David's Diary: Friday, March 29, 2002
A Gale In Porto Cristo, Spain
Calm Before the Storm
We spent another day in Isla de Cabrera. Our friend Bobbie took Jocelyn, Kevin, and Allen for a walk in the morning, giving Karalee and me a morning alone on the boat. Many parts of the island are off limits to walkers (unless you are accompanied by a guide), but Bobbie reported that it was difficult to follow the signage and figure out which paths were approved and which were not. At one point, a park official told them they were not allowed in an area, but they were already on their way home so they enjoyed a long and pleasant walk.
After three days at anchor, the crew were ready to move on. And the weather was forecast to change, so we headed off in the morning for the east coast of Mallorca in the Balearic islands of Spain. We set off in perfectly calm conditions and motored past the islands of Conejera and Redonda. Not long after I spotted four dolphins swimming in a parallel line to Dragonsinger. I called everyone out for a look, but by the time I had rushed below for my zoom lenses they had disappeared in the distance.
Waves Entering Porto Cristo
We carried on to Porto Cristo, one of the most protected harbours on the east coast of Mallorca. We settled in, discovered where the local grocery store was, and then sat out rain showers as a gale-force storm started working its way from the north-east. After three days the swells on the Mediterranean Sea continued to build and they approached the harbour entrance head on.
The entrance to Porto Cristo consists of two ninety degree curves looking much like a reverse-S. Despite this protection we were kept awake at night and almost wore through a dock line from the swells that bounced Dragonsinger. As we watched the waves build, we were glad to be tied to a dock. As the swells hit the harbour entrance they would build to at least twenty feet (six meters). They would then slam into the walls lining the entrance sending spray flying. But there was so much water that the wave reflected off the wall would still be ten feet (three meters) high. This wave would travel across the next portion of the entrance to only rebound again. The picture above shows both the incoming wave in the distance and the reflected wave in the foreground.
Breakwater
We watched as waves slammed into the breakwater sending spray well into the marina. Those on the end pier (forming part of the second breakwater in the picture above) were stranded on their boats. The waves and spray were so continuous that no one could safely walk from their boat to the rest of the marina.
Things were rocking so much today that even the dock was an undulating snake that had to be navigated with great care. We decided to get everyone off the boat, despite the pouring rain, and walked ten minutes to the Coves del Drac (Caves of the Dragon). These famous caverns were discovered in 1896 by the French speleologist EA Martel. Every hour on the hour there is an organized visit to the caves. You walk underground and see the underground pools glittering in blue while the guide provides commentary in Spanish, English, French, and German. You are then led to a huge cavern where auditorium seating is provided in front of an underground lake. The lights are turned down and boats trailing ribbons of light row by with live music echoing off the walls as the performers play their instruments in their boats. After the performance, we then got to take a ride in one of the boats where we traveled through the cavern to disembark and follow the trail that climbed back out of the cave into daylight.
After the caves, we stopped at the Porto Cristo Aquarium. Living on the water, we try and appreciate the sea life around us, so we make it a point to stop at aquariums when we find them. The Porto Cristo Aquarium had a lot of specimens, both from the Mediterranean, and the rest of the world. Our only complaint is that there was little signage, in Spanish, Catalan, or any other language, so it was hard to appreciate much of what we were seeing.
We have visited a few aquariums since coming to Europe. We have not written about all of them, but you can see the ones that I've documented in this diary:
