It was wonderful to wake to a fully inflated dinghy so it didn't take us long before we were taking it for a spin around the anchorage in order to check out our new location.

Despite the high-rise apartments on the one side of Santa Ponsa there are tasteful and smaller apartments and villas on the other with scenic views to the mountains inland. There are two beaches, the busiest one at the head of the bay and a more secluded cove, not so popular, literally a few hundred meters away from us.

There's an endless choice of bars and restaurants together with many 'beach wear' shops where one of us purchased a new bikini! Since arriving here we've noticed that the yachties prefer to swim in their 'birthday suit' - never before have we seen so many white bottoms and bits bobbing around! The Germans top the list followed by the French, Dutch then British.

The nearby marina must be one of the most picturesque marinas that we've seen so far as it's surrounded by pine trees, apartments and attractive villas. With it being so long and narrow we can only assume that it must get stifling hot in summer. Whilst here, we had a day of rain, much needed rain - good for the island as the usual seasonal rain is somewhat lacking this year and good for Flirtie as it's washed all the dirt and salt off.


attractive marina moorings

From a cruisers point of view we rate Santa Ponsa very highly.

The bay is sheltered with good holding and plenty of swinging room. Over the course of 4 nights we've only had one night where the swell rolled in disturbing our sleep.

There are two Eroski supermarkets, 100m from one another and only 15 minutes walk from the beach.

Dinghies can be left on the beach but there are also rings or bollards to tie up around the rocky shore.

Recycling and rubbish bins are available along the streets.

Diesel and Petrol is available from the marina as is water which costs €1 for 3 mins providing roughly 45 litres (actually closer to 60 litres from our experience) and a 'self-serve' laundrette in the marina complex - if only I'd known this before leaving Port Andraitx.