Leaving Ischia Island, sailing further north along the eastern coastline, we noticed how populated this little island was too, but, since we didn’t go ashore, we don’t know if it still had an “ island feel” or not; Sicily certainly didn’t.
In extremely hazy conditions on lake-like calm, flat seas, Roy ran the watermaker as we motored again and Elaine took the opportunity to catalogue the numerous photographs and videos she’d taken over the past weeks.
By noon we could see Ponza Island on the horizon and by 1500 we were anchored off. It was a rather interesting and pretty island, interesting from the perspective of the various rock formations of different colours we could see as we approached and which we could see around the anchorage in more detail.
The anchorage we chose was a little closer to the very picturesque little town of Ponza, but it was a tad busier with local boats and water taxis ferrying folks back and forth to “Spiaggia di Frontone”(Frontone Beach) at the head of the bay and which is only accessible by boat.
By evening, however, the beach was emptied, umbrellas and deckchairs were packed away and the local boats had departed, only to be replaced with cruising yachts arriving late evening. This is likely a staging area for many yachts heading to Sardinia and first landfall for those coming the other way. By nightfall the anchorage had significantly more yachts anchored than what we had on our arrival, suggesting our assumption was correct.
Tired from our lack of sleep and another long day of motoring, we remained onboard and simply enjoyed the sights, before calling it a day and heading to bed, but not before Roy took a swim in what was very unexpectedly freezing water, judging by the noise he made once he surfaced after his plunge, while Elaine took advantage of all the hot water to soak a few items of clothing, all to be put in the washing machine tomorrow.
