The marina at Palma is big (1,000 yachts), hot and very expensive (120 euros per night). Little Miss Perfect arrived like a breath of fresh air. She immediately armed herself with scouring pads, and threatened vacuum cleaner activity. With all sorts of offensive cleaning weapons she got to work. In re depression, she just said “take the pills and get on with it”. So I did.
At Palma marina I was astonished and delighted to stumble across an elderly Bristol Channel pilot cutter. Bright yellow, I felt sure she was “Mischief”. Bill Tillman’s first high latitude cruising boat, Mischief was lost on the east coast of Jan Mayen and I thought that was her final resting place. But apparently she was brought back to UK and rebuilt. What a joy! We had Tilman’s book “Mischief in Patagonia” open on our chart table for two seasons’ cruising in the Patatgonian channels. Such an inspiration it was. Talk about 6 degrees of separation.
[Note – I have since discovered that this was a replica]
The other memorable thing we discovered in Palma was its grand Gothic cathedral and, more particularly, Gaudi’s reworked west chapel. Check out the pictures!
I mentioned 6 degrees of separation, of `which more anon. But reading about the Balearics I was surprised to find that our old friends the Vikings were here too, about a millenium ago (859 AD). I doubt they came our way (from Russia and the east), although I can’t find record of that. Slotted in between Carthaginians, Vandals and the Cordoban Emirate, they tried but failed to establish a foothold on Minorca. They laid waste to numerous byzantine churches in their attempt.
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