19th July 2010

Phew, what a week it's been!
Tim and Annabelle joined us after an interesting detour through the red light district of Olbia, which Tim insists was a mistake! We stayed in port for a couple of nights whilst some work was being done on Zaffina (thrusters mainly and a service for the generator which had been working overtime) then set a northwards course back to Corsica. T&A were as blown away with Rondinara as we were and we had a couple of days at anchor, watching the world go by and then recovering from all that effort with a swim, a sleep, a meal, a glass of rose or a combination fo the above! The sea there is the clearest turquoise, and this time the one rock in the centre of the bay was marked by a plastic bottle attached to a piece of string! We ate on board one night and the other we went ashore to a rather nice beach cafe, from where we watched a load of kids celebrating a birthday party on the sands as the sun went down.
Next stop was Solenzara and a return visit to the beautiful river site we found when we were there previously. It was much much busier this time round, but we still managed to find a perch on the rocks for our picnic and spent half the afternoon swimming in the gloriously refreshing waters of the river. We debated whether to return to the restaurant we had enjoyed so much with the garden terrace and the myrtle liqueur but decided instead to opt for one right on the beach and had another memorable evening there. There was some debate about whether to stay longer in Solenzara as the marina staff tried to persuade us to stay for their Quartorze Juilliet celebrations - they were having a ball on 13th July and fireworks (yeah!) but we managed to secure a berth in Bonifacio, a bigger town and therefore we assumed a bigger celebration.
Between ports, we had one more night at anchor, this time to the west of Bonifacio in an anchorage we hadn't been in before. After an afternoon moored off a beautiful stretch of beach, we moved across the bay for shelter as the wind had got up a bit and by the morning we were rockin' and rollin'. We called up Bonifacio to see if we could go straight into port but had to wait until the berth was ready in the early afternoon. The trip back to port was over the messiest sea we've encountered for a while and whilst it wasn't uncomfortable, we were taking a bit of spray over the bridge (quite nice and cooling in these temperatures!~) We were pushed around a lot whilst we were waiting to be shown to our berth in the harbour, as the wind was being funnelled straight down the channel of the marina, and were quite worried that it would be awkward to moor up but our fears were unfounded and all went smoothly once an errant yacht had been told that he couldn't go into our berth, which he was trying desperately to do!
We went out for dinner on the quayside, keenly awaiting the 14th July celebrations...and waited...and waited...and waited. Nothing happened! Nothing at all - what a disappointment. If only we'd bought those fireworks in the supermarket at Ciprianu!
The following morning we took Le Petit Train (oh yes we did) up to the hillside town which is just amazing. The houses are so close to the edge of the cliff that it's only a question of time before they start toppling into the sea. The views were fabulous and the town fascinating, but sadly we didn't have too long to explore. As ever when shopping beckons, Frank decided it was time to move on...
Back at sea, we left Corsica behind again and after a quick nose around the island of Lavazze where it was a bit too windy to anchor, we set a course for Madelana, one of a group of islands close to Sardinia. We found the most perfect bay and even coughed up the 180e required just to hook up to a mooring bouy for the night! The ancorage was just delightful and due to the cost, there was only one other boat there for the night.
We continued back to the mainland in the morning, in search of shelter from the wind which was by now blowing straight towards us, and opted for Lascia di Vacca. The pilot book informed us that this is where you find the most expensive hotel in Sardinia and possibly the most expensive in Italy, the Pattrizi, and sure enough, when Frank and I managed to blag our way in and ordered a couple of glasses of fresh squeezed orange juice, the bill came to an eye watering 26e for the two! I kept my eye out for celebs and movie stars but they must have all been in the spa whilst we were there! We decided to eat on board.
By Saturday we knew we had to be heading back towards Olbia and we made a return visit to another favourite beach, Spulmatore. As we dropped the anchor in the bay, two dolphins popped by, paying their respects on a tour of the island! Sadly, we didn't see them again, but I have never seen dolphins so close into shore and will keep a sharp look out in the future. We lunched at another beach restaurant: overcrowded, questionable service but great fun! And then with the forecast for a six from the west, we reluctantly moved back into Port for the night in readiness for Tim and Annabelle to leave us yesterday afternoon.
Now we're waiting for our next visitors, Adrian and Michael, who're driving up from Cagliari as I write. The weather is hot and getting hotter, and we'll probably be back in Corsica by tonight. Arrivederci!