Never refuse an adventure . . .

It's just light and my brain is still on the other side of Europe after a late arrival in Italy the night before, but the phone rings and it's an Italian friend who says - 'Such a beautiful day!  Do you want to come sailing?'  Do I want to?  I love boats and the sea and rarely get the chance to indulge it (not being a boat owning oligarch - or even knowing one!).

The crew - none of them oligarchs . . .

So the unopened suitcase got left on the bedroom floor and the bed was still unmade and the breakfast dishes unwashed.  Neil swallowed the sea-sickness pills as we headed out for the boat mooring and we were soon tacking out of the La Bocca di Magra into the Mediterranean and a bit of a shock!  Although it was a clear, calm day, once out of the river there was a very lively wind and a choppy sea that had us heeled over at a steep angle gazing down at the water and an almost horizontal sail.  No photos - it's difficult to hold a camera when you're clinging to the wire with your feet wedged on the cabin.

This part of the Italian coast is called the Bay of the Poets - DH Lawrence and Byron both sailed it and now was not the time to remember that Shelley drowned here while sailing across!  We moored in Lerici to eat our sandwiches on the dockside - just time for a quick look at the main square and then we sailed up to Porto Venere where we could turn round to catch the wind to go back the way we came.

Lerici on market day

The wind died on the return trip and it was a very leisurely journey.  I'm now absolutely knackered (as they say in Cumbria), but had a wonderful and totally unexpected day.  Thank you Christian!