Mallorca - life on land.

The Finca Tan has wanted to sell the boat and live on land for the last two or three years. I don't wan to sell the boat nor live on land so we decided to rent a place for the winter as a trial run. The first big decision to be made was which country. We both like the north of Mallorca and Port de Pollenca in particular so that was the starting point.

We had spent a lot of time on the quay at Pollenca during the summer months and were lucky to get a winter berth for seven months starting the first of October. Due to severe weather forecast we went on the quay on the 28th September. On the night of the 30th we had 60 knot winds (Gale force 11), a violent storm and torrential rain. We popped two fenders and suffered minor damage to the port side stainless steel rubbing strake. Three boats broke their bow lines including the boat next to us, so I spent a few hours rigging extra lines between boats and the quay with the help of another skipper (Peter Guest). It turns out he keeps his boat in Villanova. What a coincidence! When the divers came to repair the bow lines two days later, I arranged to have an extra bow line and riser chain installed for 150 euro. Good value considering the severe storms that can occur here.

Arran and Sam on Christmas day In September we placed an ad. in the Talk of the North, a free english language magazine "Retired couple seek a one or 2 bedroom apartment to rent in the port." That was just before Tan went to Wales to await the arrival of her grandchild. While she was away I got several replies and went viewing apartments. The plan was to be near the centre so we wouldn't need a car. After a couple of weeks I got an unusual call responding to the ad. He wanted to know our age. It transpired that he wanted someone to look after his finca (farmhouse) while he was abroad for the winter so I agreed to meet.

We met at the Club Nautic where he keeps his yacht, he is an avid sailor so we have quite a bit in common. Then he took me to he finca to see if I'd be interested. The Finca is huge, set in at least 30 acres with fruit and almond orchards and olive groves. There is also a one bedroom cottage (casita) and an infinity swimming pool. A huge barn like structure houses the heavy equipment, tractors, dumper truck and JCB. I took lots of photo's and emailed and talked to Tan in Wales and we decided to go for it although it is about 15 km away from the port in a beautiful secluded valley and is definitely not what we could normally expect for a future of living on land. Car hire is very cheap here in winter so I hired a car for a month and collected Tan from the airport when she arrived back from Wales. We moved into the finca while the owner was still in residence for a couple of weeks which gave us time to acclimatise.

Jack on the building project Fortunately the gardeners come on aregular basis to do the heavy work. Tan is in her element! Thoughout October and November I was splitting logs for the fireplace and harvesting almonds. Tan took a huge sack of almonds to the cooperativa to be shelled by machine. Unfortunately we were a bit late and the almonds not dry enough so it didn't work. They didn't charge us, it's like that here. Ever since I've been cracking almonds by hand!

I offered to undertake a project to restore the large (9m x 9m) double car port which was heavily overgrown by climbing plants and grape vines. The nine timber posts holding up the structure were rotting and the structure was leaning. The roof timbers were all sound so I surmised that I could replace each upright one at a time by using acro jacks to hold up that section of the roof and put in a new upright.

John and I went to the builders merchant and ordered nine 6" x 6" posts 2.8 metres long and nine aluminum post holders. What I didn't know was that the original post were set in concrete to a depth of over half a metre! I developed a technique to get the old posts out by drilling a hole through them, inserting an iron bar and using a hydraulic car jack to lever them out. But several posts were so rotten at the base that top part just separated from the in ground part. Two posts took me a week each to get them out! It kept me off the streets for a long time!

Just before Christmas Tan went to Marbella for six days to look after her two granddaughters while their parents went to London.

This winter has been exceptionally dry and warm. There were many days between November and the end of March when I sat outside on the terrace in shirt sleeves for lunch. It has caused a severe water shortage for the island so they are having to run the desalination plants.

Tan went to Wales in March for a couple of weeks for Joels christening and to organise some work on her flat as the tenant had left.

Throughout the winter there have been lots of sports cyclists in the north of the island, it's a thriving tourist industry. They often ride in packs several abreast completely blocking one half of the road.