Spain out of lockdown!

Well mask wearing is gathering pace across the world it seems!  Certainly here in the Port, more and more people are wearing them although the heat makes it less than ideal; but needs must and of course the threat of a fine focuses the mind rather well 😂  As you may have seen from newspaper reports, Punta Ballena in Magaluf has now been shut down due to visitors not wearing masks or social distancing and some unfortunate behaviour.  Of course this also means people will lose their livelihoods and there is some controversy over whether a better course of action could have been found.  Up this end of the island I would say most people are adhering to the mask wearing regulations but currently the police are being fairly lenient; word has it that they won't be quite so lenient from next week......  

We've spent quite a bit of time on the roof terrace lately, relaxing in the sun and using our inflatable hot tub.  The water in it is around 29 degrees; mind you, today I was told that the sea is currently around 28 degrees which is why a swim in the sea is so lovely here.  I cannot ever remember going in the sea (other than for a paddle) in the UK as I don't 'do' cold water so I'm always very impressed by those hardy souls who do open water or wild swimming in the UK as it's my idea of a complete nightmare! 😱

On Wednesday evening I resurrected my rather wilting domestic goddess credentials and made some cheese straws to take (along with various 'beverages' ahem!) with us to a friends' 30ft motor cruiser in Alcudia for a day's outing 😎  We took the four legged members of the family to Lola y Amigos for some doggy daycare and caught the bus to Port d'Alcudia.  Sadly the weather was rather overcast and our friends warned us that the sea today was going to be 'lumpy' (more about that in a bit!).  And so it was that we found ourselves leaving the Port and heading off to Canyamel which is around the corner (so to speak) from Cala Ratjada and in the Bahia d'Arta.  It took a couple of hours and my goodness what a couple of hours we had!  When I say the sea was most definitely 'lumpy' I  think that's understating it slightly; it was not so much lumpy as positively Alpine.  I would liken it to being on a fairground ride.  The swell was, on occasion, enormous - and I loved every second of it 😜  This photo however was taken once we'd dropped anchor at Canyamel.

We had a great swim and a lovely lunch on board.  There were a few other boats in the bay and the German one nearest to us were certainly enjoying themselves  with a session of nude swimming and sunbathing 😳  It put me right off my crab salad I can tell you!  Of course we naturally came over all British and tried to avert our eyes but it's extraordinary how difficult that can be especially when someone leans right over and your view is from behind......  On the way back, Ian took over for the last bit, across the Bay of Alcudia and into the Port - boys and toys 😂  The swell was still pretty large and he did really well as this boat was nearly 9 metres and ours is not quite 6 metres but certainly in a heavy swell size definitely matters as it doesn't bear thinking about coping with today's sea in ours 😱

It was lovely to see some different parts of Mallorca's coastline from the sea, it really is the most extraordinarily beautiful island.  

In local news the Sis Pins, Little Italy, Angelos and Trattoria de Razza have all recently opened so we're now pretty close to a full house of restaurants; hotels are slower to open but that's to be expected.  It is lovely that the Sis Pins is now open though so with that and the Daina, things are looking a little more lively along that part of the sea front 😃 

Stay safe and hasta lunes!