Cala Portals

1-3 June

Finally the rain managed to dump all the sand and we were left with clean rain, gradually washing the decks. Or so we hoped. All morning the rain battered down, banging on the decks, pouring down the windows. It looked very much as though we would be spending another night at anchor here in Colonia de Sant Jordi.

Some time the previous week, in Porto Petro, without noticing it, I had adjusted to life afloat, to being at anchor, the motion of the boat, the swell, the sound of the wind and the rain and also to the peace of a still, summer's day. Moving around the decks was no longer an effort and I was resorting less and less to the 'medicinal coke' my first solution to the slight seasickness that brings with it a feeling of nausea and a headache. But still, even though at midday the sky was looking brighter and there was a promise of better weather that afternoon, I decided that I would prefer to have lunch before we set off. I still wasn't sure that I could stay below deck, preparing food, during what I was sure would be an uncomfortable passage. By the time lunch was prepared, eaten and cleared away the sun was shining in a clear blue sky. We upped anchor and awayed!

There was a good wind from a fantastic direction: Ganymede loves to sail at 90º to the wind and that is where it was. We sailed all afternoon, the wind perfect. Slowly, over the last few weeks, I must have finally packed Ganymede ready for sailing. Life is good. Well, nothing is perfect. We were sailing on a port tack so every time we met a boat coming from the other direction and therefore on a starboard tack, we had to give way. And there seemed to be plenty of them and all requiring us to veer off our course in order to avoid them. The rule of the sea is: port tack gives way to starboard tack. It kept us on our toes.

Cala Portals was busier than we had expected and also deeper. Normally good at anchoring for some reason we were indecisive, got it wrong, didn't like where we ended up in the cala, tried again with similar results before finally finding a suitable resting place. Of course, an hour later, when all the day boats had left, it would have been so much easier.

We rarely move two days running and Cala Portals was no exception. We spent two nights there. The weather was calm with clear blue skies and only a few clouds. The cala was the usual sort: some houses, a few beaches, restaurants, cliffs, pine trees. Built into the cliffs on the headland are some ancient tombs believed to date to Phoenician times. Sadly, the tomb-caves have been disfigured by graffiti and there is a lot of rubbish lying around. If the tombs were cleaned up, the rubbish cleared, would visitors be more inclined to keep them pristine? Does the fact that they are dirty and in poor condition produce a feeling of contempt in some visitors, a belief that it doesn't matter how they behave?

There are four little inlets off the cala and at the head of each cala there is a well-kept beach. All of the beaches are popular but perhaps the most popular is the second beach (starting from the small port, if ever you want to visit). This was the nudist beach and was the first to fill up each morning: sun worshippers in search of a perfect, all-over tan.

After two very comfortable nights it was time to up anchor once more. We motored round to Santa Ponça.