We moved 100 metres :O)

Today, as you know, is the last day of May. We were planning to leave the private marina tomorrow until we discovered they double the mooring prices today! So, we have moved 100m or so to the Port Authority pontoon that doubles its prices tomorrow - when we planned to head off anyway. This pricing policy is crazy. This morning, all the cruisers took off. The private marina has been deserted by good money and good boats and people so what will they gain? Of course it won't be long before the trippers arrive and they will pay the prices as they are on holiday. The Balearic marinas are reknown for sky high prices in June, July and August. We will spend much of  June anchoring until Porto Cristo (Mallorca) where we'll stay at a Port Authority pontoon as I want to visit my long lost cousin who lives there.

I've told you about slime lines? These are the ropes that are anchored to the marina seabed and we use them to keep the Bow from flying about. The rope is retrieved from the water and you walk it up the boat until you have enough rope to run through the mooring roller and onto the cleat to steady the 'nose'. These are called slime lines for good reason. I have a tub of soap with tea tree oil in it especially for washing our hands after handling them - you can imagine what they are exposed to. However, as I picked up the line today I noticed these cute little plants colonising the rope:

They are only a few inches long and seem pretty hardy for such a fragile structure. Those green solar umbrellas perfect for capturing the sunlight diffused in the water - can imagine the fertiliser that is encouraging them to grow here. You can see for yourself the state of the line - it hardly looks like rope! Still it is heartening to see life surviving wherever it happens to be...

And I started off  the sprouting process with some sunflowers seeds today - pictures later!

Out and about Ibiza

 

 Greg's great-aunts, Gertrude and Agnes were keepers of the Slipper Chapel at Walsingham in north Norfolk - It happened to be great aunt Gertrude's birthday the day I took this - 

All the cacti on the island are flowering.

Native lizard podarcis pityusensis - the Ibizan War lizard.

In a pine forest near Santa Gertrudis.

No Spanish fly - will ants do?

Cliffhanging in Old Ibiza town.

Pics of the Blogger - taken yesterday

Not often you catch me on camera. These three taken yesterday, hair blawed everywhere. getting used to never wearing makeup these days...could do with an eyebrow pencil tho' all that plucking in the 70's :O)

A bit serious!

I spotted the camera and I can see that 'getting cross' look coming on - that's it for another five years folks!

And then I met Jasmine

 

We stopped at Casita Verde Eco centre in the centre of Ibiza for lunch. As I wandered about this little girl shadowed me. She ran off, then came back with these flowers for me. 'They're stars, they're called Jasmine, that's my name,' she said by way of sweetly introducing herself...

Isn't she beautiful?

 

They do a very good veggie lunch on Sundays if you ever happen to be passing! 

Not that any mainstream media covered this - but there were massive demos around the World yesterday -including Ibiza - trying to highlight the problems this company is creating for us all.

 http://mashable.com/2013/05/26/march-against-monsanto/

More Ibiza

My favourite colours. We sailed past those islands a few days ago.

Drama coastline with pines to the waterline in most areas.

Fresh aloe vera juice with fresh mint - deeeeeeeeeeeeeeelicious. Aloes everywhere on the island.

Greg consulting the map with our Danish friends Peer og Anne Jorgenson SY Trille - none of us seem to have this trouble with charts!

Ibiza Day 1

The most famous market in Ibiza founded by the hippies of the 1960's where you can buy all manner of dingly dangly homespun beautiful things...

You can get a massage

Or lunch in this lovely cafe.

Bales of hay as I remember them from my chidhood.

 

Olive grove - iron rich soil.

Little Kia brilliant on the little roads.

Farm lane. The meadows are choc-a-bloc with wild flowers, again flowers of my childhood. Just today I saw corncockles,snapdragons, poppies,origano,candytuft, morning glories,larkspur,cosmos,marigolds,

baby blue eyes, gillias, wild carrot, wild fennel, hawksbit,calendula, daisies,milkwort,scabious, buttercups,cornflowers, rosemary, lavender and chamomile - such a beautiful sight I can't tell you how beautiful!

And back to another sunset :O)

 

 

Ibiza

First night treats. A sunset scene that almost resembles a musical score - a four lined staff and some dodgy crotchets :O)

'almost' full moon through the rigging.

Two's company?

Last stop on mainland Spain - Moraira

Fixing fishing nets the old way.

Part of a massive Tuna sculpture on a roundabout.

Symbiosis at work - we moor they clean :O) bless em.

Moraira to east of us.

Moraira, no high rise and very quaint.

Pretty steps.

.Lerryn Lady on her mooring.

Perfect weather for a dip in the Med.

 

Lerryn Lady somewhere between Cartegena and Alicante last week

Photos taken by Graham Vatcher as he passed on his boat SY Obsession. We don't know Graham, but thanks for taking the pics!

 

 

Alfalfa sprouts...

Crisp and very munchable...

Who would guess something this delicate and this small could pack such a nutritional punch!

Be Careful What You Wish For...

Here's Greg waiting for some wind.

And then...

 

Made for a good sail close-hauled :O)

 

Storm

After mooring we noticed a change in the sky...perfect blue gave way to this amazing white light...

 Then this storm cloud turned up...

 Thunderstorm for half an hour all round us...

 Then calm and back to blue...

The masts and their reflections look like a trace pattern on an electrocardiogram - tracing the storm :O)

Mar Menor

In order to get into the Mar Menor from the Mediterranean you first have to negotiate your way into a small, shallow harbour basin, 3m deep at most with truly grounding shallows all round - eeeeek. We waited for twenty minutes in this basin steering into the wind broadside to maintain our position in 3m - there was nowhere else to go. The lifting bridge opens every two hours on the dot. The traffic came to a standstill on the road above us, dead on 4pm we edged forward into a small channel to pass through (could have held hands with anyone on the bank). Lerryn Lady was the only vessel to pass at 4pm :O) A few folk got out of their cars and bus to watch...

 

 

 

Alfalfa sprouts - FORGET HRT LADIES!

These little dudes are currently in my sprouting jar, no more than 2mm long at the moment  but see how they hold onto those water drops! I'll grow these on until they have a pair of leaves. Now get this for POWERHOUSE food: inside every little dude sprout will be:  Protein, Vitamin A, Naicin,Calcium, dietary fibre, Vitamin C, Vitmain K, Thiamin,Riboflavin, Folate, Vitamin B5 ( otherwise known as Panthothenic Acid on food labels), Iron, Magnesium, Phospherus, Zinc,Copper and Manganese. They are an amazing source of phytoestrogens STAY WITH ME LADIES - FORGET HRT alfalfa is useful as an agent to help fight menopausal symptoms, oesteoporosis, heart disease and cancer. Alfalfa has high antioxidant activity and will smack those free radicals into the next Universe. Add them to sandwiches.soups, salads and dips. I'll post a photo when they are about ready to eat :O)