Since it was first of May yesterday, they jacked up the mooring price in Cala Galera marina, more than doubled it, so I went out in the bay and dropped the anchor. Before I departed I had the time to take the bike to nearby Porto Ercoli. Very nice place, in a very sheltered bay. They take no visitors in the port though I was told, it´s run by an association for the locals mostly.

It was raining and quite cold in the afternoon, so I spent all day on the boat, doing some maintenance work.

I woke up early and took off around eight. Just as I came out of the bay and caught some wind, I heard a sound from the stern that made me very nervous. I could see it came from the rudder movements. I went down and checked the autopilot, but could not find any problem there. I tried to localise the sound, but all I could hear was that it had to do with the rudder. I had to convince myself that the only reasonable thing to do was to return to Cala Galera, which is an important yachting center with all kind of service. Porto Giglio, where I was going, has nothing to offer, more than divers I guess.

Back in the bay I dropped the anchor again, on with the swim suite and into to cold (relatively) water for an inspection. The rudder seemed very stable and completely normal, except there was some growth on it, mostly slimey green but also some barnacles. There was a bunch of them on the top of the rudder, and also some on the hull, under the rudders swing radie. Since the rudder swings very close to the hull at its inner part, I wondered if the barnacle colonies could cause this sound? It didn't seem likely to me, but they were for sure doing nothing good, so I went up for a scrape and got at least the critical area clean. Shivering with cold I started the engine, lifted the anchor and took off again, nervous to see it my efforts have had some effect. To my release the ugly sound was gone! And it didn't return for the whole day. If it was the barnacles or something else that was the cause, I don't know.

Out at sea, after a slow start, I got a perfect wind around 10 knots , mostly on the beam, and was at Giglio around 5PM. About 4 hours later than I had planned, but it was still plenty of daylight, so I jumped on the bike and went up to the little village of Castello, which is said to be one of the most beautiful fortressed villages in all of Italy. I have seen quite a few of them, and I tend to agree on that verdict. Very medieval feeling, one could easily imagine Game of Thrones characters in the narrow alleys.

I wanted to visit the third village on the island, Campese on the west side, but it was getting too late for that, and one more steep climb would maybe be a bit of a stretch for an evening bike ride - Castello is on more than 400 meters altitude, and going back from Campese would be almost the same altitude to climb, but on 4 kilometers instead of six.

Tomorrow strong winds are forecasted, but since they come from the south, I hope they will carry me back to Elba, where I will seek protection for the gale that is forecasted for Sunday. Going with the wind is so much easier than beating against it. There is a lot in the old English upper class adage "Gentlemen don't sail against the wind". I think I shall consider this wisdom more in the future. Though I change it to "Old men don't sail against the wind".