29th to 30th June - Porto Brandinchi to Cala di Volpe (in the company of Superyachts)

Bali Hai
Neal Stow
Tue 30 Jun 2009 22:20
Amazingly Emma survived the night with Rob's bottom.  Apparently a dietary change has improved the environment somewhat for those in its close vicinity.  However, when we arrived back at the boat everyone was still very tired from the party and so instead of leaving immediately, as originally planned, we instead stayed another day at Marina di Puntaldei.  The day was spent lounging and buying provisions for the rest of the week.
 
We have relatively short distances to cover during the next week and just over 20 miles on Tuesday, to the bay of Cala di Volpe, the home of one of the Costa Smeralda's many five star hotels.  Because of the short distance we were able to wait until the wind was up before leaving and not worry about having to go in a straight line.  As a result we left at about 11:30 and had a very pleasant sail almost all of the way (albeit at fishing speed so that "non-fishing" John could again fail to catch anything).
 
The highlight of the day was when we were passed by the US$50 million Mirabella V, at 243' long she is the largest single masted sailing vessel in the world and as wide as Bali Hai is long.  It turned out that she was also anchoring in Cala di Volpe but she stayed a bit away from us, no doubt not wanting to feel out of place next to Bali Hai.