Portofino was beautiful but not without its challenges!

Before recalling the events of the last couple of days in and around Portofino, I think an overview of what we are doing might be useful!

It has always been Jacques dream to own a boat, now it has come true and I’m pretty happy with it too! We started our adventure in Genoa because that is where the boat was based when it came up for sale.

The grand plan is to sail around the World but for this first 12-18 months we will be in the Med and for this first phase of 6 weeks we are making the trip from Genoa to Sicily via Corsica, Sardinia and Tunisia (spot the odd one out there!)

This photo shows the trip down the Italian coast and the crossing to Corsica via Elba which is planned for Thursday.

And so to Portofino which is renowned for its beauty and it appears also for its random celebrations and festivals!

When we left Genoa, still at the time with the previous owners Marc and Claudia, we took 3 hours to sail to the bay of Santa Margherita in Portofino. The sea was slightly choppy and although we had blue skies the wind was cold as we sat up on deck. I decided to go get some more layers of clothing and that meant going down into the boat and that’s when I started to feel not just cold but sick! My usual golden rule of ‘no matter how fab the weather, if the sail is over 2 hours take a sea sick tablet’ had been forgotten in all the excitement of heading out for the first time on our own boat!

We arrived at Portofino and found a great place to anchor – not too far from the town and the dinghy dock so that we could head ashore for dinner. This photo shows the boat and you can see nothing else around except for the Ferry….I wonder why?

We headed ashore for dinner, shared a bottle of wine (just 1 thankfully!) and meandered through the back streets of town towards the dinghy dock. When we were back on the main street we could see Mossy Joe and we could also see the small boat next to it, 4 or 5 people aboard and full on flashing blue lights!! Surely that can’t be anything to do with us??

We hurried back with the dinghy and even before we got out of it and on to Mossy Joe the people in the boat (now we could see were wearing uniforms and something that looked like guns!) were shouting at us and flashing lights at us!!! ‘You must go! Go Now!!’ We had no idea what we had done wrong but there was lots of gesticulating from what we had now worked out were the Coast Guard so we asked why and when we had to go. Turns out there was a ‘mid spring’ festival and to celebrate it, a huge fireworks display was about to start right next to us!

We did ask again how long we had (moving a boat is not like starting a car and just taking off!) but before they could answer the first firework lit up the sky and shrieked through the air!

In the dark we manoeuvred the dinghy back on board, winched up the anchor and set off but we had no idea where to! The next bay along did not allow anchoring so it was another 30 minutes before we found a place in Rapallo Bay, set the anchor and said Goodnight after a very busy and adventurous day!

The footnote to this episode is that the following morning Marc and Claudia were heading off home. Claudia and I were to take a taxi back to Genoa (only half hour by car!) to then bring their car to Portofino for them to load up and drive home. Jacques stayed on the boat and Marc took us in the dinghy to shore. As soon as we were out of the dinghy a very tall, distinguished looking man started heading towards us, flipped open his wallet to show us that he was the Harbour Master and told us that…..guess what?? We were not allowed to anchor there and we had to go!!!

Jacques and Marc took the boat back to anchor in Santa Margherita where we were assured no more fireworks were planned!

After an emotional good bye to Marc and Claudia, we celebrated our first night alone at sea on our own boat with Ricard, Prosecco and a Mozz and Tomato salad! Perfect!

More to follow in the next few days in the meantime some photos of Portofino without the pyrotechnics !