Monday 20th September

We were in still Cannigione (finally, I think that is the correct spelling!) when the boys and Leonie arrived on Christian’s birthday, 10th September, hiring a car to pick them up from the airport and then spending the first evening celebrating at a favourite local restaurant. The walk home was through the evening market, set up along the seafront, where the birthday boy bought himself a toy gun and pretended to be James Bond for the rest of the evening! Well, he's only 27 now! The following morning we made the short hop across to Cala Bitte for a day lazing around, enjoying the calm sea and hot sunshine of the tiny bay. By evening, what little wind there was hand swung around and so we moved across to La Saline almost opposite, for a delightful night at anchor.
Our aim was to get up to Corsica for a few days whilst Christian, Leonie and Adam were with us, and on Sunday the weather was pretty perfect for the crossing. We made for Rondinara which was a lot less crowded than on previous visits, but as perfect as ever, and we dropped the hook in the clear turquoise water just a stone’s throw from the beach. Lunch was in the shade of trees at the little café on the shore, where the fresh fish and rose wine went down a treat. After sleeping off our lunch on Zaffina, we continued northwards to Solenzara, where we continued feasting with a barbeque on board once the sun had slipped below the horizon.
We wanted to take our guests to one of the most stunning places we have visited on this trip – a riverside beauty spot up in the mountains, but we were worried that the water level may have dropped since we were last there. Fortunately our worries proved groundless, and it was as perfect and as amazing as before and they were as blown away by the beauty of the place as we were. This time round, there were hardly any other people there, and we had the river to ourselves as we jumped from the rocks into the clear, glass green depths of fresh mountain water.
With more wind in the forecast, we decided not to spend a second night at Solenzara, and instead headed back southwards to the protection of a port. Porto Vecchio had a space for us and we signed in for a couple of nights. The town was still relatively busy and with plenty of sales on, it was a good time to have a look around. The first evening we ate at another favourite restaurant, Antigu, up in the old town; from their outside terrace, we watched frequent flashes of lightning scar the sky but it wasn’t until we came to leave that the heavens opened and the rain poured down. Not wanting to make the 10 minute trek back to Zaffina in a downpour, we popped into the nearest bar and endured half an hour of extremely loud Corsican folk songs and some very expensive drinks until the cloud cleared! The wind was still with us the following morning, which necessitated another lazy day in port, trying to find a sheltered sunbathing spot to enjoy the warmth of the sunshine without getting blown around too much.
There was another Azimut 62 in port, so we invited the owners, Andrew and Rosemary on board Zaffina for a drink and to compare notes. They keep their boat in Sardinia and spend the summer on her, and have made a few interesting modifications including the addition of extra cleats on the stern – something we’d asked for and been told was impossible.
Our trip back down to Sardinia was pretty good, taking us round the outside of the Maddalena Islands, and we finally made it back to Spulmatore (otherwise known as white pants man bay!) We had tried to get back there several times over the past couple of months, but each time the wind has been in the wrong direction, so we were delighted to finally nose into one of our favourite anchorages and find conditions were okay for an afternoon at anchor. It was still a little bit breezy but the sun was hot, the water clear and dozens of fish crowded around as we threw bread into the water for them. As the sun headed for the horizon, we headed back to the mainland and into Polto Quatto, a port we had previously only visited by car and wanted to take Zaffina into. It is a long, narrow inlet, the entrance almost hidden until you are up close and it promised shelter from the next blow, which was forecast to be with us shortly. Sure enough, by morning the wind was gusting again and we were glad of the protection of our berth. Sadly, the little town was almost empty as now the season is definitely over and it seems as if the whole of the Cost Smerelda has closed down. We went into Porto Cervo and even that was like a ghost town, although we did manage to get a good meal at one of the few restaurants still open.
Talking of food…it was time for a return visit to Cala Di Volpe, and on Friday, conditions were just perfect. We anchored quite close in and took the dinghy over the hotel where we enjoyed another amazing lunch in a stunning setting. By the time we returned to Zaffina, we were fit to bust and in desperate need of a swim. Sadly, there were loads and loads of jellyfish around and we weren’t prepared to risk going into the water, so had to content ourselves with watching a group of naked German men on a nearby yacht diving over the side, and wondering which bits were most likely to get stung!
We moved into Porto Rotondo for the evening, wandering up for cocktails in the square, and then later a midnight pizza when the effects of lunch had worn off! In the morning Leonie and I went shopping, but again most places had closed for the evening and there was no buzz to the little port that had been so lively on our last visit.
We left Rotondo on a flat calm sea, which got progressively lumpier the further south we went! We eventually found a calm anchorage at San Teodoro, not far from the island of Tavolara where we stopped for just a couple of hours before moving on to Puntadia to get shelter from yet another blow.
The restaurant we had intended to visit for our guests’ last night - the one where we saw Gianfranco Zola - has already closed for the season, so we went to one of the few places still open for dinner last night, and had a surprisingly good meal. The local food was fantastic, as was the wine, and the whole evening rang to the sound of our laughter, which continued back on board Zaffina – especially once we had the fairy lights up and working, much to Frank’s horror!
And now we’re preparing for our brief trip back to Olbia, from where Christian, Leonie and Adam will fly home, before we set our sights southwards and start the long trek to Tunisia.