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.