Cabrera and the Moob Man (25th June)

Here I am, once again adding another day to my Palma collection- I will finish them all before Florida!

Today I'm spending the day with Nanny, we've just taken the dog out for a walk and now we're sitting in the living room waiting for the tennis to start again after the second suspension due to rain. Federer's winning. (This is an update several hours later: Federer won. And so did Murray in his game). We've been trying to spot Mum in the crowd but to no success at the moment. 

Back to the task at hand- writing day 3. 

The Thursday was the day we were going to leave the marina and go across to an island called 'Cabrera'. The morning started in the same way as the day before, waking up and having breakfast on the boat, yet more chocolate croissants in the sun. What better way to start the day?! Then before long we were getting the boat 'ship shape', which Alice thought was rather funny :P. We had to tidy our things up, move things off the floor and secure them in the cupboards, we had to make sure things couldn't fall over and roll around when we were at sea. We also made sure towels and anything else drying on the side of the boat was moved to eliminate the risk of seeing white things fly off into the distance as we sailed along.

When we set off we helped Lizzie and her mum to remove the fenders from the side of the boat and to put them at the back. I didn't know the fender knot so left that to Lizzie and Sarah. Later on Sarah gave us a fender knot lesson but I didn't feel confident enough to put it into practise at any point- it would have been mortifying to do it wrong and lose a fender!

The four of us decided to sit on the deck at the front of the boat. It was a prime sunbathing spot. The wind was nice and cooling as we sailed along. Lizzie and Alice dangled their legs over the edge and it was funny to listen to (I say listen as I was sunbathing with my eyes closed at this point) whenever a large wave smashed against the boat they got a nice refreshing sea spray. Although that make it sounds rough out there, it wasn't. It was lovely and calm. Very relaxing.

The bow as we sunbathed and sailed along to Cabrera

Photo of Palma as we left

After a while, I can't remember how long.. we came across a beautiful stretch of sea. We could sea a beach from where we stopped. Unfortunately not all of us were feeling our best to appreciate it. Poor Alice was suffering from sea sickness and felt rather queasy, I think it was a combination of being in the sun slightly too long and just being out on the water. Thankfully I didn't get sea sick at any point, but I felt for Alice, its a horrible feeling. 

The beautiful sea

We had lunch and before going out in the dingy we let our lunch go down.. That wouldn't have been a very nice sight! 

Lizzie was the first to go out in the "rubber ring" that was actually triangular shaped. We thought since Lizzie had done it before we would see hows it's done and then have a go ourselves. Unfortunately Alice wasn't feeling quite up to it and it probably wouldn't have been a good idea to get in the sea and be bounced up and down...

It was so much fun! I loved it, we looked quite a sight in our snorkelling masks, plonked into a small doughnut tethered to the dingy :) Chris (Lizzie's dad) drove the dingy around the boat in a circle, we zipped along behind. It was better going faster because it was more fun, but also because you went over the top of the waves rather than through them!! The water was a really nice temperature, the kind where you don't shiver as soon as you get in- you know you're on holiday when you can swim in the sea and not even feel a slight chill. 

The turquoise sea and someone in the doughnut

 After the three of us had all had a go in the doughnut we dried off and set sail again (although technically we didn't sail, we motored). We did some more sunbathing up the front and I read some more Harry Potter. I've made it my summer mission to reread them all, although now I have a list of books to read before I start my A-Level English Literature course in September, so I'm not sure I'll make it through all of them...I have got about 7 weeks though and I'm already on the Prisoner of Azkaban.  

Cabrera was very cool, it's an island but a very sheltered area where we stopped and tethered to the buoy. The first bouy we were tied to was at something like 30 metres depth and the water was still quite dark when you peered down. We went swimming off the back of the boat, as soon as we could we were in the sea cooling off. We put snorkelling gear on but it was too deep to see anything, it was too dark. Fortunately we moved to another buoy at a shallower depth, the water was a much lighter blue and from on the boat we could see blue fish with a black stripe swimming around. We didn't get back in the water there until the next day. 

Panoramic from the boat, at Cabrera

Something we did notice about the world of boat owning and chartering was how friendly it is! It's like you have a boat and you're instantly friends with the next person who owns a boat, its lovely. Someone came over in their little dingy to help us tie onto the buoy each time and whenever we were in a marina the people in the boat next to us were always so friendly and chatty. I did get an awkward wink from an old man later in the trip.. but we won't talk about that..!

Later that evening after tea we sat out on the deck, we watched the fish below and it wasn't long before we had found what we affectionately named 'boob man' in the rock face- it really looked like the figure of a man doing the 'paint me like one of your French girls' pose from Titanic, except with a fierce case of 'moobs' (moobs meaning 'man boobs' for anyone that hasn't heard that term). I think Alice did a sketch in Meg's diary so we can all remember his face (and moobs!) in years to come. 

After we'd finished watching the fish and sketching Moob Man we went inside and decided to watch Hot Fuzz. Once again it's a film I've seen but it's so good I didn't mind watching it again, I think only Alice hadn't seen it. Following the tradition started with Gone Girl, we didn't finish Hot Fuzz either. I think we were worn out from all the donought-ing and swimming and not to mention all the sunbathing, I think it really took it out of us..!

So, that concludes day 3, I'll leave you with us sleeping in Cabrera.

Tonight my sister and I are going out for dinner with our Nanny and Grandad because Mum won't be back from Wimbledon until late. I won't get to write another post tonight or tomorrow, this one has taken hours because I've been celebrity and royals spotting on the tennis, as well as watching it of course.. and tomorrow I'm going to work with Mum. I'm praying she won't make me answer the phones, I'd much rather send out samples and do the filing! 

Anyway, now I'm going to go and leave you to whatever you're up to.

And since I didn't get to write a post yesterday, on the tenth anniversary of the 7/7 bombings, I will just say, they may be gone, but never forgotten. The world and indeed Britain, will rise up stronger with every act of hate committed against the innocent. To the victims of 7/7- may you Rest In Peace, forever remembered. 

Until the next post, 

L 
xxx