PALMA

One of the reasons for visiting Palma, despite it being a spot not to be missed, was our mainsail.  It had become apparent that our mainsail was not doing very well. It wasn’t holding a good shape when up and parts of the sail material had begun to delaminate.  Tony had contacted North Sails in Palma, and we had booked a berth in a marina right in the centre of town so we could get the sail loft to pick up the sail.

 It was quite the journey into the marina as it was part of a huge marine/port area where both commercial ports and recreational marinas for regular boats up to Super yachts are berthed.  We stayed at La Lonja Marina Charter, and it was right on the edge of central Palma so a perfect location for exploring the city. The sail was picked up by the delivery guy and then we set out to explore the city.  

Palma Cathedral

City views from the marina.

On first impressions, Palma was a very pretty town, and the central area was very easy to get around.  The Palma cathedral is the centre piece of the old town, and the tree lined walk is very reminiscent of La Rambla in Barcelona, but half as crowded. The old town streets meander up the hill and each way you turn there’s another quaint street heading in another direction.  We loved it! 

Tony and I went on a Tapa’s Bar crawl, stopping at the first place for two small plates and then onto the second for three more and then we ran out of room in our bellies and boogie in our batteries. On the way back to the marina, I joined the queue at a famed Gelato place, that must be pretty good because there really was a long queue.  By the time I got close enough to get excited about what flavour I was going to choose, I also got close enough to see the sign that read they don’t do card transactions under 10 euro, and I had no cash.  Oh well, not this time for us. 

The next morning, we got the bikes out and rode along a fantastic bike path that goes all the way around the large marina area, probably around 3km of boats for Tony to browse at before we got to his favourite shop, a marine chandlery.  I think we may have gotten out of there for under $1000 but it was close.  I’d rather it was like Bunnings, where you can’t seem to leave without spending $100 but you know that old saying BOAT (Bring On Another Thousand) well that seems to be applying to us this season. 

We went for another ride the following morning and this time headed towards the huge bay that Palma sits on.  Again, the bike path was fantastic and only for bikes, not pedestrians.  We were looking for an access point to pick up a visitor that was coming the following morning.  We found a great small marina further along the bay that we could anchor outside of and dinghy in to pick up our guest.