jfm
Well-Known Member
OK as promised here's a report on our 1 week cruise down the Italian Riviera and even into Tuscany a bit. Sorry it has taken me ages to post this, been very busy and a post like this takes a while to do. Thanks also to Petem - his site is hosting these pix. The trip was wonderful and I'll remember it for a very long time. The Italian Riviera is just stunningly beautiful.
We covered 600nm and our itinerary was
Antibes-Genoa delivery trip, to meet guests.
Genoa south to LaSpezia
La Spezia south to Elba
Elba back up north to Porto Venere
Porto Venere past Cinque Terra then continue north to Portofino
Guests leave in Portofino, delivery trip back to Antibes
Here's a map, bit crappo, best i could find
On the friday before the cruise the stewardess and I sailed the boat to Genoa. We had told the guests (two couples, longstanding friends of mine from London) to meet us there, despite their protestations that they wanted to join the boat in Antibes. Guests on delivery are a hassle if the sea gets up, as they get sick, need feeding, etc. The weather forecast (carefully printed off by jfm, ahem) said rough sea and we used that to get them to agree not to get on the boat in Antibes. I hope they dont see the pic below, as this was the actual sea on delivery. Smoother than any millpond I've ever seen. Five hours of beautiful sun. The stewie is driving the boat using the remote in the pic below pic, that's her head just showing, as she lies on the sundeck in front of the helm (memo to self: in my next life, dont work in city/finance, get job as stewie)
We refueled at Monaco, I wanted to be full of cheap French diesel before hitting expensive Italian fuel stops. We left Monaco in this sunny haze...
Genoa has got bad press on this forum but I gotta say i liked the place. We arrived late afternoon, had dinner in the city and the guests arrived noon the next day, so not much time to get to know it but I liked it and would go back. The marina staff were very helpful here, as was the case at all the Italian ports. Much easier folk to deal with than French marina staff, in general. Below is a pic taken off the boat as we were moored in Molo Vecchio, Genoa
With the guests on board we headed straight down to La Spezia. We bypassed Portofino and Cinque Terra, and also took the long way round to avoid seeing Porto Venere, becuase we wanted to save these treats for the way back. We moored up in La Spezia, nice marina, but needed to be as the parking spot below was (look away now if you have weak constitution) €200 for the night. They did park a red F360 at our transom though for the whole period we stayed there, so we could pretend it was the boat's shore car. Helped the ego a bit.
Next day we faffed around in La Spezia and trundled into some nice bays but the weather (as forecast) suddenly started blowing strongly from the north and heavy rain came into view. I faffed around lunching with the guests moaning about lack of sun but the stewie texted me from the galley in her usual respectful manner: "Stop buggring about, go to Elba". I didn't know where Elba was so got the chart, 90miles south. OK then, no problem. We headed south out of La Spezia in a thunderstorm, dodging 100s of boats heading for cover back into port. We had 30mins of heavy rain and a loud electrical storm, then seemed to outrun the weather and hit sun again. We saw a beautiful full 180deg rainbow. Pics of storms never seem to do them justice, they look so much more fascinating in real life, but below is a shot of what we left behind as we sailed south
4 hours later we arrived at Porto Ferrairo on Elba's north coast. Just utterly beautiful, and the fantastic marina staff gave us a lovely berth on the main strip by all the restaurants. Below is a stack of Porto Ferrairo pix. A really memorable place
We spent a couple of days all around Elba. Swimming, snorkelling, eating and drinking lots of beer and rose. Just beautiful. Fabulous anchorages. Below are just a few of them
Eventually we had to head back north, 90 miles I think, to Porto Venere, one of the treats near La Spezia that we had saved for the guests till later. We timed our Elba departure just so we would get into Venere at sunset, becuase it would look so beautiful. And before that, about 3/4 way thru the passage we were surrounded by about 20 dolphins riding the bow wave and jumping. The guests really thought they had died and gone to heaven, and I think I did too. (sorry my dolphin pic below is so rubbish tho)
Pics below show Porto Venere in daylight. It's a quaint italian town built on a steep hill, with a network of narrow steets behind the waterfront and a big church on the headland as you enter the harbour from the west. The harbour is tiny but they juggle things around and while we were there they docked the Alloy Yachts SQN on our starboard side. I think it's 38 or 40m. It's the same yacht as was alongside us to our port side in Portofino, in some pix further below
After 2 nights in PV we headed north again. We stopped at most of the Cinque Terre, which are 5 beautiful towns build into the hills along the coast up towards Portofino. The best one to stop at for boaters is perhaps Vernazza, pic below, as it has laid moorings (pick up a buoy, for free) and the harbourmaster ferries your guests ashore, also for free.
Then a bit further north still we stopped for lunch at Sestri Levante. Not the prettiest harbour but wonderfully protected from the swell so great for lunch
And finally we arrived at Portofino. Just beautiful. We had been promised a berth on the main visitors quay (where there are only 8 spaces) and sure enough the harbourmaster gave us a great spot, with the gardens behind the boat. As you can see below, if you want your boat to feel small, this is a good place to take it. But the town and pavement bars/cafes/restaurants were just beautiful. (We were in week 1 of september, so past the busy season). We got some rain here, but didn't spoil our visit
On the morning of our guests departure, the heavens opened and incredible rain poured for 3 hours at least. Their flight was 7pm from Nice so I decided the cut off was 12.30 - if the boat didn't leave by then it couldn't get them to Nice in time for the flight, so they would have to jump in a taxi. In that rain, i really couldn't sail safely. I'm happy with darkness but this was zero vis and the radar was full of rain. So no way was I leaving port. 12.30 came and they jumped in their cab back to Nice. At 1pm the rain stopped and the sun came out. Heck! Guests are lovely but after 6 days having your own space back is lovely too, so I was quite happy with the prospect of quiet delivery trip back to Antibes. Had lunch in the port then at about 3pm we set off for Antibes at a sedate 17 knots, and got back around 8 or 9pm. It was a one-waypoint 100mile+ run. And pic below shows the weather we had to contend with on the way (taken near Menton). Life is tough, eh?
So that was the trip. 600 miles and fuel bills/berhting fees I prefer not to add up. Next day, sunday, we had to tidy up the boat. We decided to do this the hard way by anchoring off La Garoupe, Cap D'Antibes. Another tough day away from the office. Below is lunch just appearing through the hatch.
That's it folks. A beautiful piece of coast. I know a few on here have covered the same ground but to anyone who hasn't I'd recommend it without reservation. Just beautiful scenery and harbours, and the friendliest marina staff I have ever come across in the Med. Also the most expensive ports, eek, but worth it imho. We didn't see everthing in 6 days so I'll definitely be going back, possibly heading further south than Elba
We covered 600nm and our itinerary was
Antibes-Genoa delivery trip, to meet guests.
Genoa south to LaSpezia
La Spezia south to Elba
Elba back up north to Porto Venere
Porto Venere past Cinque Terra then continue north to Portofino
Guests leave in Portofino, delivery trip back to Antibes
Here's a map, bit crappo, best i could find
On the friday before the cruise the stewardess and I sailed the boat to Genoa. We had told the guests (two couples, longstanding friends of mine from London) to meet us there, despite their protestations that they wanted to join the boat in Antibes. Guests on delivery are a hassle if the sea gets up, as they get sick, need feeding, etc. The weather forecast (carefully printed off by jfm, ahem) said rough sea and we used that to get them to agree not to get on the boat in Antibes. I hope they dont see the pic below, as this was the actual sea on delivery. Smoother than any millpond I've ever seen. Five hours of beautiful sun. The stewie is driving the boat using the remote in the pic below pic, that's her head just showing, as she lies on the sundeck in front of the helm (memo to self: in my next life, dont work in city/finance, get job as stewie)
We refueled at Monaco, I wanted to be full of cheap French diesel before hitting expensive Italian fuel stops. We left Monaco in this sunny haze...
Genoa has got bad press on this forum but I gotta say i liked the place. We arrived late afternoon, had dinner in the city and the guests arrived noon the next day, so not much time to get to know it but I liked it and would go back. The marina staff were very helpful here, as was the case at all the Italian ports. Much easier folk to deal with than French marina staff, in general. Below is a pic taken off the boat as we were moored in Molo Vecchio, Genoa
With the guests on board we headed straight down to La Spezia. We bypassed Portofino and Cinque Terra, and also took the long way round to avoid seeing Porto Venere, becuase we wanted to save these treats for the way back. We moored up in La Spezia, nice marina, but needed to be as the parking spot below was (look away now if you have weak constitution) €200 for the night. They did park a red F360 at our transom though for the whole period we stayed there, so we could pretend it was the boat's shore car. Helped the ego a bit.
Next day we faffed around in La Spezia and trundled into some nice bays but the weather (as forecast) suddenly started blowing strongly from the north and heavy rain came into view. I faffed around lunching with the guests moaning about lack of sun but the stewie texted me from the galley in her usual respectful manner: "Stop buggring about, go to Elba". I didn't know where Elba was so got the chart, 90miles south. OK then, no problem. We headed south out of La Spezia in a thunderstorm, dodging 100s of boats heading for cover back into port. We had 30mins of heavy rain and a loud electrical storm, then seemed to outrun the weather and hit sun again. We saw a beautiful full 180deg rainbow. Pics of storms never seem to do them justice, they look so much more fascinating in real life, but below is a shot of what we left behind as we sailed south
4 hours later we arrived at Porto Ferrairo on Elba's north coast. Just utterly beautiful, and the fantastic marina staff gave us a lovely berth on the main strip by all the restaurants. Below is a stack of Porto Ferrairo pix. A really memorable place
We spent a couple of days all around Elba. Swimming, snorkelling, eating and drinking lots of beer and rose. Just beautiful. Fabulous anchorages. Below are just a few of them
Eventually we had to head back north, 90 miles I think, to Porto Venere, one of the treats near La Spezia that we had saved for the guests till later. We timed our Elba departure just so we would get into Venere at sunset, becuase it would look so beautiful. And before that, about 3/4 way thru the passage we were surrounded by about 20 dolphins riding the bow wave and jumping. The guests really thought they had died and gone to heaven, and I think I did too. (sorry my dolphin pic below is so rubbish tho)
Pics below show Porto Venere in daylight. It's a quaint italian town built on a steep hill, with a network of narrow steets behind the waterfront and a big church on the headland as you enter the harbour from the west. The harbour is tiny but they juggle things around and while we were there they docked the Alloy Yachts SQN on our starboard side. I think it's 38 or 40m. It's the same yacht as was alongside us to our port side in Portofino, in some pix further below
After 2 nights in PV we headed north again. We stopped at most of the Cinque Terre, which are 5 beautiful towns build into the hills along the coast up towards Portofino. The best one to stop at for boaters is perhaps Vernazza, pic below, as it has laid moorings (pick up a buoy, for free) and the harbourmaster ferries your guests ashore, also for free.
Then a bit further north still we stopped for lunch at Sestri Levante. Not the prettiest harbour but wonderfully protected from the swell so great for lunch
And finally we arrived at Portofino. Just beautiful. We had been promised a berth on the main visitors quay (where there are only 8 spaces) and sure enough the harbourmaster gave us a great spot, with the gardens behind the boat. As you can see below, if you want your boat to feel small, this is a good place to take it. But the town and pavement bars/cafes/restaurants were just beautiful. (We were in week 1 of september, so past the busy season). We got some rain here, but didn't spoil our visit
On the morning of our guests departure, the heavens opened and incredible rain poured for 3 hours at least. Their flight was 7pm from Nice so I decided the cut off was 12.30 - if the boat didn't leave by then it couldn't get them to Nice in time for the flight, so they would have to jump in a taxi. In that rain, i really couldn't sail safely. I'm happy with darkness but this was zero vis and the radar was full of rain. So no way was I leaving port. 12.30 came and they jumped in their cab back to Nice. At 1pm the rain stopped and the sun came out. Heck! Guests are lovely but after 6 days having your own space back is lovely too, so I was quite happy with the prospect of quiet delivery trip back to Antibes. Had lunch in the port then at about 3pm we set off for Antibes at a sedate 17 knots, and got back around 8 or 9pm. It was a one-waypoint 100mile+ run. And pic below shows the weather we had to contend with on the way (taken near Menton). Life is tough, eh?
So that was the trip. 600 miles and fuel bills/berhting fees I prefer not to add up. Next day, sunday, we had to tidy up the boat. We decided to do this the hard way by anchoring off La Garoupe, Cap D'Antibes. Another tough day away from the office. Below is lunch just appearing through the hatch.
That's it folks. A beautiful piece of coast. I know a few on here have covered the same ground but to anyone who hasn't I'd recommend it without reservation. Just beautiful scenery and harbours, and the friendliest marina staff I have ever come across in the Med. Also the most expensive ports, eek, but worth it imho. We didn't see everthing in 6 days so I'll definitely be going back, possibly heading further south than Elba
