Day Two - Portoferraio to Port Azzuro

We had a fairly quiet night - the wind was gusting at over 20 knots in the evening but it soon dropped away. In the morning we discovered there was a route through to the road near the supermarket from a derelict site not far from our anchorage, so we mounted a couple of expeditions to the Coop for provisions. Portoferraio is a nice place and Rod (author of the pilot book) is a big fan - but the drawback is the smell from the ferry fumes. If you are downwind of the ferry terminal it really is quite unpleasant, which rather spoils a beautiful spot. 

We set off late morning - motoring at first - because of a strong wind against us but more because of the numerous and very large ferries passing in both directions. That particular stretch of water on the approach to Portoferraio is worse than the Solent! The seas were quite heavy and we slamming through the swell. Once we rounded the headland we changed course and were able to get our sails up. The character of the sea seemed to change quite suddenly - the wind dropped to a more comfortable 12-15 knots and the swell seemed lighter.

We headed for Porto Azzuro - but when we arrived there was an incident in progress and the coastguard directed us to far side of the bay to make our approach to the town. A bush fire had broken out on the headland and they had a helicopter in operation with a giant bucket suspended beneath it - scooping up water from the bay and dropping it (hopefully) on the offending area. He was making continuous runs - sometimes very accurate, sometimes less so.




After an hour or so the fire was out - and we went into the port in the hope of securing a berth - but we had arrived a bit too late. We tried to discuss with the harbour master but he did not speak any English. When Laura tried our simple question in Italian, instead of answering with a simple yes or no, we were subjected to a highly animated volley of verbage that sadly we could not decipher. So we anchored outside and went ashore in our comically tiny dinghy. 


Port Azzuro is absolutely beautiful - a classic Mediterranean port town against a dramatic backdrop of mountains. We found somewhere good to eat - the town is packed with restaurants - and finished with some delicious ice cream on the harbour front before retiring for the night.




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