Bridge at Bonifacio?

We returned to our favourite anchorage so far in the Maddalenas, Porto Palma. We had to wait for all the day boats to leave before we could tuck well into the northwestern corner and we were joined by several other yachts in the evening. We contacted Ian and Jo, to discover that they were in Bonifacio. So the following morning, after a swim, a shower and some breakfast we set off once more to cross the dreaded Straits to catch up with our friends.

Ian has a few "phrases" which he uses to describe certain situations and one of my favourites illustrates our return trip to Bonifacio. The mainsail was "up and down like a rag man's trumpet" because the wind was being fickle. In the end we gave up trying to sail and just motored across. A few dolphins appeared briefly, the first we've seen for some time and we were glad that we had been able to take photos on our approach last time because the view was quite hazy. It was so busy in the marina that we had to raft up alongside a motor boat where we waited, assuming a gap would appear for us to enter. No such luck. We found the Zephs though, and they came over to La Premiere to catch up on all the gossip and news whilst we drank wine and devoured warm baguette with melted Camembert and pate; we are in France after all!

As if to reinforce the point of being back in Bonifacio the wind, which since "the storm" has been fairly light and variable, returned with a vengeance. Sunday's forecast was for force 5, with 7-9 in the Straits! Rather than go off back to the anchorages we opted to stay in the marina. We had been fortunate enough on the Saturday morning to get a proper berth, vacated by another English yacht so we were safe and sound for whatever wind.

Port bound, we entertained ourselves with learning how to play Bridge! Appropriately, Ian and Jo had bought Hoyle's Rules for Games and it is about time we stretched our card game repertoire further than Pontoon and Rummy! It seems pretty complicated so far, particularly the bidding and scoring but I'm sure with more experience we'll get the hang of it!

Another reason for returning was to get a replacement screw for the sail batten and to do another big trolley load of shopping to stock up.  With these jobs out of the way we now just have to wait for the weather.