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I have been very fortunate whilst living here on the island to join Bonnie Lass Charters for three day trips, and believe me this is nowhere near as many as I would have liked to go on. Twice I’ve been on the Bonnie Lass herself thanks to my wonderful boss Simon from the Islander Magazine, and once on Morwenna the sailboat that is no longer part of the family. Each experience is completely unique, with one thing that is consistent every time, it is the BEST day you can wish for on the water. Everything is perfect, the boat, the team, the coastline, the cold beers, the wonderful lunch stops, the water, the paddle boards, the company. Everything, absolutely everything has been thought about and every need is catered for, even down to the jellyfish proof floating pool for those days when the blighters turn the water to a shimmering purple mass.
Bonnie Lass is a 17 metre Ringnetter, built on the East Coast of Scotland in 1949. She is a rare, beautiful classic and retains many of her original features. You can explore down below to see the original crew berths, or visit the wheelhouse for a walk back in time! She has been lovingly and creatively restored by Pete and Roo, owners of Bonnie Lass Charters. She provides a unique and versatile platform for the perfect day charter, and has loads of additional extras including a rope swing, a crow’s nest, an onboard BBQ and a large handcrafted centre piece table for lunch aboard. But what makes her really really special is the team that looks after your every possible need, consisting of Pete and Roo, Captain Ed and, last but not least, Maggie the Dog.
In Pete’s 20+ years as a professional yacht Captain, he has accumulated a wealth of experience – and stories which he is happy to regale onboard! – running research vessels in the Indian Ocean, skippering superyachts in the Caribbean and crossing big oceans in tiny boats with his young children. Pete started sailing dinghies in the Solent at the age of 9 and now has over 150,000 nautical miles of worldwide sailing experience. He holds an RYA commercially endorsed Ocean Yachtmaster certificate. With his vast knowledge and competence, Pete always runs a safe and professional operation, while his humour and attentiveness guarantee that you will have the most possible fun aboard.
Roo’s first Atlantic crossing at age 10 was on a 32-foot sailing boat, with her family. She started working professionally on boats at age 20, after attending Falmouth Art College and has since accumulated 4 Atlantic crossings plus extensive sailing experience in the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean, Scandinavia, the North Sea and the Mediterranean. Roo and Pete spent eight years sailing in the Southern Atlantic and Caribbean, living on their 31′ sailing boat Tandika with their two children, fulfilling a few exceptional adventures such as crossing from South Africa to the Caribbean via St Helena when Chloe was 2 years old and Jago was 6 months old!
Captain Ed has skippered and travelled on sailing yachts and work boats around the world for over 19 years, working for 9 years as a commercial captain with over 60,000 nautical miles of sailing experience. Ed started sailing at just 5 years old with his father and grandad! He holds a Master of Yachts 200 tonne Captains certificate and is an accomplished dive master. Ed is originally from Bordeaux, France but spent much of his childhood in Canada playing hockey. He and his young family now live full time in the beautiful Sóller Valley.
With his excellent sense of humour (in French, English or Spanish!) and fun-loving attitude, Ed is an awesome captain and guarantees that you will have the best day out.
And finally the beautiful and cuddly Maggie the dog. She was born on a beautiful rambling old farm on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall before moving to Mallorca with Pete and Roo in 2012. She loves children and is an absolute natural on-board boats/dinghies/paddle boards; a real water baby.
There are various different options for the day charter, generally starting around 11am in the morning with a full onboard safety briefing. This time we opted to motor north out of the beautiful harbour of Port Soller in the direction of Cala Tuent and our first stop for the day, lunch at the stunning Restaurante Es Vergeret which was built 45 years ago. The restaurant is located in the heart of the Serra de Tramuntana (World Heritage Site) in one of the most beautiful coves of Mallorca. From the spectacular terrace you can see Cala Tuent with its wonderful and spectacular crystalline waters. And the food is an equal match for the view. We dined on locally caught fish and the ever famous Soller Prawns, all washed down with a lovely local rose. It was a wonderful way to kick off the day.
Heading back down the slope and across the pebble beach to catch the rib back to the Bonnie Lass, it gives you time to really appreciate the island, and there is no better way to fall in love with her all over again than on a boat on the north coast. Pete stopped to show us the beautiful Eleanora Falcons who commute between Mallorca in summer and Madagascar in the the winter, and could be seen soaring high overhead. He also pointed out the sea eagles who have been nesting on the same spot for almost seventy years, with just a new thin layer added to the nest each year to keep up with modern styling. Pete is an absolute wealth of knowledge on the local area and its inhabitants and is also a sitting board member of Save the Med and is fully committed to conservation work in the Balearics, including operational work in the MPA´s (Marine Protected Areas in Mallorca).
Carrying on along the coastline we stopped in a few beauty spots to enjoy a dip in the crystal clear waters where it felt like you were looking through a pane of glass. A few of us attempted some comical paddle boarding and the rope swing came into full effect. With snorkels at the ready we went on an exploration of what lay beneath and it was wonderful to see so much sea life teeming around us. We did attempt to manifest dolphins, that had been spotted off the coast only a couple of days previously, but it seems they were feeling a little shy whilst we were out. And if that was the only thing we didn’t see then we can hardly complain.
It’s such a wonderfully relaxing day that time does that funny thing where it both whizzes by, yet you feel you’ve been away for days. We slowly pootled back up the coastline enjoying the onboard refreshments, a spot of sunbathing for those not reclining under the large shaded area, and a whole lot of laughter. I loved Pete, Roo and the Bonnie Lass the first time I met them and was invited aboard all those years ago and I can confirm that absence does indeed make the heart grow fonder!
Bonnie Lass Charters
C/ Sant Ramon de Penyafort 11, Port de Sóller 07108, Mallorca
Roo: +34 603 200 831
Pete: +34 654 234 897
www.bonnielasscharters.com/
info@bonnielasscharters.com
Mon – Sat 9.00 – 18.30
By Victoria Pearce
