As we reached the Straits of Bonifacio out from the port of Bonifacio we found the wind had picked up to 25 knots.

Now we had to decide upon a new place to lay our weary heads!
Should we sail straight to Rome – another 150 miles? But that would mean we miss out on seeing the La Maddalanas – and Porto Cerva. Both highlight venues of the Mediterranean.

Although a little tired from a night sail it still early morning and we still had another 8 hours to arrive somewhere before it got dark.

The islands of “La Maddalena Archipelago” on the southern side of the Bonifacio Strait and NE Sardinia (back in Italian waters) are known as beautiful great cruising grounds so we crossed back over the ‘Straits’ towards Liscia. Meanwhile John looked for a potential anchoring spot whilst also downloading another set of GRIB files to update us  with the weather.
Once we were across the Strait the seas diminished to less than a meter, the wind was down to 15 knots and we were having a great sail. On checking the GRIB files and the sea conditions we decided that whilst anchoring would be fine for wind we might well experience an uncomfortable swell. Our next option was to sail through these beautiful islands and head for Port Cervo about another 30 miles.
Gosh!
Tough option!

John changed our flags back to Italian!

There are seven principal islands in the Maddalanas each composed of red granite.  In all cases the islands are surrounded by ‘above’ and ‘below-water’ rocks and caution was needed as we navigated through.
The day was stunning lots of sun but the wind was cold. There were many villas and hotels on the islands and you could easily see why Italians love this area for cruising. In the right weather anchoring would be a delight.
We had a great sail through these islands and arrived at Port Cervo early afternoon.
We radioed in and was met by a man in a dinghy directing us to our mooring. These mooring specialists have to be the absolute most professional we have ever come across thus far!