We have had some recent thunder and lightning, but the last few days here in Genoa have been absolutely glorious, and today, we decided to sail to Portofino for the day, to soak up more of the sunshine and enjoy the calm conditions.
We set off at 10.45am, heading SE on one engine at 7 knots, to conserve fuel! GG become aYacht for the day, going so slow……There was a slight headwind - enough to cool us down on the fly bridge in the hot sunshine.
We arrived 2 hours later at this beautiful place and radioed the Marina, who advised us to pick up mooring number 7, apologising that their boat was broken and that they couldn’t help with our lines. Shit, I thought. We managed to hook the mooring and get a bow line through it, then reversed back to the stone quay, but our bow line was just too short for a doubled up line, to reach the quay, so we had to start again……We were just about to make our bow line longer when a little helper arrived on a rib, and tied our single line off onto the buoy enabling us to reach the quay. The harbourmaster took both stern lines and affixed to the iron rings ashore. Job done……Phew. I hate this type of mooring, give me mother and daughter ready laid chains any time! Another Prestige sports boat arrived just shortly after us for fuel, tried to get moored 4 times and gave up. That made us feel a whole lot better!
After a lovely lunch on the fly bridge, we went ashore to the Marina offices. The girl was really helpful and couldn’t do enough for us. As it was 16€ (yes 16€!!!) for a short stay of 2 hours, we decided to push the boat out and stay overnight at 32€, what the hell.
Portofino is one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen, and certainly the nicest we have come across in Italy. Little coloured houses and restaurants circle the harbour, lush greenery as a backdrop with huge mansions and the Splendido hotel dotted on the hills. Portofino is a truly stunning little village.
Once the sun went down, we went to for dinner at Restaurant Puny (recommended by the Marina). It was obviously a very popular place, as it was the busiest by far of all the eateries. We had Sole Meneuire and Oven Baked Ligurian Fish & Potatoes which were both really delicious, cooked on the bone, then filleted and served at your table. We then had desserts of Semi Freddo Coffee Mousse and Fruit Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream. Coffees rounded off a very pleasant meal with complimentary liquers of our choice.
After dinner, we had an evening stroll around the village, window shopping in Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Giorgio Armani and Rolex!
There is a saying, ‘See Sorrento and die….’, and we would like to change this to ‘See Portofino and die….’ You could never dream of a more perfect place.
Portofino is 44’18.126N 009’12.696E and we travelled the short distance of 15nm today.
We did the return trip, next day, returning to Genoa at 2.15pm, after spending the morning visiting the beautiful churches and castle in Portofino. Again, the weather was lovely with hot, hazy sunshine, with a bit of a swell and the 2 hour trip was very pleasant on one engine again.
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