Still in Elba!

Still in Elba!

Tuesday 24th September... Crikey, we've been in Elba for 11 days now. We're not stuck here really although and the anchorages have been good so far, and we really don't know what our next move will be. We had been planning on getting across to Corsica and doing an anticlockwise tour and trying to meet up with Phil and Cris on Bora La. Reason for going anticlockwise is because the the west side of Corsica is full of nooks and crannies to tuck into, whereas the east side is just straight coastline with just a marina or two for safety. The problem is, the west side is getting the onshore winds and we can't see a break in it in the near future. So as i said, we're still contemplating the next move. 

To pass some time here we had a really lovely walk up the hilly coast a little then past the old prison and down into the back of town. It only took an hour or so and it was a lovely morning for it. The views were superb, and Saffy got to do some off leading for a change.

Coming in to land in the dinghy at Porto Azzurro

   

Walking the hillside paths 

Looking down at the anchorage

Spot the butterfly

Prison walls

A cross up on the hill

Heading down into the back of town

The tiniest bar I've ever seen

Here's another quaint bar/restaurant

Yes I fancy Lasagne here

Today's bread.... caterpillar style

Stormy afternoon

Just after lunch the gang (Impavidus and Eternite) arrived and anchored up near to us. Then we had a surprise visit from Christina and Gerald who we met a few days back. They are in the anchorage too on a big ketch called 'Cinderella di San Remo'. They kindly invited us over to their boat for a drink and a chit chat this evening. Wow what a boat! It's so luxurious and homely, an old classic with every boaty accessory you can think of.... even an ironing board cupboard! But my favourite accessory was the glass cabinet full of beautiful glassware.  

Wednesday 25th September... Not much to report today really. We had a quiet day aboard after this mornings walkies. The wind blew quite strong for a few hours and the swell was up but not the worst we've had by a long margin. We have an irritating squeak from the inner forestay which is keeping me awake when it rolls but I've not been able to find it yet. We were up early again this morning and so saw the sun come up which is nice. Hopefully we will move on to another anchorage tomorrow and do some swimming and snorkeling, maybe even get the paddle board out again. It's not so nice to swim this near to a marina with all the boats coming and going and the water is not as clear.

 Dawn in Porto Azzurro anchorage

The boat on the right is 'Cinderella di San Remo'

Very nice bicycles round here

Thursday 26th September…  A really lovely walk around the headland today to Spaggia Barbarosa. For those of you not fluent in Italian… Spaggia means beach.  It was a fabulous walk and when we got there Dean dipped Saffy in the sea to clean her up after she walked through a load of mud on the way.  We checked out the anchorage but as usual there were buoys stopping you from getting in too close. There was also a motorhome park and a couple of café/restaurant places. We went in for coffee and indulged in an amazing large fresh creamy doughnut.  

It was a half hour walk to get back to Porto Azzurro and when we arrived we went into Rick’s Café for beer/coke/and pizza!  Our friends moved on today to the south of the island but for one reason and another we stayed put. Later on Dean did BBQ hot dogs and they were delicious.

Just arriving at Spaggia Barbarosa

Saffy getting a wash down

Pizza served on a pallet

Friday 27th September... Not much going on here today. The sky was much clearer than has been in recent days and it was a very warm and calm day. Dean had a paddle about the anchorage on the SUP. The boat batteries have been doing quite well and holding their own after 4 days at anchor but we had to start the engine today to top them up. We had curry for dinner, well it was Friday after all and it went down nicely with at TTIF (Thank Thesee it's Friday) RUM AND COKE.

Sunrise looking towards the mainland

Spot the paddle-boarder

Curry night

Saturday 28th September... After two weeks in Elba we made the decision to head back to the Italian mainland. So at around 10am we raised the anchor in Porto Azzurro and set a course for 80 degrees. In hindsight we left a bit too early for the wind to turn southerly but it was still OK and only a fifteen mile trip to Punta Ala, where we anchored in the bay to the north. You can see from the photo we had already plotted an anchor roughly where to head for, and in fact we weren't too far away from it when we settled in. I like to take a photo in case we want to compare later on. 

Our position tonight on the Chartplotter

It's a beautiful bay, with lots of greenery on the beaches and hills. Quite a number of boats already at anchor which gave us some confidence that it was a good spot.

Looking ashore

Dean tries to check the anchor, but it's hidden in the weed

Late afternoon, Dean spotted a wedding on the beach. The bride actually arrived by pedalo. Not many brides can boast that can they?

The Wedding party

So then it was walkies time and only about 100 metres behind the beach we felt like we were in the middle of the countryside, having found ourselves on this lane with fields and horses.

 Are we really at the seaside?

Spot the horses this time

Hotel beach huts

Who planted a tree in the road, lol!

Dusk approaching

You can see the water is calm tonight. We think we will move further south tomorrow and find ourselves another anchorage if possible. That'll be 7 anchorages on the trot, fingers crossed. 

Catching the sun setting behind Elba

Dinner's ready

What do you think of the Hurricane Lamp? 

This is the last (and probably the shortest) blog post entitled 'Still in Elba'

The next post will be entitled 'Trying to get past Rome'