Punta des Sant Carles to Es Grau and Ciutadella

Friday 22 June 2007

I woke up at 0530 and wrote until 0700. It rained a bit during the night, and is almost solid cloudy this morning. Ana, Angel, and David moved into the buildings when it began to rain. I pulled the tarp over me for a while, but that was too hot, so I took a chance with the rain. My bed was dryer when I got up than it was when I went to bed. It is a beautiful morning, warm, humid, cloudy, light, cooling breeze, few to no mosquitoes. Surrounded by tide pools as much as 5 meters above sea level, but exposed to the occasional power of the surf which I have yet to experience here. I am enjoying the comfort of my new sandals. I christened them several times last night by accidentally stepping in tide pools. My lower legs are quite stiff this morning, probably from using my feet and legs paddling, but my abdominals are no longer sore, although I am still using them a lot.

I set 3 fishing lines as I untangled them. Nothing even ate the bait off the hooks. Everyone else got up about 0830m and the sun started to come out about 0900. We drank café con leche, and ate cookies, and leftovers. Boris found some white zygomorphic flowers growing out of stone walls. After returning home I identified them as the caper, Capparis spinosa. Caryn found a Greek tortoise.












We began packing at 1000 and we were on the water by 1100. We soon crossed to the north side of the harbor and visited a former British military hospital on Illa del Rei. The hospital is being restored and will be an office building. We paddled by the apparently abandoned naval station, crossed the channel, and ate lunch at about 1400 in a restaurant near Akelarre, the dance club where we saw Dr. Feelgood a week ago. David ordered a selection of tapas: anchovies, squid, potato salad. Caryn and Ana went shopping after lunch. Boris, Angel and I bought ice cream. We resumed paddling about 1600. Boris and Caryn took a short cut and beat us to es Grau by half an hour or more. They had a bottle of Champaign on ice when we arrived at 2000. Angel opened it and sprayed it all over all of us before pouring each of us a glass. We hugged and high fived to congratulate ourselves and celebrate the completion of our circumnavigation of Menorca. Angel and Ana made some pone calls, we unloaded the kayaks, put our gear in Ana and David’s car, and returned our kayaks to Menorca en Kayak.

Marco greeted us on the beach and took Angel and I to the bus station for the ride to Ciutadella for the fiesta tonight. We arrived at the Mao bus station at 2100, and were in Ciutadella at 2300. Ana, David, Boris, and Caryn met us at the bus station. They had all taken a shower before picking us up. David offered to take Angel and I to the house where we will stay while in Ciutadella to shower and change into some clean clothes. We enthusiastically accepted his offer. After the shower, change of clothes, and an attempt to shave that was less than 100% successful, we visited for a while with our hostess, Laura, a young lady with a great interest in veterinary medicine and wildlife rehabilitation. She is currently treating a tortoise that was run over by a car, and a falcon chick.

David drove Angel and I back to central Ciutadella at midnight where we rejoined Ana, Boris, and Caryn. Older people were sitting in chairs watching the party while the younger folks danced, jumped, drank and sang. The noise is very loud making it hard to hear what people are saying. We found a table and drank ginet con lemonada, people in Ciutadella don’t call it Pomada as they do in Maó. Friends stopped by to visit, and one left us a 2 liter bottle of ginet con lemonada. I dozed off in my chair. Caryn poured ginet con lemonade over my hand, and I woke with a start. Everyone laughed. Ana graciously offered to take me home to sleep, but I said I wanted to stay with everyone else. We then wandered the streets accumulating a group of friends as we went, including Rosa, Carmen, and Luisa. There were lots of vendors, carnival rides, and interesting people in the streets. I bought a scarf; we watched a percussion band march through the streets with a crowd following. One vendor was quite good with the whistles on puts in the mouth. He entertained us for a long time.

Calas Coves to Punta des Sant Carles

Thursday 21 June 2007

I woke up at 0430 and looked at the stars. There is about a 50% cloud cover, but I nevertheless, found the summer triangle, Cassiopeia, the little dipper, and Polaris. I spent some time trying to orient myself. I have been turned around much of the time since I arrived in Menorca. Intellectually I know where I am, and which way is north, but I have to think about it. It is not instinctual as it usually is with me. The birds are calling, and a Siamese cat is meowing and creeping through camp.

I am a bit stiff and sore all over. My right forearm is still a bit stiff, but not getting any worse since I resumed wearing the elbow straps. I am also careful to keep my elbows near my torso or straight and paddle only with a twisting motion of my torso, taking the paddle blade out of the water before it passes my butt. My fingers are not quite so swollen this morning as they were yesterday morning. The sore cuts and a blister on my fingers are not getting any worse. The urchin injury is healing nicely, but the bottoms of my feet are sore from walking barefoot on the sharp rocks while fishing at Cala Trebalúger. My toes have been very numb for several days, especially the second and third toes on my right foot. All are number than they have been in a year. I suspect that there is something about kayaking that makes them numb, but it is not jamming them into a small white water kayak as I once thought, because I have lots of room to move my feet around in this sea kayak.

The place where my sandal wore through the skin of my big toe is getting very sore. I have been experimenting with different foot gear, and I prefer to be barefooted in the boat. My Chacos wear holes in the skin of my feet, and the neoprene booties are hot and give me no protection from urchins and very little protection from the rocks, but I have to wear something when walking on the sharp rocks, so I wear both neoprene booties and Chacos. The neoprene booties protect my feet from the straps of my Chacos.

The two kayakers that joined us late yesterday evening went for a swim before 0630. Ana was up at 0630. Boris was walking on the wall near camp. Ana greeted him when she took the dishes to the beach to wash them. A young woman who had been sunning on the rocks near the didgeridoo players when we arrived was warmly dressed this morning in contrast to her lack of attire when we arrived. Everyone was up by 0700. I ate some of Boris’ bean salad, drank some coffee and milk. I took my vitamins for the first time in 4 days.


We left Cales Coves just before 1000. Boris left first as usual, and I second. I like to be one of the first to leave the beach so I can paddle slowly until I warm up and then paddle at my own pace. If I am late getting off the beach I feel I have to catch up and I don’t enjoy the paddle as much. Boris stopped at the mouth of the cala. He hailed me just after I passed him. He caught up with me and showed me a Sepia he had found with the head still on it. It was fresh, but not fresh enough for me to want to eat it. I put it in one of my swim fins on deck to use as bait later.

I paddled slowly close to the shoreline, exploring every cala, but was unable to enter the caves because of the large swell and surge. We have a swell out of the WSW this morning. It is quartering on our starboard stern at about 5 o’clock and kayakers a short distance away, 20 to 40 m, disappear in the trough. I suspect it is about 1.5 m high.

There is very little wind, maybe 5 kts. The wind is out of the east or SE and we are going almost directly into it. It is quite warm and I am happy to be wearing a wet capeline shirt. I am paddling bare foot this morning and my feet are quite comfortable except for the rough knobby surface on the foot pegs.

Es Canutells appears to be quite a new town with bright white houses with red tile roofs. Some of the houses are quite large. I see people walking along the top of the cliffs, probably on the Cami Cavell. I see a few divers and fishermen as well. There are both private and charter dive boats. Boris and I paddled through inside of s’Illot d’en Marçal, but outside, s’Illot de Binissafúller.


We landed on the launch ramp in the harbor of Binibeca Vell about 1200. We carried our boats up to the boat wash down area where a man was washing his boat. Some of us asked him if we could wash off with fresh water from the hose he was using. He permitted us to wash, but complained that he had to pay 100€ to take out here. We left Ana with the boats, while the rest of us looked around town.





We took a table at a café and ordered jarras of cervesa. In the Balearic Islands, beer on tap is a pilsner. It is rare for anyone to order by brand. Beer is ordered by the size of the glass, a caña or a jarra. A caña is a wine glass, a jarra is close to a pint. David went back to the boats to join Ana, then both of them joined us, because they felt that the boats were quite safe.






I went to a nearby store to look for a pair of sox, and bought a pair of shoes, the traditional style of sandal made on Menorca. I found my paddling companions in a supermarket. The choice of fresh vegetables was small, so we walked a kilometer to the east to another store where we found a much larger selection. After purchasing food, we went back to the boats for lunch in the shade of a rock overhang. Several of us went to sleep after lunch.




Boris came to wake Caryn and I at 1530. Angel was asleep under a trailered boat nearby, and Ana and David were no where to be seen. They soon returned from town and we began packing the boats. We launched about 1600. I was in the lead much of the afternoon with Angel nearby. I paddled just inside Escull d’en Caragol, a large reef with waves breaking over it. It is marked with a light, Llosa d’en Caragol. There are lots of large beautiful homes near Torre de Son Ganxo. The swell was off our stern as we rounded Punta Prima. I briefly caught a wave.


We explored some beautiful caves near Morro d’Alcafar and spent some time in Caló des Rafalet where we had hoped to camp. It is a beautiful cala, but has no beach. At the head of the cala there is a small launch ramp and boat house that was too small for our team. Angel and Boris paddled on leaving Ana, David,and I begind. Angel returned as Ana and I approached sa Cigonya. I rigged a towline and Angel towed Ana toward Maó. I had trouble keeping up with him. We met Boris, Caryn, and David at Punta de Sant Felip, at about 2000 where they had decided to make camp on the grounds of an old structure.












Boris once again organized the preparation of supper. He asked me to cook the meat. We had purchased 3 kinds of meat at Binibeca Vell, including chorizo, morcilla and shish kabob. Boris made potato salad. David, and Ana cut up cheese, bread and put out dried fruits and nuts for us to eat while cooking. We also sampled Boris’ cooking wine. We ate supper standing around the wall on which we had cooked. Caryn and I washed dishes in the surf. We lay on the rocks visiting and drinking pomadas until 0000. When I went to get in my sleeping bag, it was very wet from the dew. I turned it over to put the wet side on the bottom and got in. I was asleep as soon as I lay down.

Cala Trebaluger to Calas Coves

Wednesday 20 June 2007


I got up at 0530 and checked the fishing lines. Ana had caught a large sargo. I put it in a tide pool and re baited her hook. Angel’s line and mine too were hung up in the rocks, so I couldn’t retrieve them. Angel was up at 0600 and retrieved Boris’ line, but it was a rat’s nest. I made 3 more lines and redeployed them. Last night I found a stone building near where we were fishing. I explored it this morning. There is no door. It is a single room with a fireplace, mattress, and a shelf with canned food. It appears that someone camps here regularly.


We finished a breakfast of café, cookies and gazpacho and began packing the boats. Angel and I considered recovering our lines by diving, but didn’t take the time to do it. Angel spent some time identifying plants this morning and found hinojo marino the Spanish name for the plant the Mayorquin pickle and eat with Pamboli. I took down my tarp. I slept under it last night and everything was dry this morning. Many of our fishing lines were caught in the rocks. Boris recovered as much as he could. I recovered one more line before paddling up the torrent to Horts de Trebalúger while the others played in the surf and returned to es Pont de n’Aleix to show the caves to Boris and Caryn.








Horts de Trebalúger is a very different habitat from any other I have seen here in Illes Baleares. It is an albufera, a wetland. The higher parts of it are hayfields. The hills on either side of the albufera are covered in oak and pine trees. I can hear and even see small birds flitting here and there through the trees. The sounds of insects are everywhere. This is the richest environment I have seen in the Illes Baleares. As I returned to the beach I saw Angel paddling toward me to tell me that the others had returned from es Pont d’en Aleix and paddled on to the east out of our sight.



We paddled harder and faster than usual to catch up. We passed two pretty calas, Fustam and Escorxada, without exploring them. We caught up with our paddling companions before we got to Platja de Binigaus where we visited with another paddler headed the other way. Boris and I paddled over the tombolo between Illot de Binicodrell and the beach. There are big hotels on the beach at Punta Negra and an offshore reef, Escall d’en Salat, that looks like it might be an interesting place to snorkel or dive.

We landed just west of Son Bou. Angel, Boris, Caryn, and I walked into town carrying garbage to dispose of. My camera battery died on the way into town. We bought groceries, ate ice cream, and took a shower on our way back to the kayaks, piraguas, for lunch. Angel and I slept a siesta and I wrote some notes while looking at the coastline aeroguide. David and Ana went into town for a shower and returned at 1630. It is really hot here on the beach. I am really thankful for the meager shade provided by Angel’s half shelter. There is really no place for me to rig my tarp.

We left the beach a bit before 1700, paddled past Son Bou, Cala Llucalari, Cova de sa Calç, Cala de Sant Llorenç and sa SarolaThe cliffs here are quite white in places. We saw some deep caves with stalactites. The openings of these caves were well above sea level. The geology appears very confused with neatly layered tan to brown blocks standing on edge right next to a solid white block or a cave. There is a small swell out of the SE and refraction waves off the cliffs.


At s’Estalo a young gull climbed aboard Boris’ kayak to seek refuge from two older gulls that were attacking it. He asked me for some of the Sepia I was carrying in my forward hatch so he could see if the gull would eat some of it. I landed in a tide pool behind a large boulder to get the Sepia out and to replace the battery in my camera. I changed my camera battery at Son Bou, but it was dead after only a few photos. I must have mixed up my good and dead batteries. The tide pool appeared to be a fairly calm place to open up the hatch to get the Sepia and a fresh battery.

Just as I had my camera open, a dead battery in one hand, and a fresh one in the other, a wave washed through the tide pool. I didn’t drop the camera nor the batteries, and managed to keep them fairly dry, but my paddle washed off the rocks and into the adjacent surge channel. Fortunately Boris and Angel were still nearby, and Boris noticed my predicament. He recovered my paddle and threw it to me. I quickly put my camera back together and closed the hatch, securing the Sepia on deck. I had difficulty getting out of the now high and dry tide pool. By the time I resumed paddling, Boris and Angel were several hundred meters ahead of me. Boris had secured the sea gull under his spray skirt and was no longer looking for something to feed it.


We passed Cala en Porter before arriving at Cales Coves at 1900. Cales Coves is a very interesting place. Lots of caves have been cut into the cliffs. They were used as burial chambers during the Iron Age, about 3000 years ago. Most are now closed to entry by metal grates. Several boats are anchored in the cala, and some people are swimming and diving among the boats. A dozen or two young people are sitting on the rocks sunning themselves. Two are playing didgeridoos quite well. The sound goes well with beauty of the cala in the late afternoon light. The cala has two arms. A road leads to the eastern one. Two cars are parked on the beach there, so we decide to land at the western one that drains the land behind Urbania Cala En Porter, only a kilometer to the west. There is a fishing camp on the north bank of this arm of the cala, with a very picturesque llaut, moored in front of the camp.


We made camp on the fine sand beach at the head of this cala. Boris took the gull out of his boat and held it while I cut up Sepia and placed it in the gull’s mouth. The gull seemed happy to swallow it. It stayed around camp for a while, but wandered off into the bushes and disappeared while we were setting up camp and preparing supper. Angel snorkeled a bit and came back to camp reporting a lot of large fish under one of the boats anchored in the cala. He suggested we rig a hook on a pole to catch one of them. I used to fasten a hook to a small bungee cord threaded through the eyes of a short fishing rod. I was then able to snag fish under the mandible, and put them into a mesh bag while I measured and tagged it. I was later able to recapture the same fish for age and growth studies. However, I am sure that this is not a legal method of capture here in Menorca.

Boris began cooking. He made a bean salad. Angel made risotto with shrimp in it. Ana, David, and Caryn cut up some bread, sausage, cheese, and opened a bottle of red wine. I took food, water and gear out of my boat and vegetated. I have not made much of a contribution to the cooking this trip. That role is so well filled by the others, that I haven’t seen much that I can do to help. So I often write while others cook. I didn’t even feel like writing this evening. Two other kayakers joined us on the beach later. And some of the people that had been sitting on the rocks when we arrived hiked or swam to the beach where we had made camp. Some of them hiked up the torrent, possibly to Cala en Porter. We finished supper shortly after 2100 and visited until 0000, however, I slept through much of the conversation.

Kayaking from Cala Algairens to Cala Blanca

Monday 18 June 2007

It rained lightly most of the night. When I was awake I could hear raindrops hitting my tarp, but only occasionally did one hit my face. Ana got up at about 0330 to tell me that Boris and Caryn had room for me in their tent. I declined her offer saying I would just cover my bag with part of the tarp. There was some lightning that lit up the clouds beautifully. Some kind of animal, bird I suspect, called all night and lots of birds were calling when I woke up at 0600. My sleeping bag is actually dryer than usual this morning. The clouds kept the heat in so there was no dew, and my body heat evaporated most of the rain that fell on my bag, but I and my bag are covered in wet sand. I went for a swim to get some of the sand out of my hair, my ears, and off my body.



A fisherman came to the beach from the village at 0630. He looked for bait on the rocks and in the dead sea grass in the shallow water of the beach. I greeted him with the Mallorquin, Bon dia, but he seemed preoccupied with his search for bait.

At 0700 I saw Ana crawl out of her tent, and Angel carrying his pad down the beach from the direction of the cabin at the north end of the beach. I suspect he slept on the porch of the cabin after it began to rain last night. We went back to the deck of the cabin to prepare breakfast
of cappuccino and cookies.

I spoke with the fisherman again, and he was quite friendly now that he had his bait collecting long line set. He explained to me what he was doing. He had mops on a long line with a piece of yam tied into the center of each mop. Each mop was full of isopods. He placed a wet towel in a basket and poured the isopods into the towel. He had about 2 liters of isopods that he will use for bait while fishing off the rocks.





I hiked through the dunes and photographed some of the plants. There is a vine with twice pinnate leaves that is covered with white blooms, each with 4 petals, infinite stamens, a pistil with 5 divisions and no sepals, a very spiny umbel, daffodils, a beach radish, dune grass, and several prostrate plants with no flowers.








When we were ready to launch the kayaks, I couldn't find a paddle. David got the spare out for me, Angel looked along the shoreline to the south. After we left at 0930, Ana and David searched the southwestern shoreline of the cala and found our missing paddle, but I was well ahead of them by then so Ana carried it on her deck until she caught up with me. Ana developed some pain in her right shoulder this morning and that slowed her progress. She was no longer ahead of me.





We passed Cala Morell. The rocks on either side of the cala are quite different. Those on the east side of the cala are much older, Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras. Those on the west are of the tertiary period. Fifteen caves dug into the rock walls of the cala were used for human burial during the iron age, 800 BC. There are lots of large, new, single family homes and multistory apartment buildings on top of the rock walls of the cala. Conical stone structures, ses barraques, dot the landscape between Cala Morell and Ciutadella. Some were built in the neolithic Era, but others are modern and used to house livestock. No mortar is used in the construction of these buildings.


At Punta d'es Single there is a very large cave that we explored. I took advantage of the quiet water in the deepest recess of the cave to get out of my kayak, and change the battery in my camera. We passed Faro de Punta Nati, a lighthouse and explored another very deep narrow cave and a natural bridge between Punta Galera and sa Falconera.









We stopped for lunch at Cala en Blanes near Ciutadella. This a very urbanized cala. Homes line either side of the cala, and there is a large hotel near the narrow, crowded, fine, white sand beach at the head of the cala. We took our kayaks out of the water and placed them on what appeared to be a private quay. A life guard greeted us and we visited with her for nearly an hour. She is a ski instructor in the winter. We walked to the beach, bought ice cream and granizados. I bought a mint granizado that turned my tongue green. We slept, took a fresh water shower, and went shopping for groceries before returning to the boats.








We probably left Cala en Blanes about 1730 and paddled directly to Cala Blanca. Cala Blanca is another very urban beach with lounge chairs, umbrellas, and paddle boats for rent. We arrived there at 1900 and waited for people to leave the crowded beach before spreading out our gear. Boris served pomadas, and we snacked on bread frutas secas, dried fruit and nuts, and canned mussels in escabeche sauce until the sun went down behind the trees, casting what I found to be a welcome shadow on the beach. Now that the sun was gone, the crowd began to leave the beach.

I occupied one of the abandoned lounge chairs. The vendor woke from his nap, and began taking down the umbrellas, and stacking the chairs. I got up to get out of his way, but he told me to relax and enjoy the use of his chair. He very graciously left several chairs unstacked for our use when he left the beach. I wrote a while, but fell asleep shortly after 2000.

When I woke at 2100 Boris was putting up his tent. He had made a salad, and Ana, Angel, and David had gone fishing using the cuttlefish Ana found yesterday for bait. Actually she snagged it on the hook she was trolling behind her kayak. It was headless ,but the skin still had good color, and it smelled good. We had decided to not eat it, but to save it for bait.



When Ana, David, and Angel returned from their fishing trip without any fish, David and Angel made Favada with canned beans and morcilla. It was quite good. We ate it with a lot of bread and of course, the salad. Boris contributed a bottle of red wine, which we thoroughly enjoyed. I photographed the conjunction of Venus and the waxing crescent moon with the nearby restaurants in the foreground. I went to sleep shortly after 2300 on one of the lounge chairs. It was too hot to get into my sleeping bag, so I put on long pants, a long sleeved shirt, my rain jacket, and tied my Buzz Off bandanna over my ears and under my chin to ward off the mosquitoes. The calves of my legs and fore arms still have itching welts 10 to 15 mm across from the bites I got shortly after we arrived at Cala Algaiarens. The mosquitoes seem to be biting at dusk and a few at dawn too. I wish I had brought some insect repellent.

Kayaking from Cala Pudent to Cala Algaiarens

Sunday 17 June 2007
I awoke at 0530 to a beautiful sunrise. I took some pictures and went for a swim. There are still a few mosquitoes trying to bite me. My Buzz Off bandanna that has worked so well in other places doesn't seem to deter these mosquitoes. My sleeping bag is soaking wet from the dew, but my tarp is dry. I am the only one sleeping under the stars. My paddling companions all have tents to sleep in. They were up by 0700 making coffee. We ate breakfast, packed the kayaks and were paddling by 0900. About half an hour out of camp, I decided to cool off by doing a high brace on each side of my boat. When I did so, my spray skirt came off and the cockpit of my kayak filled with water. I went over and was unable to roll with a lot of weight piled on my deck and a cockpit full of water. I did a wet exit and called to get the attention of my paddling companions who were all ahead of me. They were soon at my side. David helped me bail out my kayak and get back in.





We stopped for lunch at a for lunch at Cala Pregonda, a beautiful beach with a couple of beautiful private homes at the north end. We spread our lunch out on the teak deck of the one closest to the home right on the beach. We feasted on bread, draft beer, jamon Serrano, queso Mahon, and sobrasada.

Boris and Caryn began kayaking at 1600. Boris was towing Caryn. I decided to go with them. Boris noticed that he had forgotten his camera before we had gone a kilometer. He was preparing to head back for it when I volunteered so they could continue. When I returned to the beach, David, Ana, and Angel were loading their kayaks. David went back to the deck to look for Boris' camera and found that we had left two cameras and books there. I rigged my fishing gear while Ana, David, and Angel toured the cala. We finally left at 1700.





We looked for Boris and Caryn at all the beaches we passed, but did not see them. We arrived at Cala Algaiarens about 1930 without having seen Boris and Caryn. Angel, Ana and David searched the cala and Ana left them a text message on their cell phone before we made camp on Platja des Bot. We had just begun to set up camp when we saw Boris and Caryn paddling toward us. Apparently they had waited for us near Illa des Coloms, but didn't see us pass inside of them. We were very happy to be back together again.

Kayaking from Es Grau to Cala Pudent

Saturday 16 June 2007

I awoke at 0630 and listened to the swallows. They fly through the streets almost constantly here as they do in Palma. The make a high pitched whistle. Angel had gone to sleep on the third floor patio, but was now asleep with a colorful worm on a couch in the second floor living room.

Everyone was up by 0730, and we were on our way to breakfast by 0800. Marco and Esperanza took Ana, David, Boris, Caryn, Angel and I to a cafe for breakfast. We ate some decedent croissants with chocolate sauce poured over them, and accompanied by espresso. After breakfast, Marco and Esperanza took us to Menorca en Kayak in Es Grau and stayed with us while we loaded the kayaks on the beach. We began packing the boats before 1000. We finished and said goodbye to Marco and Esperanza at about 1230.

I was anxious to test my arm that had kept me from paddling for a year and a half, so I paddled through the boats moored in the harbor ahead of the rest of our team. This was the only time I was in the lead. Angel passed me as I paddled through the rocks at Punta de Fra Bernat, and David, Ana, and Boris had passed me by the time we passed Punta de sa Pastera. We had decided to head west to paddle the often windy north coast while we had winds out of the south. We had heard that there were several groups of paddlers trapped on beaches on south coast due to the strong winds there, and a group of firemen called in a rescue helicopter a few days earlier when one of them was unable to get back into his kayak in the rough seas. The prevailing winds here are out of the northwest, so we wanted to round the west end of the island and be headed south before the winds switched back to their prevailing pattern.

Just west of Punta de sa Pastera we paddled through a small natural bridge. For the rest of the morning we paddled from headland to headland to cover as much coast as possible before the wind changed. It would have been nice to explore the coastline more closely during this window of good weather, but we had a mission to complete the circumnavigation of Menorca and a schedule to meet. We wanted to complete the circumnavigation on Friday the 22 of June so we could be in Ciutadella for the Fest d' Sant Joan Friday and Saturday nights and on the ferry back to Mallorca on Sunday. Therefore, we paddled across the mouth of Cala Tamarells to the headland of es Colomar and the Torre dels Tamarells and then directly across 3 km of open sea to Cap de Mossen Vives and another kilometer of open sea to Cap de Favaritx before following the shore more closely to s’Enclusa for lunch. Boris and I wandered through the shallows looking for snails, other invertebrates, algae, and fish. We found lots of turban snails, whelks, small barnacles, and coralline algae, but no beds of mussels.

We spread my tarp on the beach at s’Enclusa, and served lunch. We spent more than an hour eating and resting before we headed to Illa Gran d’Addaia. I wandered through the rocks at Illa de Ses Aguiles before finding a cave and lagoon on the south east side of Illa Gran d’Addaia. Boris, Caryn, and I stayed here while Angel, David, and Ana paddled west toward Port d’Addaia. Boris, Caryn and I stayed in a cave for a while enchanted by it, the red anemones, and other intertidal life different from that exposed to the sun.

When we left the cave, Boris, Caryn and I couldn’t see our companions. We had not idea which way they had gone, and didn’t even know the adjacent shoreline was on an island. So we kept the shoreline on our left as it had been all morning. After paddling through the narrow channel between Illa Gran d’Addaia and Illa Petita d’Addaia, we realized they were islands. We then put the shoreline of Illa Petita d’Addaia on our right and paddled north toward Punta d’en Siulet. We still couldn’t see our companions. We considered that they might have gone into Macaret for supplies, but decided to paddle on and try to find Cala Pudent where we had agreed to camp. We saw Ana, and then David and Angel in the distance before we reached Punta Codolada. Caryn and I generally paddled from headland to headland to save energy, while Angel, David, and sometimes Boris and Ana followed the shoreline more closely. We had a great deal of difficulty finding the campsite.

Angel headed toward Arenal de Son Saura while David waited well off Punta de na Beteot. The rest of us waited for Angel to indicate which way we should go. Angel disappeared from sight in the distance. Boris paddled toward where we last saw Angel to try to restore visual communication. I paddled after Boris to keep him in sight. I finally saw Angel. Boris hailed Angel and they indicated that we should all paddle north. We did so getting closer as we did except for David who made a bee line for Illa d’en Tosqueta. Angel and Boris caught up with him, and after a brief discussion decided we should all paddle back south. Apparently the beach behind Illa d’en Tosqueta was too small. We all paddled into Cala Pudent, but the sand beach there was crowded with sun bathers who said they intended to stay and party into the night. Some of them were supported by a couple of yachts anchored off shore. The beach at the head of Cala Pudent is muddy and stinks from piles of rotting sea grass. Some wanted to paddle back to the north to find a better beach, but Caryn said she had paddled enough. I suggested we stay on the steep cobble beach just inside the mouth of Cala Pudent. We checked it out and decided it was acceptable. It turned out to be quite comfortable.

Boris served pomadas while David made pasta. Boris suggested we boil the pasta insea water. I agreed that it should be fine if we poured the water off. Caryn suggested that we use no more than half seawater. David followed the instructions on the package which called for using the water to make the sauce. The sauce was quite salty, but edible. It is a very good thing that David used only half sea water. After eating supper on my tarp spread out in an area above the cobble beach that Caryn and others had cleared of stones Boris brought out two bottles of Mallorquin herbal liquors. We passed the bottles around several times, and I soon fell asleep just as the first stars and the very young moon appeared in the sky. I looked for Mercury in the west, but did not find it. I woke up later and saw Polaris directly in front of me.