We arrived on the southern coast of Mallorca after a 15 hour sail from Ibiza, winds were reasonably strong from the starboard aft quarter as forecast and so we sailed well, the only fight on the helm was the sea swell from the same direction.   We unfortunately didn’t have time to deflate the dinghy when we left Ibiza so had towed it all night, occasionally it came alongside Joy surfing the waves which in the dark made me jump a few times!  When daylight arrived it was a bit bedraggled with one oar hanging over the side, luckily inside not in the water!   As Southern Mallorca came into sight, we picked up a warning over the VHF radio that firefighting sea planes were landing in Palma bay and we could then see smoke rising from the hills in the background.  We found a reasonable anchorage and watched the planes continuously circle overhead, dipping down out of view to collect water and taking off again heading back to the mountains.

The following day, awoken by the smell of a smokey fire, we had rather a long walk into Palma from Cala Nova, but once into the harbour itself which is massive and houses several marinas and a commercial port, we could see the planes coming in to collect water actually in the harbour! The pilots have amazing skill.  We found a good chandlery for some spark plugs for the outboard, then a Carrefour where we stocked up with so many goodies that we decided to run away with the shopping trolley. Then no sooner had we set off in the heat we managed to hail a cab and so resorted to a taxi ride back to the dinghy!