Hello to Old Friends, Goodbye to New Friends

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We coastal hopped down from the island of Menorca to Mallorca, spending a rolling night in an exposed anchorage, then landing in Palma Bay.  We were so excited to see our friends aboard Safari, a family we had met in the San Blas Islands.  The Safari crew are only one of a handful of “kid boats” we had over our two year voyage.  Craig, Nix, Storm and Teak now split their time between St. Maarten, where their boat is kept, their house in France and Palma de Mallorca, where Craig is a co-captain of a 150-foot racing yacht.

We hung out with Safari and it was great to see them again.  We even got a tour on the amazing yacht that Craig captains. It was summertime in Palma de Mallorca and the outdoor cafes were crowded and serving pitches of sangria and plates of pimientos de padron.  We learned that friends are an essential part of what makes cruising fun.  You start off with a lot in common, and that strong foundation for a friendship allows you to immediately jump into shared experiences.  You form tight bonds fast.  Kids begin to play with each other immediately, knowing they have limited time to play, even when they don’t speak the same language.  Time can go quickly when you are hanging out with friends.

After hanging out with Safari, we moved over to another nearby anchorage and spent more time with our new “kid boat” friends on End Game again.  We spent several more evenings together, including a night ashore with guitar, ukulele and fireworks.  We also had roasted marshmallows thanks to Dante and his buddy Quinn, who had made small “survivalist” stoves out of Illy coffee cans (see the book, “Anti Pirate Potato Cannon” to make your own.)  We then had to say a sad goodbye to our new friends on End Game, as they left for Barcelona and it was time for me and Dante to get on a plane back to the United States.

Our flight would take us from Palma to Oslo, Norway where we would have a 14 hour layover.  Landlubbers might scoff at this time wasted, but we knew that, even with a 14 hour layover, we’d be back across the Atlantic in about a fraction of the time it took us to cross by boat! The hardest part would be saying goodbye to Darold.