This and That around Mallorca

Caught enjoying the romantic evening on the steps outside of the 17th century Cathedral in Palma....

Our first Full Moon in Palma in front of the pool and fountain near the Cathedral....

Finally after all of these years in Palma, we visited the inside of the Cathedral....

A little sightseeing to 17th century Belver Castle outside of Palma....

The view of Palma and the harbor from the castle...

 Having fun with the street artist who is blowing big bubbles to play in, and you all know how much i love bubbles....

We found a new favorite Mexican restaurant with a super fun waiter named Zero. And yes, it really is good Mexican food with fantastic margaritas....

After 8 years we decided it was time to visit once again the small island of Cabrera off of the southeast corner of Mallorca. This castle dates back to the 14th century and was built as a defense against pirates...

This is the view from the castle looking down into the protected anchorage....

And this is EcstaSea as seen from the castle...

And this is us in the sunshine and breeze on top of the castle. 

It's been fun to revisit some of the old places that we haven't seen for years and enjoy their magic once again. To look again with renewed curiosity and awe and remember how blessed we are to be here!!!

Back on our Ocean Home

Where does time go? How did it get to be June already? Questions that we do not have answers for, but ponder... as here we are back on our ocean home EcstaSea in the Mediterranean, and it is mid June already. EcstaSea wintered on the island of Sardinia, Italy, where we arrived in mid May.

The old walled city of Alghero, Sardinia...

After getting her in the water and all ready, we anchored in a beautiful cove to get our sea legs back...

This is another look at Capo Cassia on our way out of Sardinia...

Then we had an easeful 2 night passage to the Spanish island of Mallorca. We stopped on the southeast corner to anchor and rest and once again get a feel for living on the ocean. The first night was splendid and calm, gracing us with a gorgeous sunset...

The Captain resting...


Then as always, Yemaya (the ocean) and Vayu (the wind) reminded us of the ever-changing, transient nature of life and kicked up quite a storm the next night. We woke at 2;00 am to the pounding wind and waves and knew we had to leave the anchorage because now we were on a lee shore. So after a stressful night of motoring and trying to find a safe anchorage to rest, we surrendered and motored into port in Palma. There is a good reason that many a poem and song refer to the safe harbor or port as a refuge in the storm--it is!!!
We find it somewhat amusing that every year that we come to live on the ocean, we have to relearn the "way it is". Living on land, we become somewhat comfortable or complacent and forget that everything is in constant change and motion, whether we feel (or notice) it or not. It is the way of Life and nowhere is it more apparent than on the constant moving waves of the ocean. And as always, we are thankful for the reminder and the learning that ocean living brings to us. Thank you Yemaya and Vayu.

We are happy to be back in the Med after our 2 seasons in the Caribbean. And especially happy to be back on Mallorca as it has always been a special place for us. Perhaps because this is where we started this ocean adventure 8 years ago. We are having fun as we reacquaint ourselves with the friends we have made here, with the special little coves we love to anchor in, and with the lively city of Palma. Also the great food and wine!!!
And we always have projects to start and finish while we are in port.
But after a few days, we are always ready to head back out to a quiet, calm anchorage to just "be"...

This is Cala Egos and we have spent many times here in the past processing and working on just that:
our "egos". So here we are again to examine and check in with ourselves...

And the Captain actually got into the cold water to swim before his usual debut in July:

We brought an inflatable kayak with us this year, thinking it might be good exercise for us and a fun way to explore some of the anchorages. Here it is inflated on the foredeck with Richard sitting in it and NOT getting much exercise!  no really, we did put it in the water and we both paddled around--really!

So for now we are in and out of Palma (in port and out to anchorages), finding the balance between work (projects) and play. Life is a fine balance and we are once again exploring it with all of it's infinite possibilities.
We are here, we are now, and we are happy.

The ocean refuses no river.....

Winter Wonderland 2015-2016

Happy New Year and Happy Birthday to the Captain!!!
The whole world celebrates my Captain's birthday on New Year's Eve and we always celebrate Big Time.  As we danced in 2016, we took this selfie as the graffiti fell all around us and we said "YES" to a New Year with all of it's unlimited possibilities...

We have truly enjoyed our desert home this winter. We planted new fruit trees and they provided us with an abundance of citrus all winter long. This little dwarf peach tree is in bloom once again and will give us big juicy peaches to enjoy.

We turned our back yard not only into a little orchard but into a sweet bird sanctuary as well. We have had a pair of cardinals for many years now and have bought a bird feeder just for them. It is weighted just for them and as they perch on it the door to the feed opens. It took a few months for them to be comfortable with it but now they feed several times a day. That is our beautiful male named Jamie below. His wife Claire is not as colorful but bold and beautiful too. (if you read the book Outlander, you will understand their names)

We also have a big feeder for all of the other song birds and a gold finch feeder as well. So we spend many a wonderful moments just sitting on the patio watching the wonder of these birds as the serenade us.
And of course, never to forget the many hummingbirds that feed on the patio...

And then we occasionally hear the call of the hawk as he lands on the fence and all of the other birds scatter and hide. He comes every so often to let us see him in all of his majesty.

We love living close to the Tucson mountains and out of the city as we have so much wildlife here to see and enjoy. The javelina come every so often and walk through our side yard. We can usually smell them before we see them as they are wild pigs and smell as such. The little guy in the third picture actually put his nose through the fence to sniff Richard's hand...

The complete rainbow over the mountains in our back yard...

The mountains turning pink every day at sunset...

So here it is March already and with all of this desert nature, wildlife and beauty, what else is there to do but swing in the hammock, listening to the water sounds of the fountain...

and just "be"...

Good Bye to the Med for now

This is a painting we had made of EcstaSea sailing away from Alghero, Sardinia in 2013 when we were leaving the Mediterranean for the Caribbean. We felt that we were "done" in the Med at that time. As we strolled along the beach we saw a young artist painting this scene of Alghero with Capo Cacciao in the background. So we asked him to paint EcstaSea sailing away and he did! We have it hanging in our Tucson home on our blue wall.

Well, little did we know at that time that we would be back so soon. But after a 2 day sail, here we are back in Alghero. And here is a picture of Capo Cacciao for real in the background:

We wintered EcstaSea in Alghero for 5 winters and are happy to do so once again. It is one of our favorite old walled cities on one of our favorite islands in the Med.

So she is out of the water, safe on the hard, and we are flying back to Tucson for the winter.
Be good Esea and we will see you next May....

Back Home Again in the Med

So yes, we did enjoy the Caribbean but... we missed the Mediterranean. So here we are again and it feels like home. In fact, we are starting right back where we started 8 years ago in Palma, Mallorca. We hired a great delivery Skipper, Dan Vallopi, and he and crew sailed EcstaSea over from Charleston.  Richard says "nothing goes to weather like a 747" and not needing to do another Atlantic crossing, we were happy to fly over and meet them here in Palma.

Here is a picture of Captain Dan and of course, my One and Only Captain... Richard.

This 16th century cathedral on the waterfront greets you as you sail in to Palma...

It's been great fun to reconnect with all of our favorite places and people from 2 years ago. So of course we are eating, drinking and being "merry" as we celebrate our return. Friends that we thought we would never see again are surprised to see us, and hopefully as happy to see us as we are to see them.
We settled in and anchored out on the southeast coast of Mallorca for the full moon and lunar eclipse on  September 27th. We were up all night "moon gazing" and can only say that She was magical and mysterious as always. And the eclipse was truly surreal and  "otherworldly"!!!

We have had a number of projects on EcstaSea after her ocean crossing, but have taken time to get away and anchor out in  some of our favorite coves. And we took a wonderful trip to the other Balearic Island of Ibiza.

The old walled city of Ibiza...

On the north side of Ibiza there is Binneris Beach and we always take some time there. Right in the middle of the bay is this great big rock that everyone calls the "Buddha" rock.

The bay looks out to the west and on Sunday evenings all of the old hippies (of which we are proud to be a part of) gather to drum the sun down with great reverence and enthusiasm.

Here are just a few of the drummers before sunset...

And from shore as we are celebrating another sunset, here is a picture of EcstaSea and the Buddha rock....

We also enjoy the Hippy markets and the year end bargains on the coolest clothes. After a week of playing on Ibiza we came back Mallorca  to finish our boat projects and get ready to sail to Sardinia. We will leave EcstaSea there for the winter as we used to, and fly back to our Tucson home for the winter. The last few years we have been completely and utterly confused as to what time of year it was. We never quite settled into the winters on the boat and the summers on land in Tucson. So our 6 week jaunt here in the Med has been to re-adjust our seasons and be back in the desert in the winter and on EcstaSea in the summer. And this feels more normal and natural to us.

We know that we are always showing beautiful sunsets as it is our favorite time of day. Twilight  for us so mystical as it is neither day or night. But surprise...(and it was for us) this picture is of a sunrise!!!
Now my Captain says "we don't do anything that we are proud of before 10:00am" and that is generally true. So i am not sure how and why we were up for this wondrous moment, but we were and wanted to share it with you...

It has been an easeful transition time here and for this we are most grateful.
We are truly blessed and know it, so we say "Thank You" to the All that Is. And we are happy to be home again in the Mediterranean.