The chart on the left shows our cruise from Mallorca to Alicante.  Our route is shown by the thin black line on the chart, which can best be seen by double-clicking on the chart to download the full resolution image. 

We also used the large Mercadona hypermarket to re-stock Sarah for the next week or so.

We did have one nice dinner at a close by restaurant and a somewhat less nice dinner the following night at another restaurant.

Photo by the waiter on Mike's camera.

Upon departure we had a light (10 - 12 kt) breeze out of the SSE.  That provide a comfortable close reach all of the way to Ibiza.  Unfortunately to arrive off Ibiza during dusk we had to average over 6 kts, which was not possible in these light winds.  So we kept the engine running the entire trip and arrived off Cala Blanco just after sunset.

I elected to anchor in Cala Blanco because I was very familiar with the anchorage and believed I could safely anchor Sarah in this cala even after dark.

We found a good spot in about 9M of water and dropped the hook around 10:00PM.  We cooked and ate dinner then went to sleep.

There was a slight swell coming into the cala as the seas tend to follow the coast line then swing or reflect into the calas.  We were lying to the SE breeze which put the swell on the beam and made for a very rolly night.

The next morning we enjoyed the excellent swimming this cala, then departed for Puerto San Antonio shortly after noon.  We arrived in the harbor at San Antonio a few hours later and dropped the anchor in the south end of the harbor.  I had called earlier in the day to see if we could get a berth at the marina in San Antonio, but they were full.

The weather forecast called for a frontal passage through Ibiza around midnight that night with strong NE winds.  The cruising guide describes the holding ground in the harbor as patchy.  We set the anchor as well as we could and put out a lot of rode in anticipation of the strong winds.

Around 1:00 AM the front came through and I got up to close the remaining open hatches.  Then as I looked out through the cockpit companionway I could clearly see that Sarah was dragging anchor.  I called for Mike, started the engine and moved Sarah forward to avoid colliding with a large schooner anchored behind us.  Then Mike took over the helm and I went forward and started to haul in the anchor rode.

By this time I estimate the wind was blowing a steady 20kts with gusts over 30.  Suddenly all of the boats in our area of the anchorage were dragging.  I watched as one 70' steel sailboat dragged behind us, picked up another anchored sailboat and kept on dragging.  Boats were moving all around us.  Some were dragging out of control, others were trying to get their anchors up and a few were underway getting out of the anchorage.

With Mike at the helm I managed to get the anchor rode in such I could almost put the chain in the windlass gypsy, but suddenly we were dragging down on an unoccupied boat to starboard, with another boat was dragging down toward us from port.  If we did nothing Sarah would become a sailboat sandwich.  Without our communicating I let out the anchor rode and Mike simultaneously put Sarah into reverse.  That allowed Sarah to fall off behind the boat to starboard and the boat to port dragged in front of us.  We avoided a collision, but now Sarah's anchor rode was caught under the two boats ahead of us.  The wind continued to blow and other boats were dragging on all sides.  I decided we had to get out of here fast.  I grabbed a nearly empty bottle of distilled water and a razor knife.  I cut the anchor rode, attached the bottle as a float and cast the severed anchor line over the side.

Now we were free to maneuver out of the harbor.  We still had to dodge a lot of other boats dragging or steaming out of the harbor.  Soon we were clear of the breakwater and in the Bahia de San Antonio.  For the next hour or so we just motored out then back toward the harbor waiting for the wind to die down and the remaining boats in the harbor to become secure.  Finally the wind dropped to 15 kts and things appeared much more quiet in the harbor (although there was at least one MAYDAY broadcast on the VHF). 

We re-entered the harbor  and on the second attempt got my backup anchor to grab and hold.  We had anchored just outside of the anchorage area in the main harbor channel, but so had a number of other boats.  I figured we were safe for the rest of the night and could get some sleep.

Around 9:00AM the next morning the police came around in a small boat telling each boat anchored in the channel they had to move as the ferry from Barcelona would be entering the harbor within an hour.  We pulled up the anchor and decided to look for Sarah's discarded anchor.  We found the float next to two other boats that had been rafted together during the night.  It was quickly apparent the anchors on those two boats (one was the 70'er mentioned above) were entangled and they were trying to clear them.  We waited until the 70'er was free and moved off, then we approached the boat that was still anchored.  The skipper of that boat told us they had more tangled anchors below and he would help us get ours back as soon as they got the other mess straightened out.  We then re-anchored Sarah close by.  Kathy and I used the dinghy to investigate Sarah's anchor to see if it could be pulled into the dinghy.  When we pulled in on the rode it was clear Sarah's chain and anchor were part of the mess below.  The Brit skipper of the anchored boat told us they were going to dive on the anchors as soon as the wind and seas died down as the chain was still moving.  We returned to Sarah and waited.

Photo by Mike Repass

Photo by Mike Repass

Finally we hauled Sarah's chain and anchor up into the dinghy and put it back on deck.

Photo by Mike Repass

After all of the adventure I was lucky to have only lost a few feet off the rope anchor rode and most of that was reclaimed as an additional dock line.

Photo by Mike Repass

Photos on right and below by Mike Repass and Kathy Reilly.

The whale pretty much ignored us as we passed.  It was difficult to determine the size, but I guess it was over 10M.  Shortly after it passed astern of Sarah, the tail fin went up into the air and the whale sounded.

That night the winds died, but we kept sailing even when our boat speed dropped below 4 knots.  With light winds and a swell from the south we had a very rolly night and no one got much sleep.  Finally the winds dropped to almost nothing and we turned on the engine for the last few miles.

Still we arrived off Alicante just after sunrise.  Knowing the marina would not open for several hours we just loitered off the harbor until around 8:30 and headed in.  After topping off the fuel tank and registering with the marina we moved Sarah to a berth at the Marina Alecante, shown in the SOB screen capture on the left.

Photo once again by the waiter, this one a little better with the camera than the one in El Arenal.  Taken with Mike's camera.

I'm back to single-handing Sarah once again.