Bonifacio

Beowulf
Tom Fenton and Faith Ressmeyer
Tue 9 Sep 2014 18:27
41 25.310N 9 09.814E
Today we said goodbye to Palau having been there, on and off, for a week. It was one of the more friendly places we have been, and quite the least expensive. La Maddalena may be more picturesque and full of history, but Palau is my choice for a relaxing base from which to tour the Maddalena archipelago.

A large part of our positive feeling about Palau was because the administrator in the Port office, Nora Molinari, was so exceptionally friendly and helpful. Nora had worked in the US base on San Stefano and her English was excellent. We had ordered gas cylinders for our cooker, and there were problems about the delivery which Nora sorted for us, though it took a week. We use a cylinder every two or three days so it would have been difficult to leave without this delivery, which will see us back to the UK.

For now we are on the long haul back to Britain in where we hope to sell Beowulf. For we have bough a Rival 32 which we will bring out next year. The advantages of the arrival are
A bimini (a sunshade over the cockpit when we are sailing)
More headroom (we have to bend always in the cabin and especially to cook or wash up)
A fridge
Privacy in the bathroom
More room

There are many other advantages, and some disadvantages, such as having to pay more in marinas. In the showers in Palau this morning a man said to me, the pleasure of sailing is in inverse proportion to the size of the boat.

Bonifacio is as lovely as it is reputed to be. Approaching from the southeast the first thing you see are the chalk cliffs.

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Then you see the high town

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The harbour is the other side of those cliffs, very well protected.

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Sunset, the end of a long day, and an early start tomorrow, when we set off for Marseilles, or Toulon, or somewhere on the coast of mainland France.

Don't expect another blog entry for at least three days.