We have mixed feeling about this cala. As a tourist, it's a long sided cala with a golden sandy beach at it's head and looks lovely. Even in June, it's very popular with foreigners and locals alike and has several bars, restaurants and a couple of smaller supermarkets. The beach is definitely the draw offering a safe environment for swimmers as well as pedalo and petrol powered bumper cars which can be hired.

A ferry runs tourists to Cala Pada, Santa Eulalia and Ibiza town several times a day giving little consideration to the yachts at anchor or to the people on the hire boats as they arrive and leave at great speed creating bothersome wash for all.

As a cruiser, we were planning on leaving Flirtie at anchor to catch the local bus to Ibiza town but instead spent the whole day listening to 25 knots of wind gusting through the hills either side of the cala and watching the ferries as they had to negotiate the gaps between the yachts swinging around on their anchors. On more than one occasion we heard the roar of engines and saw some nifty steering by the ferries to avoid collision.

Later that night we had the predicted 25-30 knots of wind. Given the relatively close proximity of two charter yachts to us we felt it necessary to go on anchor watch until 4am! It was no fun at all waiting for events to unfold. The evening started out with one boat dragging which took out another yachts anchor. The cala is only 100m wide and they were perilously close to the rocks but the British owner managed to carefully steer both yachts as a pair away from the other yachts and the nearby rocks before they spent the next hour trying to unravel their chains by torchlight. The British owner stayed very calm considering he could have easily involved another three yachts in the mix. It's amazing that they managed to untangle the mess in the gusty conditions.

Whilst this was going on we and three others had a close call when we all sailed in different directions at precisely the same time narrowly avoiding a collision with each other. Two dragged and moved whilst our neighbour called it a day (even though it was night) and set off for Mallorca immediately. Next a catamaran dragged and decided to re-anchor directly in front of us! Thankfully he was aware of his position in relation to us and ended up resetting his anchor numerous times to keep his distance but unfortunately always in front of us! Meanwhile, we were worried about him taking us out! Flirtie kept yanking at her anchor but it held firm. We're really impressed with our 25kg Rocna, but wonder how we would have fared with our lighter CQR (45lbs) as paying out additional chain just wasn't an option in this cala.

The wind eased by 4 am but the swell then kept us awake as we swung 20-30 degrees each side of vertical. We've decided that we've had enough of swell for the time being so we're going to spend a few nights in the nearby marina having emailed to check availability. The thought of being 'fixed' to a pontoon, not rolling around is going to be sheer luxury!