What you can see on the Port Ginesta webcams
Both are live video from the marina's own cameras. The first watches the head of the harbour, where the sailing yachts are moored, with the beach of Les Botigues and the sea beyond; the second follows the outer quay, where the big yachts and catamarans tie up, towards the Garraf cliffs.
Port Ginesta: the marina entrance
This live camera is one of two that the marina runs on its breakwater, and it looks down from a building at the head of the harbour: palms and a small planted bed in front, a paved walkway and a zebra crossing below, and on the right a row of sailing yachts moored stern-to, with a stack of colourful kayaks on the quayside. Behind, the beach of Les Botigues runs on into Castelldefels beach and back towards Barcelona, and the open sea at the top of the frame shows at a glance whether any swell is coming in.
The masts and the palm fronds show which way the wind is blowing, and the water inside the harbour is a quick guide to how choppy it is outside. In the morning the camera looks towards the sun, which can wash out the sky.
Port Ginesta: big yachts by the harbour mouth
The second Port Ginesta camera stands on the outer breakwater, near its end, and looks along a wide concrete quay where a few cars park in marked bays. Large motor yachts and a catamaran lie alongside, and over the boulders of the harbour wall the water opens towards the cliffs of the Garraf massif, pale limestone streaked with scrub, with the coast road cut into the rock.
This is the view to check before taking a boat out: the state of the sea at the harbour mouth, and whether the boats are rocking against their fenders. The date and time are printed on the picture.
A marina between the beach and the cliffs
Port Ginesta opened in 1986 and was enlarged in 2007, and with well over a thousand berths it is one of the biggest marinas in Spain, popular with catamarans and charter boats. Around the basin there are sailing and surf schools, chandlers, boatyards and a long line of waterfront restaurants. It belongs to the municipality of Sitges, in the district of Les Botigues, but it sits right at the end of Castelldefels beach, and the sand runs on without a break from one to the other: that is why most people call it Port Ginesta, Castelldefels. The Castelldefels webcams show the beach and the sailing school further along the sand.
Waves and wind by the harbour wall
The beach beside the breakwater is one of the surf spots closest to Barcelona: the Mediterranean only sends waves now and then, so on the days a swell does reach this stretch of coast, the entrance camera is a quick way to see whether it is worth the trip. On calm summer days it is the boats that head out instead. In the afternoons a sea breeze usually fills in from the south-west, and the masts in the moorings show it straight away.
When to watch Port Ginesta
Spain is one hour ahead of the UK and Ireland. The entrance camera faces north-east along the coast, into the sun on bright mornings, while the breakwater camera faces south-west, into the sun late in the day: between the two there is always one with the light behind it.
Getting to Port Ginesta
The marina is about 15 minutes' drive from Barcelona airport, just off the C-31 coast road where it leaves Castelldefels for Garraf. From Castelldefels you can simply walk along the sand to the end of the beach. Sitges, whose municipality it belongs to, is about 6 miles (10 km) further down the coast, beyond the Garraf cliffs.
