This was a 40 mile trip across the Straits and down through the islands of the Maddalenas. In mostly light winds we mixed motoring and the odd appearance of a sail when the wind cam up for a while. Winding through the islands kept us alert to the navigation twists and turns that were required as did avoiding other boats that were still plentiful around here.

We anchored in Coda Cavallo around 16.15. We had rested here after the trip up the east coast in August and it was a good option to wait out the southerly wind and swell that was coming up the coast at present. Our first night was quiet and with the calm of the next day Chris spent much of his time with his head in the generator replacing the impellor we had finally found in Bonafacio. Anyone who has ever replaced an impellor in a marine engine will understand that doesn’t happen without a serious amount of scraped knuckles and impolite words but we got there in the end and the generator fired up first time…..the only issue now is finding the bits of the old impellor that we think are in the heat exchanger – that can wait until winter maintenance – the list is getting to be very long!

That night we were treated to our second thunder storm in the bay, we had a spectacular show the last time, this didn’t hit the heights of that one but we still had our electrics in the oven and the rain was torrential enough to cut the other boats off from view. Again we had a rainbow after the event leading to our own name for this particular bay.

When we looked at to weather forecast the next morning the light westerly previously predicted had turned into a 20knot westerly which would make this bay uncomfortable and maybe bad enough to cause damage as the boat would be exposed to a long fetch (stretch of open water) for the waves to build up. We hadn’t planned to move but it was now wise to do so.
We prepped the boat and decided on a trip of around 15 miles down the coast to a marina there for shelter.

Photo: The rain hits, obscuring everything around us a few seconds later