Gibraltar.

Gibraltar is a very small place, only 6 square kilometres and home to 30,000 residents.  There is some excellent history as it has been held, at various times, by the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Moors, the Spanish and now the English.  They have even found a scull of Neanderthal Man in St Michaels Cave and there has been some famous sea battles like the battles of Trafalgar and Algeciras.

The name Gibraltar comes from the invasion of the area by the Moors from north Africa and its leader Tarik, their word for mountain was Gibel, hence the area was called Gibel Tarik – Mountain of Tarik.  Gibel Tarik, together with its counterpart Gibel Mousa across the Gibraltar Straight in Morocco, form the two Pillars of Hercules.

For boaters, there are excellent facilities in Gibraltar with two main marinas and another at La Linea in Spain just across the border.  There is a well stocked chandlery, a very good supermarket, cheap fuel (by European standards!) and is served by international direct flights to London and Madrid.

A tour of “The Rock” is a must, there are 34 miles of tunnels built into the rock for shelter, storage and positioning of armaments where they broke through the rock face.  The tunnels were started during the siege of Gibraltar 1779 – 1783 by the Spanish and expanded during the second World War.  There is also St Michaels Cave, a huge natural feature with enormous stalagmites and stalactites and a concert auditorium.

Then there are of course, the famous Apes of which it said that if they ever leave the British will loose the Rock.  Being conscious of this, Winston Churchill had more brought in from north Africa when numbers dwindled to 4 or 12 depending on which tour guide you believe.  There are now over 250 of them and they are becoming a pest, venturing down to the town to pilfer food scraps.

Once Easter had passed and we had received our new fenders that were sent Gibraltar, we did some final provisioning and filled up with fuel and set off for our next destination, The Balearic Islands.  It is amazing the number of commercial either waiting in the Bay of Algeciras or travelling through the Straights of Gibraltar.  When we left Gibraltar I brought up a list of AIS targets (basically all ships over 300 tonnes have to have AIS (Automatic Identification System) by law and other boats by choice, Buena Vista’s navigation system lists a maximum of 100 targets by closeness to your vessel and the list was full with shipping within a radius of 5 nautical miles!!

As the south of Spain didn’t interest us much, we decided to do this part of the trip as quickly as possible.  Not quite as quickly as we did though, the weather was perfect so having left Gibraltar we continued on for two nights at sea and arrived on the west coast of Ibiza at a small Cala (Spanish for Cove) Cala Tarida at lunchtime.

8th May
The Balearic Islands, consist of four main islands; Formentera, Ibiza, Mallorca and Menorca, plus a few smaller ones.  The name Balearics comes from the Roman name Insulea Baleares, which in turn is believed to have derived from the Phoenician Ball Laaron or “man who throws stones” as this was the islanders method of resisting attack!!

The cruising here is just what you would expect of the Mediterranean, lots of small picturesque little calas with beachside bar restaurants and perfectly clear water.  It is still early in the season so the weather is still changeable and that makes planning a bit more of a challenge.  Most anchorages are “open roadstead” anchorages, that is open to swell when the wind changes and so far we have had every possibility of wind direction in a short period of time!!

In Ibiza we cruised the western coast as the wind was mostly from the eastern sector, stopping at Cala Tarida, San Antonio and Puerto de Portinatx and hiring a car and touring the island.  Of the three large towns on Ibiza; IbizaTown (also know as Eivissa), San Antonio and  Puerto de Santa Eulalia, Puerto de Santa Eulalia is by far the best, still maintaining a bit of class in an area that is dominated by high rise apartments, large night clubs, lap dancing bars and bars showing endless English Football (soccer).

Although there is much history in the Balearics from the Catheginians, Phoenicians, Romans etc there isn’t much to show for it on the island and one thing we noticed when driving around the island is the complete lack of livestock.  No sheep, goats, cattle, horses ….. nothing but some feral cats.

The trip across to Mallorca was a casual affair taking about 6 hours to do the 50 nautical miles with flat seas.

So far we have only visited two areas by boat; Cala Portals and Puerto el Arenal but we also hired a car and looked around the island but there is more to come before we move on to Menorca.  The first thing we noticed is that in Ibiza the tourists were predominantly British whereas in Mallorca they are predominantly German.

Mallorca is so different from Ibiza, much larger of course and it is rugged, lots of mountains some beautiful little towns, for example our favourite was Valdermossa which is very much like towns in the Provence area of France, spectacularly beautiful and there is more agriculture there with citrus, olives, vineyards, an array of livestock and even some crops that looked like wheat.