Coming into Alcudia Bay

The landscape becomes very dramatic as we sail from east to west cross the bay of Alcudia. Ahead of us are high mountains and cliffs soaring from the sea. They are awesome and beautiful. We sail to an anchorage surrounded by cliffs. It is totally wild with no sign of civilisation ashore. The thought of dropping anchor and staying here overnight is exciting and daunting because of the looming cliffs. As we hover in the bay we feel the swell rolling in, it will be an uncomfortable night here. A good night’s sleep trumps a good view so we take in our surroundings for a little while longer and then sail into Alcudia bay leaving wilderness behind. We find a rather more civilised little anchorage next to Alcanada golf course. We have a combined shopping and picnic expedition ashore and come home for a good night’s sleep in this sheltered spot.
The next day is overcast and windy but Régal is comfortable as she is protected from the swell by the little island to the north. Ronan goes for a snorkel to see how things are under the waterline. We are in 5 meters of water but when he swims around the boat he discovers that there are plateaus of higher rock nearby. If the wind changes direction the boat will too and our keel may end up over one of these rocky outcrops or worse, on one. To ensure we are okay no matter which way the wind blows Ruby and he get in the dingy with a lead line to measure the depths a various high points on the rocky shelves. Shortly afterwards I help too and jump in the water with mask and snorkel to find the high patches. The shallowest patch we find is 2.7 meters which means we can rest easy as our 1.8 meter deep keel will never touch it.
The wind picks up more and we watch the day trippers on tourists boats try to enjoy Paddle boarding but it’s no fun in these conditions.
Nearby a dinghy breaks its mooring and is blown into the hard shoreline. We watch as it continuously bangs against the rocky shore and nobody comes to its rescue. Then Ronan, all heroic like, puts on his superman togs and swims in to the dinghy. He grabs its painter rope and ties it across his enormous manly chest. With his arms powering through the water, he tows the dinghy back out to the mooring bouy and ties it off securely.
He leaps back on board Régal and from his crew he receives some limp and short- lived praise. If only there had been other on-lookers. They would have been very impressed but the crew of Régal have become accustomed to living with such a hero.Read more