We have been pleasantly surprised by the water clarity in some of the Mallorcan anchorages we have visited. So we charged the battery on our three year old Olympus submersible camera and decided to see if the seals were still watertight.
Our big Rocna partially buried. Judging by anchor behavior we are guessing that in general there is a thin layer of sand or mud over something much harder. We have rarely gotten a bite that would stand up to much load in reverse.
How about those fins!
There are a few fish about, but not in the abundance we are used to seeing on other warm water environments.
We have had a couple of spectacular sunsets.
And we have figured out one of the keys to enjoying this part of the world. In the morning, until about 1100, we have the anchorage to ourselves. The next seven or eight hours it becomes a zoo. By 2000 local we are again on our own.
Knowing this makes the crazy period bearable.
Bird life has been rare and we are losing skill level.
Shooting BIF (Birds In Flight) requires constant practice to stay in focus. As you can see, we are a bit rusty, but its a nice shot anyway.
You can tell its time to move on when the fizzboats start to exercise their masculinity – as in “My rooster tail is bigger than yours.” Can you imagine the fuel burn rate here?
A few miles away is Draongera island, the west side of which has amazingly shear cliffs with deep water adjacent.
There are several varieties of birds nesting here that are new to us.
Check out the roachy past the backstay mainsail.
And now from our growing collection of super yacht photos we bring you what looks like a modern J-boat.
Perhaps one of the SetSailors can enlighten us on which J this is? Named or not, she is cool looking (but those overhangs are still dumb).
A few years ago we’d turn our nose up at a sailboat with a big house like this,
Having mellowed with maturity we will admit it could be nice in some environments.
We think this is Larry Ellison’s little boat, Ronin. If so, she is a mere 192 feet.
The cool understated military look reminds us of something.
Posted by Steve Dashew (September 7, 2010)
September 7th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
The profile (especially the bow) looks like the reproduction J-Boat Ranger, but the colour’s not right and I don’t think the deckhouses match:
http://www.sy-ranger.com/index.html
Yeah, the military-looking yacht seems to be Ronin, but Larry’s newer “small boat” is coming along:
http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/feadship-yacht/14099-feadship-88-meter-musashi.html
September 8th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Hi Steve,
Ward is right. It is the J-class H1 Lionheart and it is based on one of the design proposals of Starling Burgess and Olin Stephens that resulted in the construction of the original Ranger .
Lionheart was built by the yard of Freddie Bloemsma in aluminium in Makkum ,the Netherlands,and launched in june this year .
Love your site.
Greetings ,Frits
September 10th, 2010 at 12:31 am
The sailboat with the big house looks to be a Fisher Pilothouse Ketch. I’ve seen a couple for sale recently and have fallen in love with the chunkiness of it for cruising. Seems solid and forgiving…and having a place to get out of weather while still sailing is a big plus.