Spirit of Adventure blog

We had been advised by our agent in Palma de Mallorca that the port would be busy in the morning and that we would have to wait for our slot. We had time and speed to spare so I shifted our stay by one hour. We picked up our pilot at 8 instead of 7 to avoid the rush hour, Staff Captain Denis took us in and we were alongside and ready to go ashore at 08:45.

The day was beautiful, sunny and calm. I saw a lot of runners and cyclists enjoying the morning activity along the beach. I spoke with the pilot and he told me that the beach stretches for 16 km, so I decided to go for a run and completed 10k in just under an hour.

The weather forecast for our return back to Southampton is looking autumnal, therefore I initially planned my run to take me all the way to the Cathedral of Saint Mary of Palma, more commonly referred to as La Seu, so my running efforts could be taken in to account and hopefully help out and calm the seas down! Regardless that I thought my pace was good, I was by far the slowest runner along the beach. However, as I was approaching the 5k mark, and planning to go even further, I could see that not far ahead all the runners were turning back.

Once I got there, I turned as well. Somebody was burning tyres and plastic and although the wind was light, the smoke and the stench was coming to the beach. At that point it felt as strong and powerful as Gandalf at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm with his iconic line: You Shall Not Pass!! Shame, as I felt I could have gone more than 10k. Maybe next time.

Kind Regards
Captain Franko Papić