Today we swapped our French courtesy flag to Italian as we headed off towards the island of Elba, one of several Tuscan Islands that dot the sea between Italy and Corsica.

We started out early given that we had 40 miles to cover. As usual there was very little wind and it remained this way all day so yet again we sat there listening to the drone of the engine and a very active VHF radio that was transmitting constantly from the French Navy control.

It was virtually eye ball navigation with the island of Elba straight ahead. Behind Elba we could see mainland Italy, to our left Isola Capraia and to our right Isola Pianosa.

Our first stop was Portoferraio, the islands capital located on the NE side of the island. The harbour is horse-shoe shaped and extremely busy with ferries coming and going which made for interesting navigation. We anchored on the SW side of rada di Portoferraio, clear of the ferry turning area and clear of the fairway into the two harbours.

Total distance this season: 449.83 nautical miles