Palma Mallorca,

We have been very busy since the last entry having just too much fun. We left Gibraltar after four great days of walking and climbing and enjoying being back in an English speaking environment! It took us 45 hours of good sailing to get to Campello which is just north of Alicante. Here we have friends, Dave and Sandy, who were our neighbours 30 years ago and now live in Spain. Boy did they take care of us showing us all the sites and it seemed we never stopped eating and drinking having to taste many Spanish wines which are excellent.

One little thing happened with the boat on the way there and had to do with a breaking mechanism on the propeller shaft. It is hydraulically operated and developed a leak. So it was with great surprise that as soon as we were tied up to the key a representative of Amel yachts came over and introduced himself and asked if there was anything he could do for us!! We said yes could he have our prop brake fixed? No problem! It was out of the boat, sent to the shop and the right seals ordered from France. We did not know that Amel had representatives there and Marian would not believe him until he showed us his business card. Neither of us could believe our luck.

One night we had a big, big wind storm with blowing sand which mixed with the spray from the frothing marina basin. The winds were up to 70 knots and we were very happy when at 2am four of the marina staff arrived and we put another anchor on Kilkea. It was very difficult to even stand on deck as the wind just about blew me over!! If any of the other boats in the marina lost their anchors or the dock gave way there would not be a boat left floating. This is about as concerned I've ever been running any of our boats and we were in a marina!

So after washing and washing the boat to get all the encrusted sand and salt off of everything including the interior we set off for Ibiza leaving on Friday evening. As an aside, we were watching curling on Davids TV using a Sling box that allows him to view all the Vancouver TV cable stations. We still don't know who won? Anyway our trip over to Ibiza was under power as the wind was calm until three hours before we anchored in a little bay on the west coast at 9am. The last three hours the wind came up to 55knots so we were very happy to anchor up and get some sleep. We spent a day and a half there then sailed around to the east coast of the island, rested there for five hours then did another night passage to arrive here in Palma at 9am. We have had concerns that our water maker has not been working correctly and had had it checked in Portugal. There is a representative here for our water maker whom we have been in touch with through the manufacture. He arrived down to us as soon as we docked. We hope that will be back in full operation soon. I suppose that we will be here for the week! Not too bad as the weather is great and this is a place for the rich and famous to play. You wouldn't believe the yachts here!!

We are not sure if we will stop at Sardinia as it looks as if the weather (winds) will be favorable for a straight shot thru to Sicily. We have just under a thousand miles to Athens so should be there around the first of April. We look forward to introducing Nevan, Sarah and Elise our 5 month old grand daughter to Kilkea II and the cruising life.