An Indian Summer on an Italian Island

The charges in the Easom Cesa marina were reduced significantly in October, the start of their winter season and with my parents due to visit Italy in a couple of weeks we decided to pay up front for a month's stay. The luxury of the finger berth was a persuasive factor as was the immaculately maintained shower and toilet facilities. Mum and Dad are not particularly "yottie" people and boarding from the finger would be much more convenient. The marina was pretty quiet too, out of the noise and bustle of the town but near enough to the supermarket and laundrette! The bar was a little on the expensive side, however, catering mainly for the hoards of German charterers based in the marina, but we put in an appearance a few times and were always welcomed with a smile.

With a whole month on our hands we set about a few maintenance jobs, which had been put off. Way back in Bonifacio Chris had made the "rose window", a washboard with a design of holes to allow air circulation during the summer but that would prevent Giblet from escaping. It had never been completed, sanded and varnished so that was one job I set to work on. It looks pretty good, with several layers of varnish and should survive several more years' use now. I also decided to polish the stainless on the boat, something I hadn't tackled since Gibraltar! Chris was happy tinkering with some new stuff he'd had sent out for the computer and what with our usual reading, walking and cat watching we were busy enough.

The bus system on the island is fairly comprehensive and we ventured to Porto Azzuro on the east coast one Monday morning. It was quiet there, the summer's influx of tourists dwindling to a brave few. A huge fort, which is now a prison apparently, guards the port. We failed to get a map but came across a coastal footpath which skirted the jail and had fantastic views across the bay and down into the beautiful turquoise water below. Chris rescued a goat who had got himself all wound up in his tether round a tree and it seemed fairly grateful. This was the first of two animal rescues on the island, the second taking place a week or so later when we were showing mum and dad around Portoferraio. A small terrier dog had his head stuck jauntily through the bottom of a gate. On closer inspection Chris found that the dog had come through the gate and back in via a different gap, thus winding his lead to full stretch and getting stuck. A simple solution occurred to Chris, unclip the lead from the collar, unwind and refasten. As he unclipped the lead he let go. Whiiiizzzzzzz!!! It was one of those recoiling ones and it flew back into the garden somewhere. Rather than being found responsible for letting the dog off the lead Chris ran off up the hill. At least the dog was no longer half strangled I suppose, just free to explore!

One Sunday afternoon, after a stroll into the old town we decided to stop for a beer in one of the waterfront bars. We were highly entertained for a while by a couple of other live-aboards, one Welsh and one German we thought. Judging from the number of empties strewn over their table they had been there all afternoon and their conversation had reached the point where nothing much made sense, well, not to us sober evesdroppers anyway! It was fun to hear some English being spoken though and we were soon joined in our eavesdropping by another couple on the table next door. We realised that they were also English and struck up conversation. It turned out that Nicky and Mick were on their honeymoon! They had flown out to Pisa and hired a sports car to tour Tuscany for a couple of weeks and we were some of the first English people they had met. After several more beers ourselves we ended up back at La Premiere for dinner, our new friends kindly providing some rather nice (expensive) wine from the marina bar. We got on well and invited them to come for a sail the next day. At 1000 hours as arranged they turned up, but we were all rather hung over! Eventually we set off out of the marina and sailed across the bay to a little anchorage where we stopped for lunch. It was sunnyish, but not as nice weather as we had been having. Mick took the helm for a while and then announced he'd only ever sailed on boats with wheels not tillers. He did pretty well considering.

A few days before my parents were due to arrive another English yacht appeared in the marina. As is our way we wandered down to have a look and say hello. Poor Lynne and Mike were having a bit of a water crisis, the filling pipe appeared to be blocked so, having delayed them from getting it sorted by half an hour chatting we arranged to meet up on their yacht, 'Goldeneye', the next day for morning coffee. We duly turned up and to our surprise were offered homemade fruitcake! At first I thought Dorothy, Lynne's sister who was visiting, must have brought it out but it turned out that Lynne and Mike had only left Britain seven weeks before and had brought it with them! We were absolutely astonished. What had taken us over eighteen months had taken them seven weeks. It turns out though, that they only have a year in which to have their adventure and they plan to go across to the Caribbean for the winter season, which means they are aiming to be in the Canaries by Christmas. The wonderful calm October weather we were enjoying was a bit of a pain to them because they had to motor everywhere. We spent some time back on La Premiere, (everyone likes to see everyone else's boat!) and they invited us back to 'Goldeneye' for a barbecue that evening which turned out to be perfectly cooked though a little later than we are used to eating! They left the next day, in keeping with their busy timetable and we set to work on preparing the boat for mum and dad's visit.

The anchorage, just outside the marina, which had been so busy when we first called into Portoferraio back at the beginning of September was virtually empty throughout our stay. Maybe the mud will have a chance to settle over the winter so it becomes good holding again for next year. We were spoiled rotten by the weather throughout October, though. Nearly every day we woke to blue skies, sunshine and light breezes. The number of cloudy or windy days could be counted on the fingers of one hand and we learned from Bill, a Scotsman living in Rome but keeping his boat in Elba, that it was unseasonably warm. We weren't complaining and have heard since that Blighty had a fair spell at the same time.

So, it seems mum and dad timed their visit perfectly. Meeting up with us was only part of their whirlwind tour of Italy and Elba turned out to be a fairly central spot for a few days rest from their action packed adventure, which took in Milan, Venice, Florence, Pisa, Naples, Vesuvius and Rome! I'm not sure who was most excited, dad or me, when the ferry docked in Portoferraio. We both seemed to jump up and down and call out. We had decided to put them up on La Premiere to save on the expense of the local hotels and since they are used to camping and caravanning we didn't think they'd find it too uncomfortable. We were surprised that with some careful organisation and stowing we could actually clear most of the back cabin and they only had to share the space with the general toolbox and the fan. So now all our friends who have said in the past they have wanted to visit have no excuses! 
I won't go into detail of what we got up to with mum and dad because dad was volunteered to become our next Guest Columnist and I am sure his point of view of things will make a change from reading mine. The only thing I shall add is that it was brilliant to see them and enjoy their company, despite the fact that they managed to make the loo explode!

We waved them off on one of the Moby Line ferries and I managed to blink away the homesick tears that welled up as I watched the boat depart. We had a week left in the marina and we were then due to meet up with Chris' parents on the mainland. We wanted to be sure of a good place to stay in time for their arrival on the 1st November so we said farewell to Elba on the 30th October and set sail for Cala Galera on Monte Argentario.