Mallorca, August 10, 2014
For the past week there has been a major yachting regatta in Palma, with well over 100 yachts, including several of the new racing Swan 60s, TP 52s and some maxis. We went out to watch the racing one day and it was interesting to hear the groaning of the winches on the maxis, apparently called the mating call of the maxis. We had a terrific sail ourselves and I think Greg wanted to just keep going on one tack, with us ending up in Algiers!
We have been searching out some new places in Palma so that we don't just go to old favourites and we found an excellent restaurant specialising in tapas. Tast is at Avenged Comte de Sallent, 13 (+34 971 10 15 40) where they have a bar area with the type of tapas on bread and then another area where you can order a range of other warm and cold tapas or main courses. Their Spanish omelette is one of the best we have tried and several dishes with cod were delicious. They also have another restaurant in Calle Unió, near the centre of Palma.
A great find one day was the original of the Cappuccino chain, Gran Café Cappuccino,
Carrer de Sant Miquel, 53 (+34 971 71 97 64) which is housed in a building that was once a grand mansion, so the old style architecture and two huge courtyards with potted palms and other trees made it a really beautiful place for lunch. It's near the main food market so there were more tourists around but that also means a good shopping area, especially for shoes! We will go back some time for a good walk around the area when it is not so hot.
Today has been most relaxing with a great sail and then a swim while on anchor at Cala Blava, on the eastern side of the bay. We could anchor in 6 metres over sand so the water was aqua. Wonderful! People come to the strips of sandy beach there, below a high sandy cliff face. The walk down would be bad enough but the walk up would be terrible. So they must love the fact that it is more secluded than the 93 main beaches around Mallorca. As it's 34C today the main Sunday outing for families is swimming!