Our charter details

By Kim Kavin

It’s hard to fall in love when time is against you. Ask a would-be mother pushing 45, or a gastronome rushed through a meal, or a boater given a day to explore a place he’d rather settle into for a summer. All will tell you that with just a little more time, they might have found whatever it was that stirred their passion before they were forced to leave their slip, their table, or their youth behind.

That many of us allow such a merciless pace to tear apart our daily lives is unfortunate, but that some of us let it dominate our vacations is unforgivable. How in the world can we fall in love with the world if our itineraries are a mad dash to cruise as far and as fast as we can?

I came to this realization by force (nearly gale force, actually) during a four-day charter aboard the 140-foot motoryacht CD Two in Spain’s Balearic Isles. Our plan had been to spend a night in Mallorca’s bustling city of Palma, then a night at the clubs on Ibiza and a day hiking the pristine countryside on Menorca. Instead, with wind frothing the Western Mediterranean into an impassable sea, we made it only a few miles from Palma to Puerto Portals, just up Mallorca’s coast. And there we stayed, quite comfortably, at the shelter of the dock.
In retrospect, we were lucky. We got to know CD Two and her crew much better than we otherwise would have—and to spend time falling in love with quaint out-of-the-way places our original itinerary had left off completely.

CD Two is a yacht coming into her own fully 15 years after her keel was laid. Something went wrong with the original owner’s funds after construction began in 1988, and she wasn’t launched until 1995, as the 125-foot Independent of London. A 15-foot garage was added a year later, and she began life with an owner who saw maintenance as optional. When the current owner bought the yacht in 2002, her exterior needed paint, her saloon sole was covered in dog paw scratches, and her interior screamed pink and turquoise. “It was so ’80s, but it looked ’60s,” laments Capt. Peter Leeming. “It was dreadful.”

Leeming is a cheerful Brit who spent three years earning a great reputation in the charter industry aboard the owner’s previous yacht, CD One. He applied his sunny disposition to turning the new old girl around, with the owner’s full financial backing. “The first thing we did was cover the sofa in cream leather, and we painted the hull,” Leeming explains. “The engines were hand-rubbed down to the metal. The floors were sanded down to the cherry and re-stained. Flat-screen TVs and DVD players were added everywhere. We’ve spent a lot of money.”

It shows. When I first approached CD Two, her small windows and classic profile gave me an immediate sense of her age. Inside, though, I was pleasantly surprised. While she still has some work on the way, CD Two is a comfortable and roomy boat that easily accommodates 12 guests. She winks personality, too, from a silver saloon bar to a boat deck dining area that can be indoor or outdoor, depending on whether you open the curved glass sliding doors.

Ours was the first post-refit charter—and a shakedown for CD Two’s brand-new crew, as well. The first day was a challenge for them, but everyone soon settled into their routines and proved that service aboard will be good. The cuisine will be, too, with simple but tasty dishes such as veal marsala and dijon rack of lamb.
With food, wine, and wind plentiful, we lounged around and let our minds do the wandering that our yacht could not. Conversations spun from the war in Iraq to the daily use of foot cream to the merits of creative pole dancing.

That last one, I think, made us all realize it was time to sober up and get off the boat, weather (or us) be damned. We looked inland for someplace that seemed interesting. 

Ah, Valldemossa. The village that adopted Frederic Chopin as its favorite son is a classic composition unto itself. Getting there from Puerto Portals or Palma is an exercise in steep, winding, mountainside driving—not exactly the stimulation a carload full of hangovers needs—but it is worth the trip. I’d been there once before during a charter, but only in the typical drop-in-for-lunch fashion. On this day, I had oodles of time to explore.

The more I looked, the more I found to enjoy. Valldemossa dates back to the ninth century, but still has only about 1,300 residents living along its narrow stone streets and alleyways. As in much of southern Europe, all the buildings are of similar, pale construction, so homeowners dress their dwellings with intricately carved front doors that are works of art. Flowerpots abound and overflow. Cafes do, too. It is delightful to sit, sip, and ponder the romance that Chopin and the female writer George Sand shared here in 1838-39.

I wonder if it was anything like the scene we witnessed at a nearby restaurant—so small that I promised not to reveal its name, for fear of deluging it with tourists. (Gertrud Annevelink, a Camper & Nicholsons International charter broker in Palma, says she will tell all if you call her to book a trip.) She led us to the sparsely lit and heartbreakingly charming eatery for a true local dining experience, and since we had no place else to cruise to, we lingered there for hours. Across from our table, in the corner, was a couple in their early 20s. They provided the night’s entertainment.

The young man had would-be sideburns and looked uncomfortable in his silk maroon tie; his companion wore a top with invitingly sexy black straps that made us think this was perhaps their second or third date. As we enjoyed our suckling pig, roast lamb, and cod, we watched them nervously toast what remained of their red wine. She leaned toward him a bit, and he crossed his arms in a desperate act of self-control. Then he gave in and delicately slipped his hand onto her knee. She giggled and smiled, and gently touched his cheek. He leaned in to kiss her nose. She didn’t pull away.

How nice, we thought, that they have all the time in the world ahead of them to fall in love with the world around them—even if they are in no great rush to leave this enchanted island.