Tue 25 Sep – Party in Lipari

On Tuesday morning we were up early, woken by the wind which had started to build. It was clear this wasn’t going to be a good anchorage to sit out the winds, so we decided to head over to Lipari. Up on deck we spotted our friends who’d anchored about 250m away, but how to get to them?!?It was a bit too far to swim and neither of us had our dinghies ready – we were so near yet so far! We aligned plans over WhatsApp and decided to meet up in Lipari marina later in the day. We wanted to bag a good spot so left at just after 09:00, had a quick chat with the girls as we passed and sailed under jib along the two hours to Lipari.

The marina was perfectly situated for the forecast NE winds as it was tucked behind a large hill. We were met in the marina by their RIB and directed into a tiny space, which with the help of a few people we squashed and squeezed our way into. Our neighbour, Jim helped us with our lines and once we were all tied up we had a proper introduction and a nice chat.

A few hours later our friends arrived and Sharon did a super job of mooring their heavy 50ft boat (with no working bow thrusters) stern-to in an awkward crosswind. We headed into town together for a drink then came back to the boat to catch up on some admin. In the evening we went to Jim’s boat for a “quick” drink and ended up chatting for over 4 hours. Jim, an American, is a supremely fit 70 year old who’s sailing around the Med single-handed on his 42ft Hanse. He had so many interesting stories to tell we completely lost track of time.

We said our goodbyes then starving hungry and rather merry we went in search of food before braving the party on Sharon’s boat. As we came out of the marina wondering where the hell we were going to get food from, we looked up to see a pizzeria – perfect! We got a couple of pizzas to take away and sat on a bench under a tree overlooking the marina, feeling very happy and very giggly. ?

Psyched up and fed we were ready, which was lucky as the party was in full swing! We were greeted by Sharon and Debs, their super fun crew plus the rest of their 5 boat flotilla. As soon as we were onboard a “magic cocktail” of god-knows what alcohol was thrust into our hands, and from there we danced, sang, laughed, reminisced about the Fastnet and partied hard until we couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer. We staggered back to Bini and could still here them going strong from the comfort of our bed. We lay there feeling kinda thankful we were a few pontoons over, and that we didn’t have to do any of the apologising to the neighbours or the clearing up! 😉 This had definitely been one of our best days yet! ?