Rome, Elba Island, Eastern side of Corsica and top of Sardinia
‘Hurry up and wait’ - that was the theme to the start of our fourth season sailing in the Mediterranean. We arrived in Rome on June 18 thinking we’d be setting sail in a matter of days and while the boat was splashed (craned into the water) early on, we had to remain tied up to a dock on the Tiber River at Blue Dolphin Marina for nearly three weeks to wait for parts and sort other pesky issues. The boat was often swarming with contractors fixing things in desperately hot temperatures and confined spaces. If you think about it, we shouldn’t be surprised. A boat on the hard for eight months can feel neglected, and Waiata, as I’ve often said, is most definitely Gavin’s mistress. She thrives under his loving care and attention, especially when he buys her treats and fancy equipment, and then spits the dummy when she’s ignored. I get it. The lesson learned is that we just need to expect a bit of a lag before we start sailing in future seasons, unless we can spend longer periods of time here.
It was a treat to see Sonia and Ema, of ITA Catamarans who were doing some jobs on Waiata when we arrived. We had a couple of nice meals with them and as usual, they were the best help with so many things, not least of which was Sonia’s translation skills, communicating what we need can be confounding here, so much gets lost.
Being stuck on the dock had its perks too. We had a visit from Gavin’s sister Belinda and her husband Stewart who have a house just two hours away in Umbria. They drove us around to the various marine and hardware shops in Fiumicino to help in our quest for boat parts. We had a fun lunch with them at the local yacht club and the following week we hired a car to go visit them at their casa. Highlights, apart from the lovely company, delicious lunch and swim we had at their home, was wandering around their local castle and community, visiting the pristine starting point of the Tiber River and buying local food products in the village, truffles and oils .
Our first sailing guests were meant to be Kiwi-UK friends Andy and Karen, but alas, we couldn’t have them on board with the boat in its state. However, they kindly arrived in Rome anyway, to cheer us up, and pitched up at the Porto Romano Hotel, just a few km’s up the road. We dined on Waitata and also out at Restaurant Gina in the hotel, and visited the archaeological park of Ostia Antica, the ancient port of Rome.
Our sailing finally got underway on 6 July with the arrival of NZ friends (and relatives, daughter Gina’s in-laws), Michael and Julie, the four of us bound for Elba Island. We sailed down the Tiber River out of Rome and headed north with a light southerly breeze. It was a mixed day of both motoring and sailing, some excitement and fast sailing with the Gennaker up, coupled with a rolling sea and chop on certain tacks. Julie and I were a bit green, and I was thankful that Michael, like Gavin, is a natural sailor who doesn’t succumb to seasickness. They couldn’t keep the smiles off their faces and Julie and I were able to be horizontal when required. At midnight we finally put our anchor down at Santos Stefano, a perfect launch pad to get to Elba Island the next day.
The morning boded well for our crossing where a 15-20 knot sou’east wind at 8:30am had us initially goose-wing running at 6.5 knots. Later in the day the max boat speed was 10 knots. It was an energetic sail but once more, there was a rolling chop that at times was unpleasant, for me anyway. I guess I was finding my sea legs!
At 4pm we anchored in a beautiful bay with pristine water on the north eastern end of Elba called Cala Mandrida. Now we were cruising!
The following morning we motored up to Portoferraio (the largest city on Elba Island) and anchored in the wide and picturesque bay looking out to the city. Portoferraio has some wonderful attractions including a few impressive forts (that we walked up to) and the Villa dei Mulini, the palazzo where Napoleon stayed during his brief exile here in 1814. When one considers the beauty of this place, the stunning gardens and very comfortable house he stayed in, complete with a full staff, (and a toilet of sorts!) one does wonder why he escaped in March of 1815 to return to Paris. There he regained some supporters and reclaimed his emperor title, but in June 1815 he was defeated in the Battle of Waterloo. Moral of the story, he should have stayed put on magical Elba Island and gone fishing.
We had lots of delicious and fun meals on board and dined out on Michael’s birthday in Porto Campo.
At some point we discovered that we had a leak in the water maker, rendering it broken, which is never a good thing. We rely heavily on making water for the boat, toilets, showers, it’s a critical piece of kit. Once more we found ourselves waiting for parts to fix it, this time to be delivered to Marciana Marina, further down the northern side of Elba. Julie and Michael took this all in with good humour and practicality, and then they were off to Rome and their next adventure.
During our down time waiting for the parts to arrive, Gavin and I explored a few bays in the close vicinity of Marciana Marina. One morning we had an opportunity to take an easy hike (something rare here as it’s too freaking hot and dinghy’s aren’t always welcomed on shore). Monte Enfola is a short hike up and around a promontory and it felt so good to be back on terra firma. We took a couple of bus rides into Portoferraio and also wandered around the very cute town of Marciana, a village that boasts many fabulous frock shops, eateries and grocery stores. On the day before the parts were meant to arrive we entered the marina in hopeful anticipation, (at 280 euro per night) and were so grateful when, the next day, the contractors arrived. Two young men worked in 35 degree heat down the starboard aft locker for two hours and fixed the problem. We were elated. In addition, our marina stay allowed us to test out our new passerelle, or gang plank, as it’s also known, that works a charm and I don’t know how we got on without it all these years. We could now sail to Bastia on Corsica to collect our next crew member, Dave!
It is a 35 nautical mile crossing to Bastia on Corsica from where we were at Marciana Marina on Elba. A light northerly wind of around 10 knots allowed us to fly the Gennaker and we made ok time but had to motor the last hour when the wind died. We collected Dave, aka Team, (a regular on Waiata), on a rocky shore near the fortified wall and began our planning. A dinghy trip into Bastia was on the cards the next day in order to provision the boat and have a look around while waiting for our next crew member, Andrew to arrive. Bastia is gorgeous, and it was fun to be back in France, speaking French and enjoying French pastries! We even found a fish shop that has a history as old as the town itself.
On the 18th of July we collected Andrew off the beach, a stone’s throw from the airport in Bastia. Both David and Andrew are Kiwis who have made their lives, some, or all of the time, in Europe. They’re both accomplished sailors and good friends that go way back with Gavin as well. We welcomed Andrew with a delicious meal of fresh fish purchased at the shop in Bastia.
As we made our way south, we had fun adventures, incredible meals, some good sailing and anchored in pristine bays. One night, on the full moon, anchored in the Gulf of Santa Manza, Corsica, we experienced a freaky weather event that none of us had seen the likes of before. Just on midnight an electrical storm kicked in with forked lightening and then clapping thunder. The wind whipped up to around 35 knots with gusts of 45 and many boats in our bay started to drag, not ours thankfully, but we still were exposed to the other dragging yachts. There was shouting and pandemonium outside, and weirdly, an angry Frenchman on a Lagoon, this captain who had earlier been yelling at other boats coming into anchor near him, was the lead dragger, he was in big trouble. Normally in a situation like that I’d be in shock and shaking like a leaf, but something about having three blokes on board allowed me to almost enjoy the spectacle. The hailstones that fell on the boat for about 15 minutes were more like chunks of ice and yet it was so hot outside, bizarre! The next day many boats were recovering from loss of one thing or another and leave it to the Kiwi blokes on Waiata to go out and assist. The boys set out in the dinghy seeing where they could help, and Andrew used Gavin’s scuba kit to dive on a Danish chap’s boat and retrieve their anchor which they had to drop in the chaos. I was very proud of the lads.
The day after the storm the four of us took a 30-minute cab ride into Bonifacio to explore the city and provision the boat. This utterly gorgeous town was buzzing with tourists and many boats were moored tightly in the marina - it looked like quite the party place, somewhere we will visit again when we come back up. Dark clouds still hung in the sky and the odd gust of wind had us hoping Waiata remained hooked on her anchor. We walked up to the medieval clifftop citadel and afterwards stocked up on food and grog before calling our taxi driver to take us back to the boat.
It was a pleasure to meet up with Rene, Ella and their son Philip on Navalaris, Hull 3 of the ITA Catamaran fleet, (we are Hull 4) who also use the same propulsion system with Oceanvolt electric motors. When you meet the fellow owners of the ITA Cats, there’s something that feels very like family, and we so enjoyed getting to know them and having them on board Waiata and then visiting Navalaris. We tried to get a drone shot of our two boats anchored side by side in the beautiful bay, but alas the drone couldn’t pick up a signal to fly. Still, there’s a shot below of Waiata and Navalaris below. I can’t emphasise enough how amazing the water colour and clarity is here, indeed I could rave on and on about that and the beautiful temperature it is too.
We had intended to make it down to Sicily with the guys on board, use the man power for a long passage or two, but due to a lack of wind and other factors, we ended up at the top of Sardinia, sailing down to Olbia, a familiar stomping ground for us.
We had an excellent broad reach sail from Corsica to Sardinia, often reaching 10 knots or more. I love observing how these guys get so much joy out of their sailing; they have it in their DNA, and smile throughout the day. I really appreciated having extra hands on board too, in fact, I have become lazy and will need to tune up for what lies ahead.
We took a marina berth for two nights at Marina di Olbia and farewelled Dave and Andrew in our typical Waiata festive way. Now it’s just Gavin and I heading down the eastern side of Sardinia, bound for Tunisia where we cover off the VAT business and check out of the EU for some days.
I know there are better ways to show a map of where we’ve been so far, but I haven’t yet learned that trick, but hopefully this amateur drawing shows what this first leg of Season 4 looks like.
