Punta Negra to Santa Ponsa to Cala Basset, Mallorca

Visit from Jess, Jenny & Gill - Punta Negra

Jessica and the Jelly Fish

MONDAY 4 - WEDNESDAY 6 AUGUST 2008

We collected Gill, Jessica and her friend Jenny in the dinghy at Punta Negra, which is an excellent spot to collect people, as there is a small pontoon close by. The next day we did a three hour motor-sail to Santa Ponsa.

On Wednesday we filled up with diesel (1.29 euros per litre - 93 euros) and enquired about marina prices. It would cost about 76 euros a night for our boat. We motored to San Telmo, but the anchorage was too crowded and once again we had trouble setting the anchor. We continued to a small bay, Cala Basset which has a rocky and sand bottom, but managed to anchor. 

It is a beautiful bay with high cliffs but was full of small jelly fish. We think they were Pelagia nocticula which can inflict painful stings. We decided to take the dinghy ashore rather than swim, filled it with water and used it as a paddling pool to keep us cool on the beach. I still managed to get stung in the shallow water. It was painful and then like a nettle rash, which disappeared after a couple of hours.


In the evening the wind started to blow from the land and by 1.00 a.m. there were some strong gusts of about 30 knots. We had moved off the mark on the chart plotter and were worried our anchor may have dragged - some rocks were very close, and there were two other boats nearby. We decided to stay on anchor watch and then the girls joined us. They seemed quite calm about it all and said later they weren’t worried once they knew Roger and I were up there and in control! What touching faith! It calmed down about 4.00 a.m. and Jessica and I saw some wonderful shooting stars.

Enjoying a cool drink