The capital of Menorca is Mahon (or Mao) and we headed there to see one of the annual fiestas featuring the beautiful black horses of the island. Oh dear. Apparently the horses were there yesterday and although there was going to be some dancing down by the port later in the day, I was quite disappointed. We have been given hope from a friendly woman in the local tourist office who reassured us that the Festival of St Nicholas would be celebrated tomorrow at a town local to where we are staying - Es Mercadel.
To cheer us up we headed to the port (most shops were closed for the festival!) and booked ourselves onto a boat trip around the harbour leaving in just a few minutes. We times it well as the returning boat was packed with people but ours was a lot calmer so we could easily move around and get down to the bottom to see the fish through the glass panels. The history of the harbour is fascinating and it seems to have been invaded or occupied by most nationalities through the centuries including the British, Turks, French, all the way back to the Romans.
On our return, we strolled along the harbour walls to the posh part that was very like Puerto Banus in Andalucia. These boats are racing class and the British one is called the Peter Harrison. Just as I was wandering along I saw two men working hard to hoist a colleague up the mast. There is no way I would ever go that high. I raced back to the harbour wall to catch him high on the mast applying silicon so that the sails slip up and down easily during racing.
