Afterwards we took another stroll through the town, taking a different route, but the crowds were so intense we both got a headache and decided to return to Paw Paw rather than stop for another refreshment.
Still on weather watch for a window to depart, once back onboard, another perusal of the various forecasts showed conflicting information which was more like a lottery on picking what winds and sea state you wanted. Completely useless and changed to something different within a 6 hour window. Regardless, our early morning departure was scrapped, since we had no idea what we would be encountering, especially since a Low Pressure system was circulating between mainland Italy and Corsica Island, moving southwards. It was so frustrating because there were easterlies forecast that we could’ve taken advantage of, but that element of the forecast kept changing too. In the end, we got very light northeasterlies that did nothing, but create an unpleasant swell in the anchorage.
Having postponed our departure, we tried to enjoy a lazy afternoon onboard, but it was impossible. Firstly, because of thunderstorms not forecast, requiring us to be vigilant until they passed and then the increased mayhem in the anchorage that came out to meet us even after we’d re-anchored further out of the bay to avoid the situation that materialised, as yacht after yacht, speedboat after speedboat and megayacht after megayacht arrived. We may as well have stayed where we were. It had been a very long time, though, since we’d seen this many yachts in an anchorage, but as Roy pointed out, it was all very festive; not as crowded as New Year’s Eve in Sydney Harbour (Port Jackson), but it was busy. That, of course meant, we had yachts anchored on top of us from every direction, with the usual latecomers, who short scoped so they could squeeze in.
With all this mayhem and particularly because there were very few non-Italian speakers around when we went ashore, we decided to research Ponza Island, one of the Pontine Islands off the Italian west coast, only to discover it’s been a best kept secret that has managed to fly under the radar, frequented primarily by the Romans and Neapolitans, who vacation here. It’s charm has also attracted celebrities such as Rihanna, Bruce Springsteen, Mariah Carey and Beyoncé.
A favourite pastime of the holidaymakers is to rent one of the many small speedboats and enjoy the numerous coves scattered around the island. This accounts for the churn that we’ve been bouncing around in all day and well into the night, when they all return to base.
Our day ended with a lovely surprise phone call from Keenan and Brooke, who were on their way to breakfast, but wanted to introduce us to their newest member of the family, Milly May, and what a cutie pie she is.
