As YACHT's Spain correspondent Bernhard Bartholmes reports, decisions were made last week at a meeting between the Mallorcan environmental authorities and representatives of Medi Ambient in Cala d'Or that will benefit sailors. For example, crews who moor their yachts in the Cabrera buoy field will not have to pay for overnight accommodation in future.
This puts an end to a long-simmering discussion about the possible introduction of mooring fees on the protected island, at least for the current charter season.
In addition, the places at the buoys, which must always be booked at least two days in advance, but no more than 20 days in advance, can now also be reserved via a website. Successful online reservations also grant authorisation to stay in the nature reserve.
The only drawback is that you need to understand Spanish, or better still Catalan or Mallorquin, to be able to fill in the necessary forms on the website. There is currently no translation of the site and the forms into English or German. And unfortunately, the forms are not easy to understand intuitively either.
It's a pity, because the site is really well done. After entering the size of the boat, you can immediately see in a booking calendar on which dates there are still buoys available. If there are several free buoys available, you can even choose which buoy you want to moor at - all it takes is a click of the mouse.
This way you can avoid getting your place at the very back or in the middle of the crowd of 50 mooring buoys designed for different boat sizes.
A pitch is available for a maximum of two days. It must be vacated by 5 pm on the last day of the booking at the latest.
Of course, charter crews can also have the reservation made by the fleet operator staff on site, as in the past. To do this, the skipper's personal details including passport number and the desired reservation days should be sent to the charter company in good time.
Click here for the Website of the responsible environmental authority from which you have to click through to the reservation page. The authority can also be contacted by telephone on +34 971 177645.
