Ibiza - in depth — SV shift

We’ve just wrapped up a week on Ibiza and Formentera islands and are heading back to Spain, the mainland.

Jessica and Matt met us at San Antoni harbor on Ibiza Island where we stayed a couple of nights and then sailed on to explore other parts of the Island. This is the island, and particularly this town, famous for Cafe del Mar and all the clubbing and raves. Not that we actually witnessed it first hand, but you get a pretty good idea by the tourists and the amount of bars and clubs all around. The harbor was mostly of upscale boats one of which was entirely painted in copper and impressive to see, especially at sunset!

celebrating Matt and Jessica's arrival on shift!

We had recommendations of beautiful calas one of which we anchored for the night - Tarida. You could picture what the high season would be, packed to the brim with tourists from all parts. Fortunately for us the low season meant cooler temperatures, although who can complain about 78ish degrees, but especially, less crowds. Once our anchor secured, we took the zodiac to the quaint beach and found ourselves a charming chiringuito for a late lunch. We enjoyed our sunset from the beach with a good game of frisbee - thanks to Matt always having one tucked in his backpack.

ahh, the perfect chiringuito at cala Tarida

what's not to like? And that's our catamaran way over there!

The next morning we headed over to a few more calas and then crossed down to the smallest of the Balearic Islands, Formentera to dock at the little port of Sabina. Good wind, perfect temperature and an adapting crew made for another blissful day. After checking out the tiny town we crossed the street to eat probably one of the tastiest seafood paellas - yum!

Since there are a number of lighthouses on Formentera we rented a little car to visit them. Rain was coming but we lucked out and stayed dry. We appreciated the sparse construction and natural beauty of this island and had a sense that they wanted to preserve this.

That afternoon we anchored at probably our favorite calas - Saona. The water was so clear you could see exactly where the anchor was. Perfect snorkeling, although the temperature of the water wasn’t warm enough to stay hours and not even close to warm enough for Anais.

We sailed back to Ibiza and headed towards rain, rougher waters and many ferries. Ibiza harbor is another picturesque place to discover. Definitely high end. We docked between 2 enormous yachts that you could barely tell we were there. The old part of town was fun to discover and the old fortress atop the hill had beautiful views of the town and ocean. The rain hit us and made for a rather colder few days. Jessica and Matt caught their plane to Madrid friday night and we were sad to see them go. They were excellent crew and we had a fantastic time with them!