Canigionne once again provided the protection we needed from the wind. It is a lovely little town with a couple of good restaurants, some nice shops selling typical Sardinian produce and a lovely bakery. The staff at the marina are getting to know us pretty well now, and when we call up we just say "it's Zaffina" and they find a space for us! After a couple of nights in the port, we meandered back southwards to Portisco where we spent one night and then the next day splashed out with a fabulous lunch at Cala di Volpe, where we mingled with the mega-rich and admired - or otherwise - some interesting plastic surgery! We had hoped to spend the night at anchor near the hotel, but at about 6pm, along with all the other boats at anchor, we were told to leave. We're not sure why, because last time we had dinner there, we stayed in the bay for the entire night, so we wondered if some VIP was rocking up for the evening and didn't want the riff raff mixing with them! Roberto Cavalli's boat was moored a bit further out but we couldn't see who was on board...
We moved across the bay and dropped the anchor just outside Porto Rotondo where we had a lazy evening watching the moon rise over the nearby hillside and then the following day, wended our way back to Olbia in time to drop the girls off for their flight. It wasn't until we finished a journey which had taken us up to 23 knots that we discovered an open port hole and one extremely damp cabin!
Once again the forecast was warning of rising winds, so the obvious thing to do was to sit it out in Olbia. We hired a car for a couple of days to explore some of the surrounding countryside, driving around 100km to see a festival that we had read about in the guide books - and failing to find any sign of it!! Still, it was a good opportunity to see a bit of the inland terrain and we enjoyed our non-productive day out! We also drove to Porto Rotondo which is a lovely marina and one which we have promised ourselves we will return to with Zaffina at a later date.
With a few days in hand, we decided to go back up to Corsica as all of our explorations there so far have been on the eastern coast - this time we wanted to see the western side of the island. Before we left, we had a night in the town of Maddalena on the island of Maddalena in the Maddalena group! Although it is quite touristy, with ferries taking visitors to and fro throughout the day, it has a real charm and we thoroughly enjoyed our brief stopover.
The weather was good for crossing the Bonifacio Straits and we bypassed the port of the same name, and crossed the southwestern tip of the island with the breeze behind us - gorgeous! Conditions remained good until we were about half an hour out of Ajaccio, when the wind turned from a southeasterly to a northwesterly and gave us a breezy finish to the trip - until we reached port, when things suddenly calmed down altogether and we basked for a while in hot sunshine with no wind at all.
The marina staff tried to put us onto a finger pontoon which was obviously too small for Zaffina, so eventually agreed to move us against the wall. We had to drop the hook in the harbour and reverse into place, and although it was a procedure we'd only encountered once before (in St Tropez almost a year ago), all went well.
Again the wind came up but we were happy to stay in port for a couple of nights, exploring the town and spending an afternoon on the nearby beach. We had a memorable night out in a very rustic restaurant where you had to draw your own water from the well, there was no choice of wine other than "take it or leave it" and the meal finished with a lethal glass of grappa which immediately prompted your eyeballs to work independently of one another! The food was quite good too!!
Having thoroughly enjoyed Ajaccio, we were happy to move back down the coast when the wind dropped off again, and found a sheltered spot just a few miles south of the town to spend the day at anchor. Early evening saw us moving down to Propriano for another overnight in a marina, as we hadn't found the sheltered coves on the west side of Corsica that we'd enjoyed so much on the east.
There was a treat in store for us the next day - we were looking for a place to drop anchor for the day and read in the pilot book about a small anchorage behind some easily distinguished rocks. At that moment we spotted the rocks and eased gently into the pool behind them, which turned out to be one of the loveliest spots we've enjoyed on this trip. We took to the dinghy to explore the nearby gullies and channels and marvel at the boulders which looked like elaborate sculptures of modern art! However much we liked the anchorage, we realised that it wasn't a place to stay for the night, so headed on down to Bonifacio and the shelter of the marina at the top of its winding inlet. Despite the shelter, there was quite a breeze blowing through and we were relieved to be safely tied up for the night.
Yesterday we did the crossing back from Corsica to Sardinia in good conditions and spent yet another lovely, lazy afternoon in the bay of Saline before returning to the spot where we spent our first ever night at anchor in Sardinian waters - Cala Bitta. The evening was mellow and gentle and we sat in the cockpit eating our dinner by candlelight and being attacked by small bugs!
Again, the wind rose in the night and with the forecast for more of a blast to come, we slipped back into Canigionne before breakfastthis morning. So here we are again, waiting for another strong wind to come and go, and looking forward to the arrival of Christian, Leonie and Adam at the end of the week.
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