I woke early enough to be able to watch a spectacular sunrise around 4/5am, which had me thinking we were set up for another glorious day.

As it happened, although the day started out dry it quickly became very overcast and very cold, by early evening the weather deteriorated into heavy rain. We were very glad that we had done our island “tour” yesterday when the weather was nice.

Today we didn’t do much, we had hoped / planned to go out at some point in the canoe, but it was so cold and windy that in the end we didn’t. Instead we shared a cake at the airport cafe in the afternoon and watched a couple more planes land and then take off.

Earlier we had driven into Castlebay to get an Indian take-away to heat up later for dinner (the campsite has a microwave). The cafe (Kisimul) was highly recommended and the food was great!

We ate dinner inside the tent and listened to the rain battering down, then watched a couple of episodes of a tv show that Paul had downloaded to his iPad.

No spectacular sunsets tonight, and the forecast for tomorrow is pretty dreadful – unlucky timing as we have to pack the camping gear away tomorrow and then put it all back up again when we get to Uist…

What an absolutely stunning island Barra is! Wow! We loved Harris and Lewis, and they had some awesome beaches, but for us Barra is the creme de la creme! Stunning white sand beaches and turquoise sea at almost every turn, very quiet, very remote, tiny little villages and scattering of houses here and there, it is just perfect.

And this is July, peak season, there seems to be hardly any other tourists here. The beautiful beaches, although not quite deserted, are just so quiet, just a scattering of people sitting enjoying the view, having a stroll or walking their dog. And Vatersay, which is adjoined by a small bridge, has 2 beautiful crescent shaped beaches on either side of a thin stretch of machair.

We slept with just the mesh closed over on our front tent door, so if we woke we could watch the sunrise. The sea air made for a good sleep, but I woke a bit before sunrise and for a short while enjoyed the sky beginning to light up before I went back to sleep again (sunrise is about 4.30am, so a bit early for rising!)

One of the unusual highlights of Barra is watching the one daily flight from Glasgow come in and land on the beach – the timetable for the flights is based on the tides. I believe this is the only airport in the UK where the runway is a beach!

The cafe at the airport does some amazing home made cakes, very generous portions too, one between the 2 of us was ample. Nice creamy cappuccinos also, again we would highly recommend.

After watching the fight land and then take off back to Glasgow, we returned to the campsite and took our canoe out for a wee paddle, it was so nice, and felt very safe as the tide was coming in and we stayed in shallow waters.

For dinner, as it ended up being a lovely sunny afternoon / evening, we decided to have a BBQ, however, either we timed it badly or the flies from miles around smelled the food, we were overrun with hoards of flies, the worst thing was we had also left the tent door open and several dozen ended up inside (just as well we had brought a can of Raid with us), so lesson learned, wait till late and cook inside the tent and / or don’t leave the tent door open when you are eating outdoors…

To end the day we watched what was probably the most spectacular sunset we have ever seen – check out our Exploreourworld Facebook page for photos…

More Photos will be loaded later, due to very slow or non-existent internet connection…

We started the day by cramming the car full of our camping gear and inflatable canoe, then it was off to Oban to get the ferry to Castlebay on Barra.

We hadn’t been to Oban for several years and were very pleasantly surprised by how nice it is. Although we didn’t have lunch there as we had brought sandwiches, there were lots of restaurants that looked great, serving fresh seafood etc, some of them had a lovely location on the waterfront. I think we shall go back sometime just for a one or two night trip. As it was, on this occasion, we had about an hour and a half spare to have a quick look around and buy an ice cream (from the “Pokey Hat” – home made Italian ice cream, we highly recommend it!)

The ferry trip to Barra was good, a 5.5 hour crossing and very scenic, especially as we sailed along the channel with the mainland on one side and Mull on the other. We even saw some Minky whales during the sail, which was fantastic!

We sat on deck for a while enjoying the views, then as it was a bit cold, moved indoors, but still were able to enjoy the views thanks to the big picture windows.

Both of us had fish and chips for dinner on the ferry, the fish they said, was freshly caught in Barra and was very nice.

Arriving at Castlebay, you can see the ruined castle as you sail in to the harbour. Our campsite was Scurrival, which is at the top end of the island, and the setting is just stunning! Looking over the colourful machair to white sand beaches and turquoise sea, so beautiful! And our electric pitch is just perfect, looking to that exact view.

The campsite owner Angus is so nice, and the campsite has all the facilities in an old Croft house, I can’t think of anything that is missing, they seem to have everything you could need. Again, we would thoroughly recommend!

The drive here was stunning, we can’t wait to explore further over the next few days, and hopefully if it’s not too windy, get out in our canoe. So excited!

As a footnote, we are so glad we decided to bring our small heater and electric blanket, as it is so cold! July in Scotland…..

Saturday 25th May:

Not a huge amount to say about today, we headed back to Naples on the 1.30pm ferry as we thought it would be nice to just chill on Procida till lunchtime.

We had a relaxing morning, lunch at Corricella, a stroll round Naples Old Town and a look in the cathedral which Elena had told us about. As it’s the “done thing” in Naples it was pizza for dinner, and then an early night as we

were so tired. The place we booked to stay in the Old Town (Mercury Home) was really lovely and the staff very friendly. We would highly recommend to anyone staying in Naples.

No hassle at all the next day (Sunday) the lovely girl at hotel made us some coffee before we left, 25 Euros for a pre-booked taxi straight to the airport, fairly quick run in, flights were on time. It was raining, and the forecast was not good, so we didn’t feel too sad to be leaving and are looking forward to some “home comforts” on our return.

Friday 24th May:

Our last day, and a rather unfortunate mishap to finish the holiday with…

We decided to go into a bay that was just before the marina to drop anchor and have lunch. On our way in we made a misjudgement and hit some rocks! We thought we were stuck, and radioed for help, but no-one responded. We ended up phoning the base and were told we had to call out the coastguard.
However, Paul put on his wetsuit and had a look, there appeared to be no damage and he shouted out instructions to gently get the yacht off the rocks using the bow thrusters to help the manoeuvre. Once the yacht was free again, we abandoned our lunch plans and got back to base!
We had to circle around for a while to wait for the fuel station to open, then a quick stop to refuel and in we went. So again, no sailing, but there was no wind to catch anyway.

It’s almost certain we will lose our 900 Euro deposit, but we won’t know for sure until the diver has been out to asses if / what damage has been done, although Paul didn’t see any noticeable damage when he went in the water to look, so we will see, but not holding out much hope.

Anyway, on a lighter note we had a really lovely final group meal and enjoyed the company of the others on our flotilla.

All in all, it has been a good week, obviously excluding our “mishap” on the final day. There wasn’t much sailing though, initially due to the bad weather and swells at the start, in which we didn’t feel comfortable at that point to put up the sails, then latterly due to lack of wind. The weather has been mixed, but a fair bit colder than we had expected most of the time. The scenery has been beautiful, the company great, the “Food & Wine” idea was novel and a nice change.

Below are some photographs of our flotilla group and yachts, with just a few of the group missing as they either were not there at the time I went round with my camera, or they prefer not to have their photo on the Internet.

For our flotilla group, if you want you can also follow us on Facebook – Exploreourworld and message is there too. If you were on our flotilla are reading this, it has been lovely to meet you all and special thanks to our lead crew John, Eduardo, Elena and engineer Luigi! Xxx

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Thursday 23rd May:

We finally got a really good sail today, after leaving Sorrento for Ischia it was a nice straight sail with both sails up for several miles at around 5-5.5 knots, then a tack for a few more miles. When we got nearer and tacked once again, our speed slowed, so we put the motor on for a short while.

It was our plan to stop at the hot springs in Sorgento but that would have added at least another hour under motor to the journey, and the sea looked quite choppy over that way, so in the end we cut across to the same spot we had dropped anchor at the previous time, and had a late lunch on our yacht. We hope to try again for the hot springs tomorrow, if we do get there it will be the first and likely the only time to take a dip in the sea on this flotilla.

We moored at the main port on Ischia this time, it is very pretty, and reminds us of Greece. Many restaurants line the marina close to our yachts.

Wine tasting, nibbles and a tour of the wine cellar was included tonight. The wine cellar / cave was interesting, we were told it dates back to the Roman Empire when the cave tunnel was used to escape from pirates!

The wine this time was much nicer, and we bought a couple of bottles to bring back to the yacht for tomorrow.

Again, it was nice just chatting to everyone on the flotilla, it’s been a really nice group, and everyone is easy and interesting to talk to. I have been taking photos of the yachts and crews with the intention to post them at the end of this blog, as long as people are happy for me to put up the photos. I think I have managed to get all the yachts now, though there may be a few crew members missing from the odd one as they weren’t on the yacht at the time.

Wednesday 22nd May:

Today the weather finally really picked up, it was warm and sunny, and even the evening was pleasantly comfortable. We were all happy, this had been the sort of weather we had expected and finally it was here.

After an enjoyable time in Amalfi, we set sail for Sorrento. Jules once again magically and skilfully manoeuvred us out of the incredibly tight space we were moored in, then with an “arrivederci” he was off to help the next yacht and we were on our way.

Once again unfortunately there was very little wind, so we motored most of the way. We did manage to catch some better wind not far from Sorrento and took a short sail, about 45 minutes, just to enjoy the peace and quiet of having the engine off and being out on the sea.

During our sail today we made a stop just outside Positano intended for lunch but the yacht was rolling too much, so instead Paul went in for a quick swim to the beach (in his wetsuit, as the water was cold!) and Tony got his fishing line out (no luck catching a fish though). We found a slightly more sheltered spot to anchor once we were near to Sorrento, and made a late lunch there.

On the approach to Sorrento, at first I thought it looked quite ugly, but as we got closer it was actually very dramatic. The town is spread along the top of some very sheer sea cliffs, where you have the option to take the zigzag path or the lift up to the town.

Our flotilla group went out to one of the restaurants in town and enjoyed another nice traditional Italian meal with good company, prosecco, wine and limoncello. Prior to the meal, we watched a beautiful sunset from the top of the cliffs.

Tuesday 21st May:

In the morning we spent a couple of hours exploring Capri and some stunning viewpoints. The islands landscape is very dramatic, but the main town was just full of shops, which wasn’t of any interest, though there were some nice buildings and churches and an old monastery.

They call it the “Blue island” and we could see why- the sea is an amazing azure colour, and had we dropped anchor rather than been in the marina, I’m sure we would all have gone in for a swim despite the cold.

Speaking of cold, the weather was better today, but still very chilly when the sun is behind cloud and even more so in the evenings when it has gone down.

We managed a bit of a sail today, around 4-5 knots, and it was nice to get the motor off for a while, but as we wanted a bit of time to look around Amalfi on arrival, we ended up motor sailing the bulk of the journey and arrived in around 5pm. Jules, who runs the marina, popped on board each yacht to steer us all in, just as well, we have never seen such manoeuvring before! No way we could have done it without damaging a few boats and our own!

Sailing along the Amalfi coastline was very beautiful, and having seen the roads we were glad to be sailing rather than driving! Although we didn’t drop anchor, we sailed in close to the pretty town of Positano for a look and to take some photos.

The lead crew did a buffet on the marina with wine and limoncello for dinner, and everyone got a chance to chat and trade stories from our free sail day on Monday.

Well, if we found yesterday a tad “adventurous” all it did was sort of prepare us for today! It started out quite nice, a bit of sun, rolling seas, but not too cold, then as the sail progressed we rolled, and we bounced, and we almost managed to dodge the thunderstorms…. Well we dodged the first one, but we got caught right in the middle of the second one! Thunder, lightening, rolling seas…. And freezing cold! Glynis and I were literally shaking with the cold, even with fleeces and rain jackets on. Geez, it was colder than sailing in Scotland! The photos just don’t show it, but hopefully Paul’s video when it’s all ready will do.

It was what flotillas refer to as a “free sail” day, so within reason you choose where you go and do your own thing. We chose Capri, along with 4 of the 10 other yachts. Some stayed on Ischia (however they will have a very LONG sail tomorrow) and some went to Sorrento (which we decided against as we are going there in a couple of days anyway).

Luckily we got help again mooring, one of the other yachts who had chartered a skipper got in before us, and helped us out. Capri is quite a stunning island, more so when the storm had passed over…

One other thing we have become very aware of in Italy is the exorbitant cost of the marina fees, which apart from mooring have between little to no facilities. Last night was 55 Euros, no facilities at all, and tonight 130 Euros plus you pay for your electric, all they have is a couple of toilets and showers (no shower gel, hairdryer etc). One of the 44 foot yachts were charged 280 Euros! This will definitely put us off sailing in Italy again.

As we booked a food & wine flotilla, most meals are included, so tonight we decided to make an “eat on board” night. We had already pre-planned it to an extent and had brought with us paella rice and spices. It was great, and of course very cheap.

Now we are sitting on deck with a glass of wine and blankets over us to keep warm!

We have been told this is the last of the “bad weather” so fingers crossed and we will see what tomorrow brings….

Sunday 19th May:

Wow, it was a COLD night! We were kitted out with one blanket per cabin, so along with most other people on the flotilla, we asked for a 2nd blanket, much needed.

It was a bit of a hairy first day, started out ok, although we motored rather than sailed to our lunch stop at Aragonese Castle. The weather had turned a bit cold, with the odd shower and a very fresh breeze! We were glad we had all brought fleeces and jackets! Apparently it is unusually cold for this time of year. However, the occasional break in the clouds let some sun through and warmed us up a little.

We then decided to get the genoa sail out and see if we could catch some wind, which we certainly did! However, as we were more or less sailing into the wind, we had to do some long taks, which made it slow going. On top of this, the sea swell was around 2 metres and coming side on, so it was a rough ride, lots of bumping and rolling. We decided not to hoist the main sail, and after a while put the motor back on and motor-sailed to the port (Forio on Ischia), with a very brief stop in a pretty bay to bring the genoa in where the water was calmer, before reaching the port.

We had a short walk around, then dinner and wine as part of our “package” with the flotilla group – 38 of us, so possibly the largest flotilla group we have had. Good company, nice meal, but the local wine wasn’t really to our taste.

We are not yet sure if we are now going to Capri tomorrow as the lead crew indicated it could be a “rough night” as the weather forecast is not so good. Our briefing is at 9am tomorrow, so we shall see….