Finally we were off to Cabrera, a little island to the South of Mellorca. My mum and everyone else had recommended this place. It’s a national park so you need a permit but we’d managed to secure one!!

There’s a fair bit of rain around at the moment on the weather forecast, which is fine if it’s just rain, but it’s pretty dark so we’re not sure if it could also be thunder and lightning storms which we’re not so fine about. Getting to Cabrera would bring us 15NM closer to Ibiza though so it’s a step in the right direction and fingers crossed will stay clear of those dark rain clouds too.

It was a beautiful sunny day and a great sail. As we neared the island we were still under sail and racing a few other boats, and the clock as we need to be there before 6pm. Simon’s the competitive one so he was on the wheel.

We wanted to keep sailing for as long as we could because a) everyone else was and we didn’t want to loose face, b) it’s a nature reserve so it makes sense to try and be a bit green and c) we’re trying to save engine hours/gas.

Between Cabrera and a little island to starboard, there’s a dangerous wreck bang smack in the way so you have to go to Port of the wreck to avoid getting stuck between the rocks and the wreck – or so me and every other helmsman thought. But not Simon, he toyed with the wind angle and managed to finally find a course between the wreck and the rocks. Crazy!

Anyway that mean’t that we had a straight line straight into the bay. Awesome!

All day, Simon has been harking on about ‘I bet there’s a pub, I’m going to have a beer’. Anyway I’d read the pilot and knew for sure there’s not, there’s only an information centre  and you can’t stray too far on the island without a guide.

As we entered we saw a fort, with a few people climbing around the ramparts – hummm not sure that was mentioned in my trusty book.

Then we round the corner and low and behold we see a pub with lots of sailors relaxing outside. OK so I owed Simon a beer.

First we had to moor up. The Mr Man came out on the dinghy and checked our reservation. We needed a white mooring buoy – right at the back of the field in a beautiful, picturesque spot but the furthest possible place from the pub! We raced ahead, when suddenly a bigger boat came the other way. ‘Can we have that mooring buoy to be near our friends?’ The yellow mooring buoy near the pub? Sure we need a white mooring buoy way over the other side. So we let them have it.

We finally secured ourselves in a lovely spot between a nice Benneteau and a German boat (sporting two naked bodies of course). Then we set off to the pub!

We tied up alongside the jetty, and since everyone tells us you must lock up your dinghy, we wrapped her in chain and added the padlock.

Then we found ourselves a lovely table in the sunshine and got us a couple of beers. Next up we wanted food. It looked like they were doing some kind of tapas that was fast running out – but the kind you had to pay for. Simon sent me inside to order. The barman was as snotty as they come.

Me: “Are you still serving food?”

Him: “Yes“… silence

Me: “Can I order some?”

Him: “Yes“… silence

Me: “Do I order here or over there?”

Him: “Over there”

Good so we were getting somewhere. I’d seen the next table having cheese ham and bread and that would be just fine for us.

Me: “Could I have some cheese, some ham and some bread?”

Him: “Yes“… silence

Me: “Do I pay now or later?”

Him: “Now“… silence

Me: “Erm ok so how much is it?”

Him: “21 Euros”

Me: “OK and you’ll bring it out to us or shall I wait?”

Him “Yes“… silence.

I was sure glad to get out of there. Back at the table Simon asked what I’d ordered? “Cheese, ham and bread for 21 Euros”. As I said it I knew it was madness but it hadn’t dawned on me before – yep turns out I’d ordered the most expensive thing on the menu. Oh well it tasted good and I sure wasn’t going back in to talk to the barman.

We sat there a while in the sun with our beers and did a spot of people watching. The couple off the German boat turned up, took the table next to us and shared a few laughs.

There was a couple of drunk guys on a dingy that were ferrying their fellow sailors from the dock to the main boat. They were so drunk that the skipper on the main boat had come in close to pick them up and was circling in the bay. Eventually one-by-one they got them all onboard and headed off towards the mainland.

There was also some nutter on a dingy who got really mad at a police boat. He backed up, then drove straight at it yelling as he went. He rammed the police boat (which didn’t move) and bounced off so hard he almost fell in the water. No idea what that was about but at least he’s picking fights with boats and not people.

There were lots of overloaded dinghies coming and going to keep us entertained, the bums were almost touching the water. For some reason everyone seemed to be rowing and not in a straight line. Not sure if this was an environmental thing but we were glad for the electric motor that is charged via solar.

The owner of a huge catamaran obviously decided that dingying was too hard and simply moored up alongside the tiny jetty to dispel 20 or so adventurers onto land.

Then a large dinghy with some divers came in and were circling around. Next there was a bit of shouting and arm waving. Seems we’d parked our dinghy in their spot.

Simon ran off to move the dingy… without the padlock key… so he called out ‘I need the key’ so I jumped up and ran too. Straight through some kind off cesspit puddle right outside the pub. It stunk!!

We moved the dinghy around the corner and then settled back to our beers. Then I thought ‘What’s that smell?’ My foot. I told Simon about it and he had a good laugh at my expense with the Germans who had obviously seen it happen. Oh well I’ve seen their roody parts – so I think I get the last laugh!

Humm I loved Cabrera but not really what I expected. A deserted island I think without the pub and the crazy people. Could stay a while but if the weather is right we’ll need to move on again.