After the last of fun times on Mallorca, it was time to head south to our favorite island of Ibiza. It's about an 8 hour sail and it was chilly and rainy. About 4 hours into the crossing (completely out of sight of any land), we noticed a little yellow bird in the cockpit. We were down below to stay out of the rain, but he/she was hopping about under the bimini to stay dry. Now the question we had was how did such a little bird fly at least 30 miles from land in such terrible weather??? It was not with us when we left Mallorca, but here it was now.
Well it wasn't long before it found its way down into the salon with us. We were delighted for it to take refuge with us and watched it hop from the table to countertop to all over. And then (now i think it was a she) she took a liking to my Captain and hopped right up on his head. Granted, his hair was looking like a bird's nest so she made herself right at home. And i just happened to have the camera nearby:
She stayed there for quite a while as i laughed and Richard just patiently let her be. Then to our dismay, she hopped off and flew back out to the cockpit and at some point disappeared. We don't know how she could've made it to shore, especially in this weather, but we really, really hope she did.
We did our usual fun things on Ibiza such as going to the Hippy Market for year end sales on fabulous clothes, going into Ibiza City for dinner and a little more shopping, and going to drum the sun down in Binerras Cove.
Our usual annual selfie on the sea wall in old Ibiza town:
And watching all of the old hippies on Ibiza drum the sun down in Binneara's Cove:
Looking from land as the sun sets:
And then we had our usual special time on the little island of Espalmador. We arrived on Fall Equinox (September 21) and for us, it was definitely beginning to feel like fall. It was often overcast and much cooler so we took long walks on the beach instead of swimming. And it certainly felt like the end of the season as there were less boats around and we had it mostly to ourselves.
It's a sweet and special place for us and we played around with selfies and photo shoots---just having fun with it all:
Who says "Real Men" don't wear skirts (sarongs)???
Beautiful Yemaya off of Espalmador:
And then it really was time to cross over to the Spanish mainland and head south. Instead of going straight to Aquadulce to put Ecstasea up, we broke the trip up by stopping in Alicante first. We had never been there and wanted to explore a new port.
Overlooking the town is the 16th century castle of Santa Barbara.
Very impressive:
Lucky for us there was an elevator to the top...
We found Alicante a lovely port and town with great food and fun places to just walk and meander, taking in the ambiance of it all.
There is the famous Paseo de Explanada which is a promenade made up of red, cream, and black marble which imitates the waves of the Mediterranean.
And finally it was time to move on to Almerimar where we still had a little more work to do on Esea before she took her long winter nap in Aquadulce.
So we were back in the land of fabulous Sangria from our favorite bartender, Frank at the Stumble Inn bar. How fitting it felt to end where we began the season 5 months before.
And so we celebrated the last full moon of the season on Ecstasea here in the port of Almerimar:
It was definitely a different summer than we had envisioned at the beginning. But looking back we are thankful for all of the great work we had done on our beautiful Ecstasea to keep her sea-worthy as our wonderful ocean home. We learned patience and flexibility and the lessons of finding peace wherever you are in any circumstance. We had way more time to go within and grow in deep gratitude for all of it...realizing that what we perceive as "good or bad", is only a perception anyway. Life just "is" and it is all very, very, very good!!!!
