Puerto de Pollensa - Portocolom, Mallorca

MONDAY 15 - THURSDAY 18 SEPTEMBER 2008

Sometimes, it is very difficult finding out how systems work in the Balearics. We have been here now for about 10 weeks and are still being told different things by officials.

We sailed to Cala Rajada on the East coast of Mallorca and rafted on the Port Authority wall. We had hoped this would be cheap as we had been told that low season is from 15 September. However, apparently it starts from midnight. The costs are escalated by fairly high prices for water and electricity (4.99 euros each). We explained we didn’t need either (in fact, being in a raft, it wasn’t possible) but were told we still had to pay for them as the computer could not deduct them! Cala Rajada is much more like a German resort than a Spanish one. All the menus were in German and we heard far more German being spoken than any other language. What was more surprising, was that nearly all the boats, many of them chartered, were also full of Germans.

The next day we left about 8.30 a.m. as two boats on the inside of the raft were leaving early, and headed for Portocolom. We booked in for two nights and said we didn’t need water. Again, we were told it was not possible to deduct the water, but we were only charged the water and electricity price for one night. We needed to stay another night, but were then charged for water and electricity again. If we’d paid for the three nights at the beginning, we were told we would still only be charged for one night’s consumption!

We caught the bus to Palma where I bought a camera to replace the one that had been drowned, and we had lunch at the excellent restaurant by the Marina – our third visit!

Cala Rajada Port Authority: 31.79 euros – rafted, not possible to access water and electricity

Portocolom Port Authority: 22.90 (2 nights), 15.63 (1 night), cold showers