Is this the Caribbean?

Capraia, Italy

It looked like the Caribbean, a small rugged island, clear turquoise water. But it was Italy, Capraia, a tiny island that doesn’t thrive on tourism, but thrives on nature instead. We pulled into the island’s only real anchorage, looking for the 15-foot depth that our cruising guide promised, but found 90, 60, 40 feet. We moved in closer than we normally would for shallower water and settled Berkeley East in front of some odd-looking moorings, it was a good spot. It was a very pretty, but very small bay and soon we were surrounded by boats anchoring, and boats waiting for moorings. We noticed that there were too many boats for the number of moorings available, then it hit us, the odd-looking moorings held two boats each, one in front, one in back, and BE was right in the middle of the front row. We quickly decided to take a mooring for the night.

In the morning we went on shore for some hiking. A quick stop at the information office for a map, but wait, the office is only open on weekends when the ferry comes to the island. One tourist office, one ferry, only open on weekends, Capraia really didn’t cater to tourists. We found a map and went on a hike.

Other than some grapes growing around the hillsides, we felt we had left Italy completely. We really could have been anywhere, the Caribbean, Catalina Island, the hills of Malibu. We had the same feeling as we sailed BE around the island, it was beautiful, natural, pure, we could have been anywhere.