While the wind reduced overnight, by the morning it had come back up. Navtex had condescended to provide a gale warning. We thanked Hugh on Sulaire for having provided the inspiration to put out a second anchor. None of us dared move far from our boats, although we visually checked the anchors which were well dug in. Mathilda in fact moved to provide more swinging and sliding room for herself. John swam over to Sulaire (not pleasant in the conditions), and dripping sea water in their cabin, encouraged Hugh to unscrew his windcharger regulator to find the fuse. A loose connection was discovered, and the wind charger resumed operations. Hugh also explained the MO of the continuous weather forecast broadcast on VHF Ch. 68, which has proved more accurate than recent buoyweather forecasts. Hugh and Cherry invited us over to supper, and so once again we had a convivial evening with Mathilda and Sulaire. Getting to and from the boats was fairly hard rowing and somewhat damp.
The wind continued to huff and puff, with heavy gusts all night, requiring the occasional look to check that all was well. We saw the red sky at dawn, had a cup of tea, and managed to get off again for some while during a lull in operations. We measured gusts to Force 8 in the anchorage. The girls decided to walk up to the camp site shop, so were dropped off at the beach. Hugh meanwhile tackled his inverter which had stopped working, apparently due to a broken connection, and John was able to help re-make the connections to a choke, and hey presto, it worked. In the afternoon, John laid a 'buoy' made from a water bottle on the rock in the middle of the bay: we had witnessed at least three boats hit it, and Mo was keen to locate it precisely before our exit. The girls went to the beach for a swim, and organised food for a BBQ on Sulaire. Another enjoyable evening in good company.
The wind eased overnight, but piped up again in the morning. At least we have not had to run the generator for two days, although there is a bit of a deficit overnight. We spent the day swimming, reading and generally doing not very much. John's buoy on the rock had broken away and was adorning the eastern bank. Cherry and Barbara got their heads together, and managed to find the ingredients of a meal, so asked us to join them. Mo managed to conjure up some starters, so once again we had a most enjoyable evening.
As threatened, Sulaire sensed the opportunity of a lull in the wind, and raised her anchors in the middle of the night, and disappeared. By the time we woke up, Mathilda had done likewise, so we were alone in the anchorage, apart of course from all the other boats. However, they were also rushing for the exit! By the time we had recovered the dinghy, dropped the wind generator, and got ourselves ship shape, it was well into the morning. In our turn, we raised first our kedge and then our bower, and set off. By this time the wind was increasing, and a reef was definitely in order. As we raised the main, the second reefing line fell into the cockpit, the shackle having come undone. The wind was in the SW and increasing, so it made for a lively run, and as we passed inside Ile Piana, we decided to drop the main altogether, as a second reef was out of the question. It was now blowing Force 7. We made good progress under the jib, and were able to beat into the gulf once we had rounded Punta Di A Chappa, until eventually we decided to motor the rest of the way in. Our first attempt to anchor, inside Ilot Ziglione, was abortive as we picked up a ball of mud and weed in the Bruce which it could not cut through. We re-anchored higher up, near the ro-ro terminal, and this time it struck immediately. We met Mathilda as we came into the anchorage, and they were going out, but returned later in the evening as the weather was somewhat threatening.
We had been oblivious to the fact that it was the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary the previous evening, and had missed the parades. We soon found out though, when we climbed the hill to the old town looking for a phone shop and hairdresser for Mo. A lot of businesses, including the phone shop, were closed as it was a public holiday. However, the town was crowded, and a large congregation was turning out from Mass when we reached the church. We stopped for a drink, and this escalated to a salad and more wine. The town had many restaurants, and was very interesting and attractive.
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| The old gate into the town | A glimpse of the church | The 'Bastillion Francais', now an art gallery |
In the evening we took the dinghy for a trip up the river that came out into the anchorage: it was extremely pretty but the peace was marred by jet skis. We think we have found our water leak: where John replaced the water filter it appears to be weeping.
The next day we got to the supermarket, returned with a large load, and then went up the hill to the phone shop, and found a hairdresser. We had a drink, took some photographs, and returned down the hill to Fuga. The fuel berth had been very busy, but seemed quiet, so we raised our anchor and went in to fill up with diesel and petrol for the dinghy, then re-anchored close to the marina. Mo then later set off up the hill to the hairdressers, and we arranged to meet at the supermarket for another hit. Barbara has inspired Mo to try bread making! The new anchorage was just in range of a hotel that offered a free wifi link, that almost works. Hence a quick update of the web site while the going is good.
We tried to make the most of the wifi, but it became a little frustrating. However, from the pictures on their web site we could identify the island off the hotel as Ilote Ziglione, so we moved to a position just off the island, and hey presto! The signal was much improved. We had a good conversation with Peter Manly by Skype. By the time we had finished our business, and set off for San Ciprianu, where we hoped to find Mathilda, it was late in the afternoon. So as we rounded the point into the bay, Mathilda came in the opposite direction! We anchored as they recommended, in view of the wind, in the south east corner.
We had a pretty lazy day. John was deep in a book on Cromwell by John Buchan that we had obtained from Mathilda in a book swap. When Mathilda appeared, we re-anchored on the north west side of the bay, as the wind was now from that direction. We enjoyed a BBQ on Fuga with Barbara and Maurice that evening.
Mathilda set off early in the morning, as they needed to reserve a marina berth to enable them to return to the UK. We did not do much but read and swim for much of the day. We were being driven fairly mad by the water skiers, jet skiers, and motor boats insisting on tanking through the anchorage. As the wind was now north easterly we decided to move to Baie de Stagnolu, which promised more shelter. This proved to be true, and there were only four other boats. Unfortunately it was good for water skiing, and they continued until dark, even getting to turn on navigation lights. It did not prevent us from enjoying another BBQ.
We were woken by the wash of the first water skier at about 9 am, and it soon became obvious that the position was going to be pretty untenable. We waited breakfast until we had moved around the corner to anchor off Punta di Pozzoli. The generator coughed, and John surmised somewhat guiltily that it was probably short of oil (it shuts down if it loses oil pressure, or overheats, etc.). So after breakfast we gave it an oil change: it was low and filthy. We also dried out our puddles in the bilges. That fixed the generator and it was happy again, we shall see if the puddles come back. The next task was to go up the backstay in the bosuns chair to re-attach the SSB aerial to the backstay above the insulator, which itself is above the turning block for the backstay tensioning tackle. This took quite some time, but we were happy that we were at least free of wash in the corner by ourselves. This done we returned to our original spot off the ferry dock, in order to be able to dinghy in for a meal with Mathilda, a journey that promised to be rather wet in the NW wind. Barbara and Maurice were in good form, and we enjoyed our dinner. First course comprised melon with figs foraged that afternoon from over a garden wall, and then we had quiche. When we returned to Fuga it was absolutely calm, but...