We left Espalmador at 5.45 hrs on Monday for the passage of around 65 miles to Mallorca. Doesn’t sound far but when you travel at about 6 knots (slightly more than 6 miles per hour) it takes a while! The forecast suggested NE winds at 15 knots for the first few hours changing to SW 1-15. What we got for the whole 11.5 hours was NE about 10 knots which is enough to sail but too slowly if we wanted to arrive in daylight so the engines had to help. The seas were lumpy as there was left over easterly swell which added to the northeasterly. A moderately uncomfortable but simple passage.
We dropped anchor in Santa Ponsa bay. There is a marina there but the prices were high and the bay is a good anchorage, plenty of space and access to the shore and the town is easy enough. We had a slightly rolly night as somehow the swell found its way into the bay shortly after we arrived. There were a couple of other boats in the anchorage we recognized from Cartagena so we had a chat to ‘Lowlander’ the next day and they briefed us on dinghy landing places and supermarkets etc. It’s quite a long walk to the main Eroski supermarket but it’s large and well stocked and our trolley carried it all back, mind you the ground we had to traverse had Chris using some flowery words! The town of Santa Ponsa was very touristy and not much to our taste but the bay is nice. The wind was turning to the west and the bay was already getting bumpy so we left and motored around the point to Cala Portals.
Photo: We didn’t take any shots in Santa Ponsa so this shows Cala Portals, Splice far right