After provisioning we decided to have a quick pizza before our planned departure of 1500. Things in Italy never go to plan and we had to wait another hour, before we finally got our €200 deposit back. The yacht club we stayed in “Circola Nautico Olbia”, is a fantastic place to moor up in Olbia. Very welcoming staff, great club house and all for €35 per night and right in the centre of town.

So we slipped lines at 1604 and immediately put sails up and started sailing though the main channel, on genoa alone, and pulling 6 kts. This area is now so familiar to us, it’s almost like home ground.

The wind was with us all the way, to our intended anchorage location of “Salinedda” just on the south eastern tip of “Capo Coda Cavallo”. We anchored 150 metres off the beach, in 4.5 metres of water and into sand. The wind was a light westerly and the sea state was so calm, that you could have mistaken it for a lake. Settling down to a home made spag bols, which I have prepared earlier, with the added delight of home made garlic bread, we laid the table on deck and enjoyed the food and the tranquil surroundings, beautiful clear skies and amazing sunset. Not a yacht in our bay, just a few in the next bay along. As the stars and planets appeared, we contemplated our new home and settled in for the night.

We couldn’t have had a more peaceful night, not a single movement, I occasionally stirred and just not believing, that I was actually at anchor.

As if that wasn’t enough, I was rewarded with the most beautiful sunrise over still waters, with only the sound of birds, fish jumping and lightly splashing waves on the shore, not 150 metres away. What a wonderful way to start the day and it’s not even 0600.

The usual pre departure duties. Ed washed down Arctura, whilst I went shopping for provisions. The local Spar had everything we needed and a small diversion to the local Boulangerie and Patiserie, completed the shop with fresh baguette, croissants and cakes.

We slipped lines at 1252, in glorious sunshine and headed to Cavallo, on a parallel course to the Corsican coast, admiring the wonderful scenery of chalk cliff shaped and sculptured by the sea and winds.

We arrived at Cavello after passing Lavezzi and tacking northwards. Our second visit to this wonderful island was better than the first. Beautiful sunshine filtered down through the still waters, making them turquoise and throwing defracted sun rays onto the sandy bottom, some 4 metres below the surface.

We readied the tender and headed for the beach. According to some reports, you can’t go beyond the wooden fence, but we saw no signs that this was forbidden. In fact, yards from the beach, there a concreted road that seems to go the whole length of the island. We turned left and followed the road for about half a mile, passing what appeared to be hotel staff accommodation, before eventually coming across the beautiful hotel and spa, “Des Pecheurs”. A beautiful setting, with a restaurant facing the sea and with its own private beach, with a terrace to match. Had a look at the menu and the dishes on offer, started from around €30 for basic pasta, we weren’t tempted and after a brief walk around the restaurant and bar area, we returned to the beach. It was so warm in the sunshine and after testing the water,I decided to go for a swim in the crystal clear waters of the bay.

The waters were as warm as any indoor swimming back home in Anglettere. I was tempted to swim all the way back to Arctura, but was persuded to drive the tender home, to Arctura.

Back on board, for a pleasant supper of sausage, potatoes and salad accompanied by a fine Muscadet sur Lie.

27th May 2019

We slipped lines at 1002 a set sail back to Olbia, as Elaine was heading back home the next day.

Unbelievable sail, in winds exceeding 25kts, as we close hauled our ways through the islands of Maddalena.

The trip seemed to fly by and in no time at all, we were back in our familiar port of Olbia and back in our yacht club.

We sought out a restaurant, recommended by Tito, the marina manager. It’s was called “Ristorante Barbgia” and although my spaghetti vongole and traditional Sardinian suckling pig was fantastic,, Ed and Elaine seemed not to enjoy theirs as much as I did mine. Perhaps I was lucky with my choice. We finished the evening in our now familiar Malp restaurant , with the owner Pietro, drinking grappa until the early hours.

Elaine, left next day and we waved her off as she caught a taxi to the airport some 3 kms from the Yacht Club.

Ed and I spent our last evening in Olbia, in a very good pizza restaurant called, Giropizza, a 1.3 km walk from the yacht club. As usual in Sardinia, the pizzas were delicious.

Back to Arctura, for an early night.

Well, what started as a peaceful anchorage turned into rough night. The wind had picked up and by 1 o’clock in the morning Arctura was being pushed up and down by the easterly wind and swell coming into Cala di Zeri. That’s the price one pays for overstaying our welcome and not taking a close look at the upcoming weather. For those at the bow, especially, it was a rough night and even in my stern cabin, it wasn’t too pleasant.

We eventually weighed anchor at 0923 and because the winds were predicted to increase, decided against visiting Budelli and set course for La Maddalena, arriving at 1334, after a cracking sail.

We moored up in Marina Gavetta, a pleasant marina, in the centre of town, with great staff taking our lines and helping us moor up. At €35 per night, it’s pretty good, but not as cheap as anchoring.

There is nothing to do here, apart from restaurants and souvenir shops and you can view the entire town in under an hour. We found a pizzeria for lunch “Sergeant Peppers”, which was average, but on our walk through town, we discovered a restaurant, which looked interesting for an evening meal. Although closed for lunch, I called later and booked it for 2100.

Whilst here and with not much to do, I took advantage of the free time and had a haircut.

The restaurant “Del Genovesse” was a good choice. family run with pleasant staff and full of locals and no tourists insight, apart from us. The food was excellent, with a spaghetti vongole starter and swordfish main course.

The next morning, it was raining heavily, so we decided to stay another night. After a few hours on board, we ventured out for the afternoon, into the heavy rain and were soaked through within minutes. Another restaurant beckoned and another Vongole.

La Maddalena, is a good place, as a retreat from bad weather, but apart from that there is nothing here to write home about.

A peaceful night in Porto Palma and after a light breakfast and with winds in our favour we decided to head off to Bonofacio. Memories flooded back as we tacked our way through the many islands and past the town of Maddalena. I had been here nearly a year ago to the day and it now seems very familiar territory. Our final tack took us to just outside the concealed entrance to Bonifacio. If you didn’t have charts or had not been her before, you wouldn’t know that an entrance or town even existed in these waters.

Unlike last time, where we were left to our on devices to moor up, this time a tender came to greet us and guide us to our berth. With staff waiting on the pontoon, we reversed slowly towards our space. All was going well until the last few metres, when our keel caught one of the lazy lines of our neighbours yacht and we had to power forward and with the help of the accompanying tender were pushed to safety so that we could continue our manoeuvre. All moored up, we relaxed on deck, in the beautiful , safe harbour of Bonifacio.

In the evening, we headed up, on the stop walk, into the Citadel. As I had been here before, I was nominated as travel guide and lead the way up the hill and through the Barbican, with stunning views along the way. We meandered our way through the narrow streets and alleys, eventually, ending up at a beautiful cemetery, at the eastern end of the Citadel. Obvious, memories of mine and Eds mum raced though our hearts and minds, of two wonderful women, who we both lost within the last year.

Returning to the Citadel, we were now faced with the task of choosing somewhere to eat in the many restaurants this town has to offer. My general rule, is to follow the locals and try and find local cuisine. We eventually found a quaint restaurant, that was only full of French and seemed to offer local cuisine, “Cantina Doria”

We all shared a local vegetable soup, that was absolutely delicious, followed by a wild boar stew with pasta for me, a pork dish for Ed and St. Pierre fish dish for Elaine. All extremely tasty and reasonably priced.

Our evening ended with a casual stroll back down the now darkened streets only illuminated with street lamps, and making the Citadel even more romantic and alluring.

The only thing that spoilt a perfect evening, was a bar that plays exterior loud music until to in the morning. Ed and I now remembered, that this was the case when we were here last year and it appears to be a constant.

The usual pre departure checks and jobs, but this time we had to stock up on provisions for a few days as, one we were going to be anchoring for a while and two, we didn’t know where we might find another supermarket on our route.

By 1200, we had finished our chores, had breakfast, recovered our €200 deposit and finally slipped lines at 1215. We raise our sails immediately and in light winds sailed out of the buoyed channel and into the Bay of Olbia. The wind picked up and after a few tacks, past Isola Di Figarolo, we were in open waters and heading towards our anchorage of Porto Palma, in the Maddelena Group of islands.

As we approached the Maddalena islands, the wind picked up considerably and after a few long tacks, we sailed into the sheltered waters of Porto Palma. It’s amazing how one minute you are healed over and beating into wind and as soon as you enter the calm, protected waters of the bay, everything becomes, quite, slower and totally peaceful.

We anchored at 1800, in 7.5 metres and as we settled for the night and the sun was setting, I reminisced that this was the first time two years ago, that I spoke to my long lost cousin Krystyna, who entered my life here after 57 years of absence. This place and this exact same spot will always hold a special place in my heart.