Fountaine Pajot the builder of Cooinda names its models of boats after famous islands. Our design of boat was launched in 2019 and named Elba after the famous Italian island. It seemed only fitting to visit the island on our way south.

In Viareggio we embarked Mary and Katie, friends from my QF days and once Sandy returned the next day it was off south to Elba. Fortunately the ladies had a car on arrival as provisioning sufficient Prosecco, Aperol and wine, let alone food would have been a big challenge even as good as the E-bike is. So down past Pisa and Livorno we anchored the first night off the very pretty village of Quercianella for a welcome swim followed by copious libations.

As we got into August proper we were getting more and more thunderstorms and as spectacular as they are to look at, they are not so much so fun with a 22m lightning rod as a permanent feature on your home. The forecast was for plenty over that week so our options were a little limited on Elba. We tucked around the south coast to Marina di Campo which offered reasonably shelter in squalls. The town itself is far enough from the main tourist tracks and caters more to holiday makers sticking around the area. After a bit of a look around we hooked in to a seafood meal which sadly presented better in the menu. After a bit of supping and swimming we sauntered around to Biodola ducking the forecast thunderstorms along the way. Anchoring there with just another 15 - 20 boats it was more of the same swimming, rehydrating and feasting.

After a few days with the ladies, it was decided to leave me for a while and go for an exploration of the pretty Biodola beach area. I dropped them off and arranged to be called in a couple of hours for pickup. After 4 or so hours I thought I better check all was ok so went ashore to seek them out. Needless to say I heard them well before I saw them being feted by a suave Italian waiter with the remnants of a couple of bottles of Veuve and cocktails adorning the table. Apparently you didnt need to be a guest to use the lovely hotel pool ?!