We got here on Monday and it was a bit of a disaster. We were motoring along when entering the bay of Portoferraio and we had the bright idea to maybe cruise along the coast for a bit and maybe go for a swim. And then there was this bright yellow Sardinia ferry that appeared around the corner from the harbor entrance and was going 27kn quickly after showing up on the AIS. I took the engine out of gear a minute before it passed us pretty close but the wake was so steep and high that we took a foot of water over the bow and some of it into the open hatches ….. So now we had wet bedding in the forward cabin and water in the forward bilge compartments where we store things like toilet paper, shoes, etc. The Admiral was NOT happy. Well, after many hours of bailing, drying, washing at the coin laundry in Portoferraio and a few drinks, all was good again.

The town of Portoferraio is the typical Italian tourist place. The harbor is packed with restaurants, bars and cafes and a busy road goes straight by our berth. It’s dirty, smelly but it’s quaint and Napoleon lived here for a year or two so some of us could dwell in history for a bit.

Yesterday, we rented a car and explored the island. The traffic was quite horrendous initially, but later things cleared up and we thoroughly enjoyed the trip. One has to get used to Italians driving on the wrong side of the road and motorcycles zipping around like crazy but we managed to keep the car in one piece.