Ermita de Betlem

A cruiser's life is often described jokingly as: fixing things in beautiful places. After a couple of months of barely any fixing to do, it was about time that we would be due. As described in the previous post we have some troubles with our watermaker. We have always had quite low pressure compared to what it is supposed to be. However right now it looks like the pumps aren't sucking up any water at all, which means we also have zero pressure in the system.

We had been in contact via email with a supposedly watermaker expert in Palma de Mallorca. At some point he didn't respond anymore and since there is also s big nautic store in Palma we decided to just go there. We took the bus to Palma and rented a scooter downtime to get around quickly. The nautic store felt like a candy shop, as always, and next to my additional curtosy flags (Islas Baleares, Italy, Sardinia and Greece) we also got the things we actually needed. Such as an extra strainer filter for our watermaker.

We then went to the guy we had been in touch with. He wasn't there and the person who was there unfortunately didn't know much. We jumped back on our scooter and tried another shop. They were much more helpful, unfortunately they didn't have any pumps but they did have the right filters. Additionally, they also gave us some tips about some extra trouble shooting we could try.

We followed our spare parts search by meeting up with Kiki and Harmen for a drink. Before taking the bus back to Pollenca we enjoyed some burger and fries from the local burger stall we had passed at least 3 times during our different visits to Palma. In hindsight I wish we didn't. We were only on the bus for a short while when I felt a IBS (irritable bowel syndrome or PDS) attack coming. I didn't have a full panick attack, but it took me back to a public transport trauma when I was a teenager. Luckily, I "made it" to the first stop and found a restroom in a KFC of all places. We walked to the next bus stop and after finding some dark spots we got on the bus via Alcudia to Pollenca.

The next day I needed some time to recover. Bart took on another project: fixing the meter in our watertank. Again, in hindsight, we wish he didn't 😅 Getting it back in without any leaks turned out to be impossible... We just added another thing to fix.

We had time though, since we are waiting for a weather window to go to Sardinia or Corsica. Looks like there won't be any until the 17 or 18th. So the rest of our time in Pollenca we spend working and trying to fix things. We took apart the watermaker, but no luck so far. Looks like we need new pumps. We did get the windlass (ankerlier) up and running again. Luckily, Square One (Kiki and Harmen) made it to Pollenca as it turned out they had THE spare part we needed to fix our watertank meter issue (or at least good enough for now). We had come up with some work around options with simply putting in a big cork as last resort 😅. But even better it meant that we got to spend some time together and to play some board games before saying goodbye to each other since our ways are parting now for a while. As, we are currently on our way to Sardinia! Ciao!

PS: I almost forgot our visit to the annual sipia (cuttle fish/zeekat) festival in Alcudia where we were treated with some local folk dance performance by adorable kidsRead more