9th to 10th July Portoferraio (Greg, Rob and Ben's excellent adventure)
Bali Hai
Neal Stow
Fri 10 Jul 2009 22:10
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On 9th July Mark and Stacy were due to
arrive. Mark is Greg and my cousin from San Francisco who I had not seen
since 1981 but who I had been assured by Greg had not changed in appearance
since he was a teenager. They live in Napa Valley, California where Mark
is a plastic surgeon and Stacy a photographer. Expecting the
perfect clean-cut American couple we were worried about the state of the
boat but cleaned it as best we could before taking the dinghy in to town for
some lunch.
Mark and Stacy arrived by a cartoon covered Moby
ferry ("Moby Love") from mainland Italy. We were anchored across from the
ferry terminal and were able to pick them up quite easily. Despite not
having seen Mark for 25 years I was able to spot him walking down the gangway -
it must be the family resemblance. Extraordinarily polite and bubbling
with enthusiasm the two of them bounded on board (quite an achievement for
Stacy who had her arm in a still following a diving accident).
In the evening we decided to go across to the town
for something to eat. With seven people to fit into the tender it was
going to be quite a squeeze and first of many hair raising dingy boarding
episodes with Greg lurching, drunken hippo like, on to the tender,
each time threatening to knock at least one person over the side.
We went for a drink first and ate a restaurant
called Lido, recommended by the waiter. The food was first class, even
including the plate of raw seafood that Greg ordered and then expressed surprise
when the fish was not cooked.
The next day we decided to explore. Mark and
Stacy wanted to see the town but the rest of us wanted to see something of
Elba. Emma and I hired a tatty Fiat Punto and went for a leisurely drive
to a village in the hills and had a pleasant lunch followed by a visit to
Napoleon's villa. Greg, Rob and Ben also hired a car but things did not go
as well. The hire company told
Greg that the car needed to be refuelled but he immediately forgot this and
so it was not long before they ran out of petrol. Fortunately they were at
the top of a hill at the time and were able to coast down the hill to a petrol
station. Then a knocking sound which they had been choosing to ignore
suddenly got worse and the car then broke down - after waiting an hour for a
replacement car to be delivered the closest they got to Napoleon's villa was the
carpark.
Fortunately everyone did make it back to the boat
that evening where Greg prepared some caipirinhas before we again went in to
town for another superb meal at Libertaria restaurant. This being Greg and
Ben's last night - rather a large amount of alcohol was drunk. Some 4
litres of local plonk plus a bottle of Limoncello - then Mark and Greg chose to
share another bottle of wine on the boat before going to bed!
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