Nimrod's Adventures

June 2024 – June 2026
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🧑🏽‍🦱🧒🏻 Bart & Bel
⛵ Nimrod
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  • Ibiza VII: Cala Benirràs ⚓

    Mar 7–8 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    After a couple of days in Cala Tarida we were ready for our next bay. Since my family is coming to Mallorca at the end of March for a week we are starting to look for upcoming wind windows to cross from Ibiza to Mallorca. Therefore, we are aiming to travel northeast from here.

    Our course is upwind from Tarida towards the north. After a mile or 10 we are getting close to the northwestern corner of the island when the wind dies. We only have a few miles to go to a dream anchorage, secluded with just cliffs and rock formations. Unfortunately once we get there the swell happily rolls in and additionally we would have to drop the anchor in about 12 meters of water. So we continue. Sadly, the wind is still nowhere to be found but we have 7 more miles to go. Perky the engine it is.

    On the upside, this side of the island is absolutely gorgeous. Even though we get sprayed by some rain, it is a nice trip. We finally make it to our anchorage Cala Benirràs after a long day. We took our time in the morning, having a cup of tea with the Watertuin, go for a shower and thus a swim since the color of the water again is mesmerizing and thinking we had the whole day ahead of us. By time the anchor is hooked the sun starts to set and we go inside for dinner and a another early night. We sleep, swell wise, okay but not great. So the next morning we wake up early and move on to the next bay.
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  • Ibiza VI: Cala Tarida

    Mar 4–7 in Spain ⋅ 🌬 17 °C

    We were about to get a lot of strong easterly wind. So we decided to move further to the lew side of the island together with Beautje. Not the regular crew of Beautje, Hilda and Lajla, but Hilda and her two sisters Gonnie and Gerdina.

    The wind was already blowing from behind so we decided to sail with only a reefed main sail. This was going fine until we got back to the point where you have to pass through Es Vedra, the big rock formation just of the coast. The wind was funny last time we passed through here and it was again this time. We would go from being very happy we were reefed double with the wind blowing 29 knots to hoping for the next burst of wind when we only had 3-5 knots. At some points, even though Beautje was right next to us, either we would get a gust which only boosted us forward while Beautje would fall still and the same thing happened multiple times the other wind. It makes sense with the many rock formations and cliffs which can cause odd fall winds, but it is still quite odd when you go through it. On the last leg the wind was turning more and more against us. While Beautje was tacking its way to the anchorage we cheated a bit and turned on the engine for the last mile or so😬

    In Tarida we worked some more and explored this part of the island. Since it has rained a lot for the past week, a lot of the flowers and plants have finally started to show themselves and it is gorgeous! Hilda and her sisters invited us over for dinner on the second evening. Hilda still had some tuna in the freezer which they had caught at the coast of the Spanish mainland. We went through all of us Lajla's storage, the main chef on board of Beautje, and made some delicious dinner together while we chatted away.

    Beautje left the next day and soon after they were gone Watertuin arrived. We had briefly passed them in Gibraltar when we had just gotten diesel and they were on the way to the fuel station. The next morning we had a cup of tea/coffee together before we went out way again. Up North we go!
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  • Ibiza V: Cala Es Jondal ⚓

    Feb 28–Mar 4 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    This was one of those anchorages where the time passed very quickly and we are not sure what we actually did. We worked for a couple of days, read a lot in our massive books by Ken Follet, had some drinks and dinner with our neighbors Beautje and Noordster, and only went ashore once. We did have a lot of gray and rainy days so it does make sense this anchorage wasn't too memorable location. once it was another pretty one though. But all in all, not much to say.Read more

  • Ibiza IV: Ibiza City

    Feb 27–28 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    How much can you do in 24 hours? Turns out, a lot. We arrived around noon in Ibiza Marina. We were the only boat on the pontoon. Our view? The old town, read castle on a hill, of Ibiza. Not too shabby. And by that we mean awesome! Normally Ibiza Marina would be a big no go for us. In season it would cost us someahere between €150-€250 a night here!! Since it's the low season, we now pay nowhere near that kind of money. So we took the opportunity and enjoyed it.

    We arrived around noon and we had a lot of plans, but very little time. The next day we would have to check out, just like a hotel, by noon again. On our to do list: doing laundry, grocery shopping, finding a new pan, exchanging our gas tank, go to the Decathlon for snorkeling gear, go into Ibiza Old Town and have a client meeting. Somehow we managed to all of that in 24 hours and all by foot. On day one we did laundry, found a new pan, discovered where we could go for gas after many failed attempts and went into Ibiza town. On day two Bart got the gas while I Had my meeting and afterwards we walked about 20 minutes, instead of the suggested 45 minutes by Google, to the Decathlon and grocery store. You just have to walk like a local here, cross where in the Netherlands you would never. You're fine and it saves a lot of time😉

    Ibiza Old Town was gorgeous. It is build on a hill and it mostly consists of a castle and is surrounded by small streets filled with white painted houses, bars and restaurants. Unfortunately, the downside of it being low season is that everything is still closed. Luckily, our main attraction when we visit a city is walking around anyways so it doesn't matter a lot. The vibe just is pretty sad instead of vibrant. We did however find a nice wine bar with a little terrace with heaters. So we concluded our very successful day with a drink there. Just a drink, because the snacks were outrageously expensive 😉
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  • Ibiza III: Cala Llonga ⚓

    Feb 22–27 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    From Formentera back to Ibiza was a bumpy ride. Decent wind, but mostly lots of waves. On top of that we also hadn't slept very well, not a great combo. Somewhere along the way, we got a message from Beautje saying they were going to go into Ibiza and look for a marina. Fatigue, uncomfort and an empty food storage were the deciding factors for them. So we continued on back to Ibiza by ourselves.

    We had set our minds to go to Cala Torretes. A beautiful anchorage surrounded by just cliffs, no beach, houses or hotels. From there we could go to Cala Llonga, a mile further north, the next day when the wind and swell would shift favorably. When we arrived and had just dropped our anchorage we were swinging from port side to starboard back to port side and back again like crazy. It was too much. We decided to already try our luck one bay further: Cala Llonga. That turned out to be a very good decision.

    Once we were anchored we were still swinging a little, but nothing like one bay back. Tired but satisfied we went to bed not soon after.

    We spend a bunch of days in Cala Llonga since it was a very well protected anchorage and the wind was blowing strong for a couple of days. Secondly, on both sides of the anchorage we were protected by mountains which gave us several options for beautiful walks. Third, there was a small supermarket which was open where we could get some fresh fruit and a bar that was open to enjoy some drinks!

    The latter we didn't go to until Beautje had joined us again. After a geocaching adventure, a sort of treasure hunting (you use the app geocaching to find little boxes that people have hidden and write down your names on the little piece of paper in the box once you have found it), during which we found all treasures, we treated ourselves to a drink, or two, at the local bar. We attempted to go for two more geocaches with the four us on the other side of the bay the next day, but Lajla had a knee injury that was bothering her too much. So Bart and Hilda found the caches by themselves and Lajla and I had some good conversations together on the beach in the sun. Not before long we were joined by Bart and Hilda and the Noordster who had just arrived for a little picknick, some beers, on the beach.

    On one of our last days we had a diver down below at our anchor and anchor chain. He was by himself, didn't have the diver flag or buoy and we never saw him come up. We still don't know who he was or what he was doing exactly. We think it might have been an environmental activist, who was checking our anchor and chain in regards to the posidonia seagrass. When we arrived in the anchorage we didn't have a clear sight of the bottom of the sea so we had dropped our anchor based on an app hoping it was a spot clear from the Donia. The next day when the water cleared up a bit we looked to be hooked in a good spot. However, we have been swinging around a lot so our chain might have gotten a bit too close to the seagrass. We still don't know as the diver didn't come out of the water to tell us what's up. To be sure, we moved our anchor.

    We might have stayed a day too long in Cala Llonga because at some point the swell was coming into the anchorage very strong. We were trying to work but we were swinging like we were sailing in a pretty rough sea, thanks to Lajla for the video evidence. Since we needed to go to the supermarket, change our gas and do some laundry we left the next day, before it become too uncomfortable, to go into a marina in Ibiza for a day.
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  • Formentera: Cala Saona ⚓

    Feb 21–22 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Formentera, the colors of the water around this island are unbelievably beautiful. Due to the strong swell we unfortunately didn't even spend 24 hours on Formentera. Yet, we are very happy we crossed from Ibiza to Formentera even though it was only for a day. We wouldn't want to have missed these colors.

    We left our anchorage Es Bol Nou together with Beautje. Of course, they were much faster than us again. But! that also meant that Lajla told us to sail on as far as possible into the anchorage so she could take some pictures with us and capture the beautiful colors. Wow, they turned our amazing!!

    Beautje needed some groceries so we went on land to find a small supermarket. After we had docked their dinghy at one of the local boathouses we had to go through, we're pretty sure, someone's backyard to get to the road. Some construction workers stared at us like they just saw some aliens land from somewhere else in the universe when we came out of the bushes. They were able to tell us that the supermarket was very far. They turned out to be right.

    We walked to the first so called supermarket which was supposed to be open. But, it was another one of the small stores that are part of a hotel, which of course aren't open yet. We walked some more kilometers before we decided to turn around because the bigger store was still kilometers away. On top of that the surroundings of our walk weren't that pretty. So we returned to our boats and we put something together with what we could find on board and had another cozy dinner together.

    The swell started to come into the anchorage more and more as the night progressed. As a result, we didn't have a very good night's sleep and we agreed together with Beautje that our visit to Formentera was going to be short but sweet, and with sweet we mean beautiful.
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  • Ibiza II: Cala Es Bol Nou ⚓

    Feb 19–21 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Together with Beautje we left our first Ibiza anchorage to set sail to our second one on the south west side of the island. It was only a 15nm sail and it was another lovely. Only downside of today is that the wind had shifted a bit sooner than anticipated so we had had a bit of a bumpy night and not a great night's rest. But the wind was great, barely any waves and the sun was out (a bit). It was going to be a lovely day.

    One of the prettiest parts of the trip was passing between Es Vedra, a small rock island just off the coast of Ibiza, and Ibiza itself. At some point we passed the bay we thought we would make our final stop of the day but we couldn't see any place to get on shore with our dinghies. So we sailed, crawled, on. On the Balearic Islands we don't just need to take the swell and wind into account, but the local seagrass as well. You are not allowed to drop your anchor, or chain, in the seagrass. If you do you can get a massive (€2000 or something like that) fine. We use an app to see which bays are not entirely covered in seagrass and in the bay itself you can easily see the darker spots where the seagrass is located.

    Eventually we found a good bay, Es Bol Nou. We were both able to drop our anchor safely. We took a short walk on shore but we, but mostly I, were pretty tired after a bad night. Not long after we sat down on the beach to enjoy a drink with the best view there is: our own boat anchored in a beautiful place.

    On our second day, we but mostly Bart, worked a bit in the morning and in the afternoon we took a hike up the hill nearby. The views were stunning. Along the way we passed a lot of rosemary thus obviously I had to pick some. But also a lot of little graveyards where people bury their pets, it was a bit creepy.

    We spent the evening with Beautje again, before we went to bed after another very good day on board, in the Med!
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  • Eivissa I: Port des Torrent⚓

    February 14 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    We had a very special Valentine's day together. We had a date that lasted for more than 24 hours. We left Dénia, a day later than anticipated due to a bit too high of Cape index than we like, on February 13th late in the evening. We're going to Ibiza! Woahoo! We're (not) going to have a party. For a minute we thought we had to turn back around since a ship was dredging in the middle of the peer. Which shouldn't be a big problem except for the fact that insanely long lines running almost through the entire pier were keeping the boat in place. We called them and they secured us that we should have enough room if we crossed port side to port side. So we did and we were free to go!

    We had to seek the wind a little bit at first, but once we had left the lew of El Mongo (big rock shaped a bit like an 🐘), we were cruising! Unfortunately, the ways were very quick and hitting us from the side. It would go to bed first. I went down to brush my teeth and that was a brutal mistake. Shortly after I got really seasick. While I was in bed I didn't sleep but was fighting against the nausea. Just before stepping outside to relieve Bart, I fed the fish for the first time. So far our romantic sailing date 😉 Somewhere halfway through my shift I fed the fishies again. I did feel a lot better after the second time and thought it had passed. When Bart came up to relieve me we decided to take a reef out first, out of nowhere I suddenly needed to feed the fish for a third time! ❤️‍🔥That was the last of it though. Mostly because the waves had calmed down a lot too. Bart wasn't struggling so much luckily.

    During my last shift I saw the sun rise behind Ibiza, so beautiful. I tried to see if Bart was awake so have some romantic highlight😂, but he was fast asleep. Only a couple hours later we dropped our anchor for the first time on Ibiza/Eivissa. We stayed in this bay for a couple of days to work a bit, hangout with Coco, chill on the beach, try to catch some fish (no luck) and eventually welcome Beautje to Ibiza (read making the fishers angry by playing Venga Boys' We're going to Ibiza very loud). It is nowhere near party time this time of the year on Ibiza. It is very quiet which is lovely! The water is still a bit chilly, but we going for a quick dip every now and then just because it is so pretty and the weather is great to go on hikes.
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  • The Netherlands

    Feb 2–8 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 4 °C

    8 months ago we left our spot in the Marina Monnickendam on June 3rd. On February 2nd we landed on Schiphol and were greeted by my parents (pap and mam) 😍 Straight from the airport we went to Lennert (big little brother) and Annet's new home to surprise Lennert. Without a doubt it was a successful surprise!

    The entire week we were magically able to spend quality time with friends and family. How before we would have to plan weeks ahead to meet up, everybody's agendas eere cleared to make some time for us. What a love 😍 Most special was the fact that even all Bart's family members (Berlin, Italy and Spain) were at some point sitting at the same table!

    We had some very good conversations throughout the week. Especially with our families we talked a lot about our time past and future plans. Up until now it has felt like we were travelling. Now that we have started, since February 7th, our own business and will be working 1-2 days a week from the boat, it feels more like we are starting a new way of life. Which will likely make it easier for us to come visit you and for you to come visit us. This makes being away from you a bit easier. Yet, after a week with family and friends it is still hard to leave again, no matter how much we are enjoying our life at sea 💔

    Regarding our business, Bart & Bel (services) is now officially live! Take a look at our website bartandbel.com 😅. It's not done yet, I'm still working on it. But it's getting there. Through our sailing network Bart has found a gig as freelancer account manager for the Bridge AV group. I will be building websites and doing SEO jobs! So if you need one, let us know 😉
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  • Valencia

    Jan 30–Feb 2 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    We had actually hoped to be in Valencia with our Nimrod on October 13th to celebrate Pleun's 30th birthday. Cute idea, I know. About 3,5 months later we finally made it! Technically, we still didn't make it. As the Nimrod was still docked in Dénia and we had taken the bus to get to Valencia. But we have a good excuse, the marinas in Valencia didn't have a spot available for us.

    We hadn't since Pleun in real life since our departure party in June so it was really nice to be reunited again. As a local she gave us a couple of tips for the city: the park, old town, modern art museum and some fun neighborhoods to just stroll around like Rufasa. Around her work we were able to spend some good quality time together and the rest of the time we entertained ourselves. The highlight by far was the paella, which we have been craving and not giving in, for months at the beach. It was absolutely delicious!!
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