John phoned Solarta, the service/agents that Studer had recommended we use for the inverter repair in Arta, to make initial contact. We then went ashore to do some shopping, and surveyed one supermarket first, before walking up the hill to the more likely Spar supermarket. This proved to be disappointing, and we came away with some St. Miguel beer which we took back to the dinghy before retracing our steps to the first shop. We managed to pick up some some anti histamine cream for Mo's mosquito bites from the Farmacia as well as some indigestion tablets to help John resolve whether he was really having another heart attack or not! We also fitted in a visit to a reasonable-looking chandlers, where we bought a replacement compass light switch. It was after lunch, and 1430, before we set off. We had a fresh SW breeze that meant that it was a dead run down wind, so we headed out initially, then gybed back towards Porto Colom. We made some good progress before the wind quite suddenly died on Mo while John was visiting the heads with his book. Two minutes later, Mo was unsettled when the wind indicator swung round through 180 degrees, as the wind piped up freshly from the NE! It was lucky we had put the reef in earlier. When we arrived, we found there was no room on the Moll Transit, and the yacht club was very busy with large numbers of charter boats turning up simultaneously. We refuelled, and then managed to anchor uneventfully off the beach in the approaches, close to a line of swimming marker buoys with a rope between them fixed to the cliff. Soon afterwards an Austrian boat arrived, and anchored taking a stern line to the chain fixing the marker buoys. This meant that if we swung, we would not swing together, and therefore we had to get our kedge out and launch the dinghy to deploy it, in order to keep Fuga out of harm's way. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems!
Conchi from Solarta phoned, and said that she would collect the inverter earlier than the late afternoon that she had promised yesterday. John understood that this would be later in the morning, but depended on some other arrangements. We extracted the inverter from the bottom of the cockpit locker, and wrapped it up in a plastic bag and then one of our enormous zipper bags from the 'Pound' shop in Hemel, before trussing it up with rope. This enabled us to hand the bulky 16kg weight down into the dinghy without dropping it in! John became concerned that siesta time was approaching, so assumed that Conchi would be in some hurry, so he didn't wait for the promised phone call, and we set off in the dinghy to the public quay. There was no phone call, and no sign of Conchi, so eventually John realised that he had anticipated too much. We managed with sign language to convince the young lady who was in the port office to look after the inverter for us, although for all intents and purposes it could have been a bomb! On our way back to Fuga we enquired at the yacht club whether there was space, and the price. (The Austrian boat had smartly taken the only space that had appeared on the Moll Transit.) John grimaced at the 42€ quoted, but we were in an exposed anchorage with strong winds forecast for that evening, we were having problems with flat batteries, we would need water, and it was raining dirty rain. Suddenly a secure berth with electricity and water seemed attractive. So back to Fuga to retrieve the kedge and up anchor. We moored uneventfully to the yacht club, and were surprised to be only charged 33€! Later Conchi phoned to say she would be there later, and we agreed 5pm. Sometime later she phoned Mo, after I had been away for a while, asking where I was. We were very grateful to her for picking up the inverter, as otherwise it would have been an expensive taxi ride or a hire car.
The next day we washed and scrubbed the decks and filled up with water. Mo organised some washing while we had plenty of water available. The Moll Transit had miraculously cleared, and Mo in particular was keen to grab a space while we could. We had enjoyed watching the charter boats set off with their usual high revs, so we made a consciously controlled and quiet exit, to prove our superiority. This came to an abrupt standstill, as our keel engaged the bow mooring line of the boat ahead, and we threatened to get blown broadside onto his bow. The yacht club pontoons have such shallow water, and relatively little space between them, so the mooring lines tend to extend well out into the channel. Only a very central course, over the mooring chain, is sure of success! Having alerted the crew of the fouled boat, we extracted ourselves eventually, and motored out of the harbour to dump our holding tank. Returning shortly, we moored happily on the Moll Transit, but only after our selected neighbour had rushed to produce some enormous round fenders to keep us at bay. We spent the afternoon exploring the town, which we found very pleasant. We had a look around a chandlers, one of two up river at the top of the harbour, then went up the hill, and bought some oranges and other superb fruit from a small supermarket on the way back. Setting out again we went up the hill, past the beach, and rewarded ourselves with a drink at the Bar/Restaurant overlooking the entrance and the beach. Our waiter who was German was very helpful in suggesting possibilities for car hire, and also told us where to find the Eroski supermarket (up the hill by the beach, turn left at the top), and that there was a Lidl in Manacor. On the way back we called at the hotel Filip, where we discovered that there was a deal on for 3 days car hire until the end of the month. We had discovered a wireless internet site that required a subscription, but other than the accounting service providers, there was no clue as to the proprietors. We tried in vain to find anyone who had any knowledge of this. After lunch the next day Conchi rang and said that the inverter was ready: unfortunately at a cost of 734€. We went for a walk, and on our way found the Eroski, and a car hire place that was about the same price as the hotel, but no deal. On the way back we dropped in at the hotel and arranged to pick a car up the following day, for three days.
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| The town of Arta was very interesting |
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| Impressive views of the Cap de Formentor |
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| Wonderful 360 views from the Sanctuari de Cura |
It was back to work, today. The day looked as if it was going to be a hot one, with little breeze, so before getting going, we decided to try to deploy the sun awnings that we had created while in Almerimar. Once these were reasonably stable, we left the fine tuning and the rest of the fixing lines for another time. The next job was to attempt to seal the cupboard in the heads, known as the Magic Cupboard, so called because of its capacity to store drink, tins, jars, tea, etc. We had had problems when it came to servicing the plumbing of the heads/holding tank and we want to try to retain undesirable fluids, if possible, outside the cupboard. Sealant and John do not mix well together, not assisted by having to do the job blind, at arms length, around a corner, prostrate over the toilet, with torch and mirror as guidance. Then it was on to re-fit the inverter. This was an awkward job too, as it is bolted to a floor bearer alongside the drive shaft, opposite the water separator. It weighs 16 kg, and is held by four relatively small 5mm bolts through its edges. The cables have to be attached first, as the screws cannot be accessed while in position. John had one bare foot resting on the rf ground tape, while one hand collected a 240 volt shock from the shore power that was still connected via a connector block in place of the inverter. Presumably it did not connect well, or he would not be writing this log. Pete from Brilliant, who had come in the previous day, came along just as John was discovering that the newly installed inverter appeared to have blown the shore power isolator. The suggestion of a drink on Brilliant was well received, and we readily agreed. Then for some reason everything chose to work. We enjoyed some hours with Pete, Steph and her cousin Pam who was visiting. We probably delayed their supper. The following day Mo went to find a hairdresser. John spent some time searching for the source of the wifi without success, and also called in at the chandlers who did not have Sykaflex. John's e-mail (via mobile phone/modem) to the service providers for the wifi system later brought success, when he was rewarded with a login and password. Only the next day, after much frustration, did they think to mention it was only good for one hour! The link had been so tenuous that nothing really worked through it. Later we walked up to Eroski, and came back laden with yet more supplies, including fresh Dorado for supper.
There was a lot to do in the morning. We had paid for water today, so needed to top up the tanks and water bottles, and wash down the decks and dinghy. We also had to get the boat re-stowed so that we could go to sea, but first we had to make another foray to the shops, this time to pick up a Camping Gaz regulator for the barbeque that Mike and Lisa gave us and some more fruit from the good fruit supermarket. We had lunch, then set off. It was not very pleasant, raining slightly, with a strong northerly wind. Our neighbours, who had come in from Alcudia that morning, had not enjoyed the seas. However, it was not far, and we were able to make 5.5 knots down wind with our jib. We were pleased to find space to drop anchor off the north eastern side of the channel, in 4 metres of water, and soon felt better with a litre of mulled Don Simon inside us.