We left Cala Portals with the forecast of light 10 knot easterly intending to make our way gently up the bay to Punta Negra or Cala Nova. Within minutes of raising our big gennaker (the largest foresail) the wind had risen to 20+ knots and the swell was building. Down came ‘Big Genny’ and we were galloping along under our smaller genoa. It was clear with the increased wind strength that both our planned anchorages were likely to suffer swell, so we turned away and diverted to Palma Nova. This bay has the advantage of being tucked back away from the easterly wind and swell and the disadvantage of being next to Magaluf and serving some of the same tourist trade! The anchorage was fine, a wide bay with loads of room and a dinghy dock in the corner to land at. The town itself was uninspiring, loads of ‘sports bars’ with large red clients and all the burger places you would recognise plus many, many you wouldn’t. We found an Eroski supermarket at the back of town, stocked up a bit and retreated to the boat. We spent two nights at anchor here which were comfortable at night but blighted during the day by the numerous large tourist ferries that charge in and out of the anchorage (don’t anchor too close to the beach or they will probably just run over you as they rush to the next landing stage!) The behavior of some of the power boats was crazy. One Polish flagged 40 foot powerboat used it to tow his son waterskiing straight through the anchorage. The same boat, despite re-achoring every few hours in different parts of the bay, both evenings brought his boat right into the centre of the anchored boats to then send his son out on a large jet-ski to do circuits amongst everyone. The wash created by these sort of antics was annoying for us but quite dangerous for the small boats. There’s always an idiot in these sort of places and he’s always got a powerful motorboat! Not a place we would return to out of choice.

Photo: view across the anchorage towards the town of Palma Nova