It turns out the guys in Turkey that repaired the stabilizers weren’t nearly as knowledgeable as we thought, and didn’t do as good of a job as we thought. They were supposed to change the bearings in both stabilizers, which they did not do. When we complained to ABT about the squeaking, they explained the issue with the bearings and told us we’d need to have them serviced again. The preferred ABT repair person is based in Mallorca, and ABT asked us to go to Mallorca to get the squeak fixed. Mallorca had not been in the itinerary, but we were happy to change our plans since we had always heard great things about Mallorca.

Today we awoke to mostly sunny skies with scattered clouds, and 10 20 knots of wind in the marina. It was still rolly and uncomfortable in the marina. The ABT repair person arrived at 0900 to do the stabilizers. Changing the bearings seemed a pretty straightforward and quick job. He started with the port side, which was the noisiest of the two. It turns out one of the fastening pins on the bearing assembly was seized up, so he wasn’t able to simply pull the bearing out. He had to take the whole hydraulic arm off the fin, then took the arm off the boat. The tools he needed were in his car, and he was better off doing the work on flat ground, versus the rolly boat. Once he had managed to separate the bearing from the arm, he changed the bearing out and returned with the arm. Thanks to the motion in the marina, the fin had moved. In order to get the arm back on, the fin had to be moved into the proper place. Of course, the boat is in the water, so he couldn’t just walk outside and manually adjust the fin like the guys in Turkey did. Using a long tool for leverage, he grabbed onto the shaft that attaches the fin to the hull and twisted until he got the fin properly positioned. Remember, the motion in the water hasn’t stopped, so getting it to the right position long enough to get the arm on was a little bit of a challenge. Finally, he was able to put the arm back in place with no further problems. The seized bearing is probably the root of the squeaking.

Since the job had taken longer than he had allocated, he needed to leave, promising to return in the morning to do the starboard side. It was lunch time, so after he left we wandered southwest along the waterfront in search of a restaurant. As we were walking along, we saw a partially hidden elevator with the name of a restaurant on it. Curious, we got in the elevator. Our only choice was up. It let out onto the terrace of a restaurant on an upper floor of one of the tall buildings on the waterfront. Wow, the restaurant has a private elevator. It has to be super swanky. The views of Palma from the terrace were lovely. There was no menu posted, but we could tell from the expensive drapes and chandeliers it wouldn’t be cheap. We decided to splurge and went in.

The restaurant was definitely top notch, at least a 4 star if not 5 star kind of place. They brought us a complimentary appetizer of smoked salmon wrapped around a heart of palm. Not something we would have ever thought to pair ourselves, but tasty. Eric got an appetizer of stuffed pimento chilis with cod and spinach, which turned out to be similar to the chili rellenos from the Cerveceria. Christi got a foie gras salad served with a honey soaked fig and a pile of tiny American style pancakes about the size of a quarter. The fig and foie gras are an amazing combination, but the pancakes were odd. For a main course we got duck l’orange, served with caramelized onions, fried apples and mashed potatoes. It was great, and the onions and apples perfectly complimented the duck and orange sauce. BTW, the duck we have been getting in France and Spain is of better quality than the duck we usually see in America. In America, it is small pieces that are quite fatty. That is not the case here in Europe. It is usually large, tender pieces with little fat.

We had found out that the reason everything on the waterfront is modern is because it is on recently created man made land. Directly behind the new buildings is the more established part of Mallorca, so we walked around back there for a while. All the people who used to be on the waterfront were probably really mad when high rises came in and blocked their view. Anyway, the area we explored is similar to downtown, with the mix of old and new. Over here it is heavier on the new side, but there is still plenty of old. We found a beautiful park with ultra modern play areas for kids. A few blocks away was another fabulous kids playground. We have seen very few playgrounds in the world, and few are modern. From what we have seen, Mallorca is clean, aesthetically pleasing, nicely landscaped, and has good roads.

After a couple hours of walking, we headed back to the boat. Our switch in the shower that controls the sump pump died earlier today. It had gotten wet with salt water in the flood, and the salt must have corroded the wires and killed it. Eric just happened to have another switch on hand, so he changed it out in a few minutes. We should have spent the rest of the afternoon and evening doing more chores, but we didn’t. Our excuse is the rocking makes us lethargic and as soon as we set foot on board, we lose all our energy.