in order to navigate and stay in Las Maddelenas, a restricted marine park with many islands one has to obtain a permit.It is possible to do this on line but obviously our Italian wifi didn’t work in Corsica. We headed to the Sardinian town of Palau, where the pilot book indicated that we could purchase the permit. It also indicated convenient mooring buoys that we could pick up and then dinghy in. However, there was only one and it was occupied, so we headed into the marina and were met by an ormeggiatori (dock master), who showed us into a berth, bows to, in between a slipway and a tripper boat. In getting off the boat Alison landed awkwardly and twisted her bad knee. The said ormeggiatori was most concerned and fetched a bag of ice and offered to telephone a doctor, which Alison turned down. Whilst the crew applied the ice, the skipper went in search of a permit. People seemed to have a distant recall of such things but no knowledge where to obtain them. One clue was the Guardia Costelaria, whose office shut at 12 noon not to re-open until 2:30 pm. Another was a seemingly private house but there was no-one there; and yet another was to enquire at the dive centre office, which whilst open was unoccupied. The skipper returned to Red Skies and battled through the Italian website to book on line.

The Maddelena permit not only allows access to the restricted areas (most) but also enables free use of the mooring buoys that they lay in most bays to protect the environment. This means that the fortnight’s cost of €182 seemed quite reasonable. As a quid pro quo, there are restrictions on anchoring and fines for transgression. It came as a surprise , therefore, that in the first bay we entered, Cala Villamarina, where the pilot indicated anchoring restrictions, there were no buoys at all. Nevertheless, we put our hook down and had lunch, before moving on to a larger bay, Porto Palma, where again we found no buoys but a number of other yachts, all on their anchors. From enquiries made to one of the boats, we gathered that this is a common picture and so it is probably too early in the season for the buoys to have been laid, although a mention somewhere, their website possibly, would have been helpful.

The water was clear and not too cold so Mediterranean swimming was resumed.

Thursday 12th June.  41:12.10N  9:27.02E A gentle motor to another peaceful and sheltered cala, Cala Stagnali. Entrance is through rocky  reefs on both sides and depths below the keel are less than one and a half metres if you are on the correct transit line. We found that the buoy that marks the entrance, shown on the charts and in the pilot book was missing and we didn’t locate the transit beacons until we were actually in the cala. Thank goodness for chart plotters and depth sounder, as we crept in.

View of La Maddelena town through one side of the entrance - not the entrance itself - from our anchorage in Stagnali