Baleares were great.

Baleares were great.
Following Dads departure, we went north to Isla Colom which was one of our best anchorages of the whole trip. Only about 5 meters of crystal clear water, and a free mooring thanks to EU funding, to save the local fish environment. We went into the caves and took the dinghy through a rock arch, then we went to a crescent beach. At 5 pm all the other boats left except one other and we were in one of the most beautiful anchorages . We went to the beach and had a great time all by our own. This might not seem so special but just imagine being on east head beach in the middle of a very hot summers eve without another boat in site, and you are half way there.
Following that we went down the South coast of Menorca to try and anchor in some of the beautiful Calas (short for very small inlets in which there is literally no room to swing a cat and in which it is nearly impossible to anchor a 47 ft boat and totally impossible to anchor one that is 47 feet long and nearly 9 ft wide. In one place we even had to reverse out rather than turn around.
Next day a great down wind sail to Mallorca and Port Colom. At times we were surfing at 10 knots on the waves.
Port Colom was much less developed than expected and was a very nice place. The we met another cat flying a Kiwi flag, called Sunset Sam, the parents Kevin and Rachel are our age, while the kids are 9 Talia, Zack 7, and Alysa 6. We all went to the beach and the girls quickly made friends.
We found out that Sunset Sam are doing the same sort of thing as us, except once they get to the Caribbean, they are going on through the Panama Canal and on hoe to New Zealand. Any way we agreed to cruise on down the coats of Spain and the rest of the islands.
Then we went on to Palma, where we were meeting up with Imy's school friend, Lucy and her parents, Clifford and Hazel. We went out for a sail, but found it a bit rough and very rainy so turned turned back to "The Anchorage" which is next to Porta Portals. We had a great time with the Tompsett"s and went back to their apartment on the golf course, where all the girls had a bath and Sophie dumped Hazel with several bags of washing. (Hazel obligingly acted as the washer women).
Once the Tompsett's left , we got the water maker fixed at a great price and had to wait days for bits etc.
Finally we went to Ibiza, of famous clubbing fame, but we found some great quiet anchorages, and we really enjoyed Isla Espalmador, with its golden sandy Beach, sand dunes and mud baths. looking back we wished we had more time in the middle of the summer in the Baleares, as we feel there were some great places and we only really scratched the surface.