Short trips in the Mediterranean sea.

Conditioned navigations.

The image is taken from the Peruvian blog “Historia, geografía, economía” which can be accessed by clicking this link.

The image is taken from the online encyclopedia “concepto” of the Argentine publishing house Etecé, which is freely accessible.

The image is taken from the online encyclopedia “concepto” of the Argentine publishing house Etecé, which is freely accessible.

Image taken from the blog “solosequenosenada”, which can be accessed by clicking on this link

Human beings are not born free. Humans are born conditioned, in addition to their animal nature as omnivorous mammals, by multiple other circumstances, all of them beyond their control. Apart from the animality mentioned above, another of them, perhaps the most decisive conditioning, is the cradle where he is born, the social class to which he belongs from that very moment, the socio-political and economic system in which that social class is immersed. For example, I was born in the mid-twentieth century in the bosom of a working-class family (no matter how much aristocratic pretensions my father might have), and that working class is, in turn, immersed in a pathogenic socio-political and economic system called the capitalist system. A social system known for mercilessly exploiting human beings, enslaving them in very subtle ways, while at the same time exploiting the finite resources of the planet without restraint, putting the whole of humanity -what shall I say!– putting all living beings on the planet at imminent risk of extinction. The human being, then, is not born free. Freedom is a vague yearning, a distant goal towards which one does not always tend and for which it is necessary to fight tirelessly, day after day. But, above all, freedom can only be a collective achievement, a universal conquest.

Meanwhile, small partial victories are always possible, tiny bits of freedom torn from the system and enjoyed almost in secret, as if it were a shameful act of onanism. So let’s get to it…

The lack of freedom above explains the brevity and infrequency of Kif Kif‘s sailings in the Mediterranean between the date of his arrival in Palma de Mallorca, in a hurry to reintegrate the job, on Saturday, July 28, 2018. The date, not yet determined, of his departure for the Atlantic Ocean, scheduled for the autumn of 2023, is already somewhat more accessible and will constitute the entry to the path of some relative freedom.

The first of these navigations was conditioned by the prices of moorings in the various marinas of the Balearic Islands and took place the day after our arrival in Palma on Sunday, July 29, 2018. The Club Náutico of S’Estanyol had the most affordable offer on the island, to have the boat on the dry (in the water, prices were skyrocketing and today, at the time of writing, November 2022, they are well over a thousand and two hundred euros per month, without electricity or water, for a boat of just ten meters in length…).

Thus, as recorded in the logbook of Kif Kif, I cast off from Marina Naviera Balear that Sunday at 15:15 and, after a voyage with only the mainsail hoisted, no wind, motoring, I arrived at the harbor of s’Estanyol that same day at 19:44. There, on the dry, Kif Kif would remain there until I came back to look for her…

S’Estanyol.

Entry of the day July 29, 2018, in the Kif Kif logbook.

Kif Kif on land at the esplanade of the Club Náutico de s’Estanyol, Mallorca, Balearic Islands.

Nautical chart of the approaches to the port of s’Estanyol, southeast of the island of Mallorca. Courtesy of Navionics Inc.

S’Estanyol – Palma.

Loon, an offshore skipper and nautical technician, surveyed the scenery aboard Kif Kif on October 22, 2018, sailing into Palma harbor.

Kif Kif would not move from the esplanade of the Club Náutico de s’Estanyol until October 22, 2018, the date on which, accompanied by Loon, who wanted to know the sailboat inside, sailing, we moved the boat back to the port of Palma, where it would have to be taken out of the water again to begin to prepare it thoroughly. By clicking on this link you can access the technical pages when I have finished editing them, where you will see, in some detail (not too much, so as not to bore), the whole process… Here, however, we will deal exclusively with the actual sailings.

…some brief getaway.

Kif Kif’s logbook page where you can see the entry for Saturday, July 6, 2019 and following.

While it is true that in the logbook of Kif Kif you can see some entries indicating a sailing, such as the one of July 6, 2018, these are only brief test sailings, quickly interrupted by a breakdown, such as that Saturday when we were surprised by a small water leak in the aft compartment of the sailboat (someone, from the Paimpol shipyard, had screwed the gas bottle support on the cockpit drain pipe, and when the gas circuit was modified and this support was removed, nobody thought to plug the tiny holes left by the screws… ) Things that happen!

The fact is that the following Monday we took the boat out of the water again in the dry dock of Audax Marina in the Real Club Nautico de Palma where it would remain, thanks to a generous agreement signed with Pedro Mus, until October 21 of that same year, date on which we launched Kif Kif back into the water, without this meaning anything more than remaining moored to the dock while I continued to do little things on board.

It would not be until Saturday, October 26th of that same year, 2019, that we would spend, Muriel and I, a short weekend on board, testing the different improvements brought to the boat.

We set sail from Palma shortly before noon, and we made a few tacks in the bay before anchoring in Ses Illetes, very close to the harbor, where we spent the night enjoying the tranquility of the anchorage.

We enjoyed ourselves until after two o’clock in the afternoon on Sunday 27th when we weighed anchor and headed back to port.

The next day Kif Kif was dry-docked again at the Audax Marina slipway, where she would remain until her new launch on Thursday, January 9, 2020.

Work gives us a break at the end of January 2020, and Muriel and I decide to take a long weekend. So after lunch on Thursday afternoon, January 30, at 3:50 pm, we cast off and set sail.

We would spend the night in Cala Comtesa, anchored to the west of the islet of Sa Caleta. Then, at around ten o’clock AM on Friday the 31st, we would weigh anchor and set sail south southeast towards Cabo Blanco.

On the way, we met Miguel Mascaró, fishing aboard his motorboat, the yacht Papipo. After greeting him, we continued on our way to the archipelago of Cabrera, where we counted on spending a couple of nights moored to one of the National Maritime Terrestrial Park buoys, which we did.

There we stayed all day Saturday, and on Sunday, shortly before noon, we hoisted the mainsail, launched the buoy, and set sail for the south of the island of Mallorca. At twenty-past six in the evening of that beautiful Sunday, Kif Kif was once again moored at the dock of Audax Marina.

And some more…

Kif Kif’s log book.

Quiet anchorage. Ses Illetes, Palma Bay, Majorca, Balearic Islands.

Miguel Mascaró, fishing aboard “Papipo,” offers us his latest catch.

Cabrera Archipelago, located southeast of the island of Mallorca (Map courtesy of Navionics Inc.).

Kif Kif in the port of Cabrera, moored to a buoy in the National Maritime Terrestrial Park of the same name.

Valentine’s Day getaway and Kif Kif transfer to the port of El Masnou.

“Kif Kif” logbook entries related to the Valentine’s Day 2020 weekend.

Muriel at the helm, leaving the port of Palma on Thursday, February 13, 2020.

We are arriving at the Cala Comtesa anchorage.

A short video on the way to Cala Pi on February 14, 2020.

Above, the first photo on the left is Kif Kif passing Cabo Blanco. The others anchored in Cala Pi, Mallorca.

Cartography of Cala Pi, Mallorca (courtesy of Navionics Inc.)

Kif Kif’s logbook entries correspond to the solo crossing from Palma de Mallorca to El Masnou, Catalonia port, on May 29 and 30, 2020.

Kif Kif at its mooring in the port of El Masnou, Catalonia.

A partial view of the port of El Masnou, Catalonia.

Muriel and I were able to treat ourselves to another long weekend towards Valentine’s Day 2020 when the pandemic threatening humanity was beginning to cast its long and agonizing shadow over planet Earth.

We cast off shortly after four o’clock in the afternoon on Thursday, February 13. With no wind, we sailed smoothly and motored to Cala Comtesa, where we anchored quietly at a quarter past five in the afternoon. We enjoyed a superb sunset, a delicious dinner, and a long, calm night there.

The following day, without haste, after breakfast, we tidied up the boat and weighed anchor at about half past ten in a sea barely rippled by a breeze of between six and seven knots from the southwest westerly.

Around noon some dolphins came by to greet us, which added to Muriel’s joy as she exclaimed, “The day is definitely saved!” No, I did not feel slighted.

We soon set our bow towards Cabo Blanco. We had wanted to have a good time in Cala Pi for some time, and the conditions were optimal for it that February 14, 2020, with overcast skies, a flat sea, and no one on the water.

Shortly before one o’clock, we tacked Cabo Blanco and, always motoring due to the lack of wind, we anchored in Cala Pi half an hour later, mooring a line at the stern to land. We were perfectly alone in that beautiful little cala!

Saturday, February 15, dawned without significant changes from the previous day, cloudy, windless, and flat sea. After breakfast, we cast off the stern mooring and weighed anchor, motoring east, and ended up anchoring shortly before noon south of Gavina islet at the end of Es Trenc beach, where we stayed until Sunday morning, enjoying the absolute tranquility of the anchorage: we were the only boat there, and even the seagulls seemed to have taken the day off!

At about ten o’clock on Sunday morning, after a hearty breakfast accompanied by a good coffee, we weighed anchor and set sail towards Cabo Blanco, towards the bay of Palma, back home, so to speak… So, at 16:15 on Sunday, February 16, 2020, we moored Kif Kif to Pedro Mus’s sailboat at the docks of Audax Marina in the Real Club Náutico de Palma.

A few days later, the COVID-19 pandemic confined us all to our homes. It would not be until May, more than two months later, that we would again be able to leave our homes, respecting, by the way, a whole series of conditions that, once again, considerably reduce the already narrow margins of our freedom.

It would not be until May 29 of that fateful year, 2020, that I would sail again aboard Kif Kif for reasons other than the pure pleasure of sailing. In January, I had already negotiated a cheap mooring for Kif Kif, in the Iberian Peninsula, specifically at El Masnou, Catalonia. Still, between one thing and another, the pandemic, of course! I could not get the boat there before that date. So it was that Friday, May 29, 2020, around eight o’clock in the morning, I finally cast off from the port of Palma, while from the dock, Muriel said goodbye, and I set sail for the open sea.

It was a crossing with no complications other than the recurrent engine failures, with almost no wind, in which, despite everything, I enjoyed my solitude, projecting myself towards the future voyages that I promised myself.

The next sailing on board Kif Kif was done together from El Masnou by Muriel and me and deserved a chapter of its own as it was our first complete vacation together in a long time…