{"id":2065,"date":"2018-09-04T00:04:49","date_gmt":"2018-09-03T22:04:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.new.lifefourpointzero.com\/?p=2065"},"modified":"2018-11-18T20:52:54","modified_gmt":"2018-11-18T18:52:54","slug":"sea-rose-visits-the-island-of-menorca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifefourpointzero.com\/?p=2065","title":{"rendered":"Sea Rose Visits The Island of Menorca! Ep. 99"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Island of Menorca in the Western Mediterranean<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We are continuing our time in the Balearic Islands \u2013 the westernmost archipelago in the Mediterranean. At its closest point, this island group is 82 km (51 miles) from the southeast coast of Spain. After having spent three weeks in Mallorca \u2013 the largest island of the archipelago \u2013 we are eager to move along to Menorca, the second largest island and new waters to us! Menorca is the farthest of the Balearics from the mainland and it is rumored to be quieter than both Mallorca and Ibiza \u2013 an island we have not yet been able to visit that has a reputation of being a party spot!<\/p>\n

Each time we had the space in our schedule to try to visit Menorca, there were high north winds coming out of the Golf of Lyon in France and this meant navigating and being on anchor around the island of Menorca would be very comfortable if not dangerous. We were thoroughly enjoying Mallorca so we were far from suffering; still we were none-the-less excited once we had a clear weather window to see this island.<\/p>\n

We left from Puerto Christo on the southeast coast of Mallorca and headed northeast for the 41 nm crossing. Our destination was Cala Covas in the center of the southern coast. We enjoyed a nice sail for most of the day; the journey took us about 7 hours.<\/p>\n

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Menorca Anchorages<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are many wonderful coves on the south shore, but we knew we had just less than a week on the island so we had to narrow our choices!<\/p>\n

Cala Covas<\/strong> – What an amazing first cove to introduce us to the beauty of Menorca! From the pilot book, we knew this spot was popular and that we would probably have to use either two anchors or an anchor and a line to shore so that we didn\u2019t swing too wide. This is the way a lot of boats can be accommodated in a small space. If you put out both a bow and a stern line, you will only move a little back and forth with the wind, waves and currents. This is as opposed to possibly swinging in a 360-degree circle around a single anchor as conditions change. A lot of the coves in popular anchorages have iron posts or rings affixed into the rock faces around the cove so boaters can use these to safely secure themselves from swinging too broadly. When we arrived in Cala Covas, we couldn\u2019t see any obvious way to tie to shore so we opted to put out a bow and stern anchor on the side of the anchorage.<\/p>\n