Advice from an Italian Restauranteur
Scot Free III
Frank & Anne
Sat 22 Oct 2016 21:07
Fishing is still the main industry on the island and Tuna the major catch. A tuna canning factory near the harbour ensures that a permanent, but not unpleasant, smell of tuna permeates the air. We discovered an excellent restaurant-fishing-museum combo on the front, in one of the few restored colonial buildings. An odd combination until you discover that the owner, an Italian, is a keen fisherman. He also owns one of the few local sports fishing boats and so was able to give us some advice on local anchorages.
One of these sounded too good to miss. He described it as an extinct volcano where the sea has eroded an entrance into a totally sheltered anchorage. Even the famous Don Street, who spent many years cruising the islands and wrote the definitive yachtsman's pilot book, only mentions it as a vague possibility, "probably too deep to anchor", and which he only saw, by taxi, from the land.
We chose a very rough night to try it out. Gusting 30 knots outside, it was indeed perfectly sheltered. However, the seas kept increasing during the night, and although there was little wind inside, a swell radiated in through the gap and the constant roar of the waves breaking on the sheer walls all around, alone in the pitch black, made it one of the most heart stopping anchorages we have ever visited.
