Logbook

• Departure: Alcúdia (39.8262, 3.1504), Thursday, May 29, 2025 at 10:32 UTC
• Arrival: Port de Pollença (39.9023, 3.0852), Thursday, May 29, 2025 at 16:22 UTC
• Duration: 5.8 h
• Distance: 15.0 nm
• Average speed: 2.6 kn
• Crew: Tobi, Anna, Jo, Eli

Departed Alcúdia for Port de Pollença, a modest half-day’s sail covering 15 nautical miles at 2.6 knots average. Wind 3–5 kn from the NE, gusting to 13 kn. It veered from N to ESE. Loved Port de Pollença: a very nice communal harbor, great playgrounds and beaches for the kids, and a huge anchorage outside the breakwater. Every morning the local air force base’s firefighting waterplane did its rounds overhead. Also joined the Young Cruisers Association’s “Floatchella Mallorca” event here alongside half a dozen other boats, good fun for everybody.

Logbook

• Departure: Cala Ratjada (39.7080, 3.4658), Wednesday, May 28, 2025 at 10:22 UTC
• Arrival: Alcúdia (39.8341, 3.1309), Wednesday, May 28, 2025 at 17:14 UTC
• Duration: 6.9 h
• Distance: 21.1 nm
• Average speed: 3.1 kn
• Crew: Tobi, Anna, Jo, Eli

Departed Cala Ratjada for Alcúdia, a modest half-day’s sail covering 21 nautical miles at 3.1 knots average. Wind 3–5 kn from the E, gusting to 14 kn. It veered from NNE to E. Anchored overnight outside the harbor entrance in the bay of Alcúdia.

Logbook

• Departure: Porto Cristo (39.5370, 3.3401), Tuesday, May 27, 2025 at 10:31 UTC
• Arrival: Cala Ratjada (39.7080, 3.4627), Tuesday, May 27, 2025 at 16:29 UTC
• Duration: 6.0 h
• Distance: 14.1 nm
• Average speed: 2.4 kn
• Crew: Tobi, Anna, Jo, Eli

Slipped the lines at Porto Cristo and pointed the bow toward Cala Ratjada, a modest half-day’s sail covering 14 nautical miles at an average of 2.4 knots. Wind 5–7 kn from the ESE, gusting to 17 kn. It veered from E to SE. The transit berths in the communal harbor sit directly across the water from bars and clubs blasting bad party music all night. Not a fan.

I have watched a great many things go wrong on a great many boats, and I generally consider myself hard to surprise. Eli surprised me today. Not yet one year old, not walking properly on land as far as I’ve seen, and he hauled himself up the companionway steps today, one small determined hand over the other, entirely on his own. Jo went up first, found Tobi at the tiller the way he always does, and came back down again, and Eli, who had watched every step of it from the cabin sole, decided his turn had come.

Nobody taught him that climb, not directly. I was belowdecks and saw the whole thing: no hesitation, no crying for help, just a baby who had clearly filed away his brother’s ascent a minute earlier and concluded the technique would work for him too. He got to the top, found Tobi at the tiller, and grinned like he’d just crossed an ocean. In a sense he had.

I have minded the comings and goings of a great many crews over a great many centuries, and I will say this plainly: I did not expect a one-year-old to out-climb half the able seamen I’ve known. Land-walking can apparently wait. A boat teaches its own priorities first.

Logbook

• Departure: Cala Santanyí / Cala Llombards (39.3233, 3.1445), Sunday, May 25, 2025 at 11:25 UTC
• Arrival: Porto Cristo (39.5389, 3.3377), Sunday, May 25, 2025 at 16:05 UTC
• Duration: 4.7 h
• Distance: 17.6 nm
• Average speed: 3.8 kn
• Crew: Tobi, Anna, Jo, Eli

Left Cala Santanyí / Cala Llombards and made for Porto Cristo, a modest half-day’s sail covering 18 nautical miles at an average of 3.8 knots. Wind 11–12 kn from the SW, gusting to 26 kn. Back to a crew of four after Hendrik’s departure. In Porto Cristo we visited the Cuevas del Drach, an impressive network of underground caves hung with stalagmites and stalactites, and met Bine and Peter aboard S/V JOY.