We left Saint Elm and made for the island of Ibiza. Due to conditions though we made our way off the southern shore to the smaller island of Formentara. We departed at 0710 and arrived at 1600 after a long day motor sailing with a full genoa and half main for balance.
We arrive an hour before expected to and headed for a lovely bay at the top tip of the Formentara on a beach called Platja de S’Alga. The original bay on Formentara we were going to anchor at showed a LOT of boats there on AIS. We found a nice morning ball on a great mooring field near the beach.
A massive party cat came in and disgorged its passengers right onto the beach. Huge cat with a ton of people on board. In the distance we saw a sailboat we discovered on the AIS that had the tallest mast in the work with 5 spreaders. It was very protected and no swell. It was like we’re on a parking lot and slept like a baby that night.
The weather forecast showed August 30th to be the only good day to leave for mainland Spain in the next 5 days. Otherwise we’ll have wind on our nose the whole time getting there.
We needed to leave for the next day, because waiting five days was not an option. It was a pity as the location and sunsets made it a perfect place to rest for a few days.
Ibiza or Formentera?
Formentera has been constantly fought over over the centuries. The island had been occupied by the Carthaginians before passing to the ancient Romans. It was then passed to the Visigoths, the Byzantines, the Vandals, and the Arabs. In 1109 it was the target of a devastating attack by the Norwegian king Sigurd I. The island was conquered by the James I the Conqueror and became part of the medieval Kingdom of Majorca.
From 1403 to the early 18th century, the threat of Barbary pirate attacks rendered the island uninhabitable and on 17th June 1651, during the Franco-Spanish War (1635-1659), a squadron of Spanish galleys under John of Austria the Younger captured the French galleon Lion Couronné off this island.
