Sunday 8 June 2014 - Girolata

We went to sleep so early yesterday that we had to get up fairly early.  Richard filled the water tank while I went into town to get croissants and bread for breakfast and lunch.  We got off fairly early, but are unhappy with the lack of weather forecast.  When we ask in the harbour office they say the screen and print off are the most recent forecast, but they are both from yesterday, so we don’t believe them.  Having no internet to look up the weather is getting to be a pain.

We are setting off to the Gulf of Porto, which is a nature reserve and a UNESCO world heritage site.  We are uncertain where we will go.  The pilot book is not very complimentary about the various ports and anchorages saying that they are very overcrowded and subject to terrible swells that make them at best uncomfortable and at worst dangerous.  But the weather forecast we have seen is very benign and as we progress that proves to be the case.  There is absolutely no wind in the morning and no swell, with a glassy sea.

Of course in these conditions we are motoring again.  The landscape is very dramatic.  High cliffs all coming down straight into the sea.  As we approach the Scandola Nature Reserve we come to huge red rocks which are even more dramatic. But best of all as we go into the bay we finally see a dolphin!  It is all on its own, but it does do one pass under our boat.

Richard has identified a place for us to anchor for lunch, Girolata.  However it is getting quite late when we get there.  At first I can’t believe we can anchor.  Only half a mile off the coast the depth is still over 80 metres.  For those not initiated into the art of anchoring, let me explain.  To safely anchor you need the anchor and chain to extend at least three times the depth of the sea where you want to stop.  If you are using rope instead of chain, you need even more.  This is because if your anchor chain is vertical to your boat, the anchor can break loose and you will not be secure.  We carry 60 metres of anchor chain, plus 30 metres of rope.  This means that we can anchor in no more than 30 metres depth and even that is not certain.  The ideal is to anchor in 10-15 metres.  So that is why I had doubts we would find water shallow enough to anchor.

But the book was right, the depth reduced dramatically and we found 12 metres in which to put down the anchor.  After our repairs the anchor windlass is working fine.  We have a pleasant lunch using up cold meats and old cheeses in the fridge.  I really like this place.  It is incredibly beautiful with the steep cliffs and red rocks.  There is a little village with really nothing more than a couple of modest restaurants, a bed and breakfast and a camp site.  There are beaches and it is really hot enough to go swimming.  Richard had it in mind to carry on from here to the little town of Porto, but I would like to stay.

The pilot book seems to say that except in the most settled conditions anchoring for the night can be dangerous.  We are in very settled conditions, but as a precaution we decide to move into the harbour where there are fore and aft moorings to rent.  So the harbour rib comes out and directs us to a mooring and attaches our lines, making life much easier.  So we are well settled.

For the first time we blow up the dinghy and row ashore to pay for the night and see the place.  I am still very pleased with it.  The only problem is that the beach is very rocky and uncomfortable under foot.  I am boiling and have changed into a bathing suit determined to swim.  I thought I might swim from the beach back to the boat.  However there are signs warning boat owners not to swim through the boats (presumably for fear of meeting a moving boat and getting in the way of a propeller).  So instead Richard rows us out to another little beach not far from where we anchored initially.  But that too is rocky.  But now I am determined to swim so rocks or not I go in.  It is heavenly.  All the heat of the day is washed off.  After a nice swim we get back in the dinghy and row to the boat.

I make a steak dinner while Richard tries out his new little crane to lower the outboard motor on the dinghy.  It takes him some time to work it out, but does succeed.  He even gets the outboard to work, which is something of a miracle as it has not been serviced or used for nearly a year and still has old petrol in it.  We now really feel like we are on holiday.

We have now finished dinner in the cockpit.  It is finally cooling down.  So perhaps soon we will go below.