Next day we headed for Stintino which sits on a peninsula at the Northwest tip of Sardinia. Originaly a peaceful fishing village founded by 45 families who were exiled from neighbouring Asinara Island in 1855 when the latter was given over to a penal colony & quarantine station. Stintino used to be a major fishing centre renowned for the annual mattanza or tuna massacre. The practice was abandoned in 1974 by which time tuna migration routes had changed. Further South where we 1^st arrived in Sardinia, Carloforte it is still practiced every end of May. Two miles North of Stitino is Pelosa beach, which we had to ourselves at that time of year. It is a Caribbean like expanse of white sand with blue green water. Offshore a ruined Aragonese watchtower dominates the island of Piana

We hired a car and toured the North & West of the Island.

Our 1^st stop was Alhgero one of Sardinia’s most beautiful medieval cities. Set on the NW coast facing Spain the Genoese were overthrown by the Aragonese, the Sardinians fled and the town populated by Catalans. The town remained in Spanish hands for four centuries. It still retains its Spanish heritage in its monuments and the Catalan names of its streets as well as Catalan style seafood dishes served in many restaurants.

The marina is massive affair and I think would be a bit more touristy than Cagliari, but I liked it though I imagine it would be very busy during July & August

On our 1^st night we arrived at dusk and had a walk around the old Genoese fortress from the middle ages.

We ate in the Marco polo restaurant just inside its battlements.

I think our last blog was in October 2015 after we decided to pitch up in Marina di Saint Elmo Cagliari for the winter and a very nice winter it was. Here are some of the pictures we took.

Views from Monte Urpinu Hill. Poetto and the Devils’ saddle are in the distance. The Devils’ saddle is, according to legend, where Mr D and the angels had a tussle; we think the pointy bit is meant to be his beard.

Cagliari centre, the old town rises up the hill

Cagliari Town

Cycle / walkway back to marina in the distance

Views from Bonaria church

The above are of the Castello sector of the city including the Roman amphitheatre

The marina was very quiet, not many other liveaboards. The only others were a French couple Frank and Annie, who we had occasional turn about nights on each other’s boats for vin rouge.

and Armando, an Italian from Milan. However, there were always comings and goings from people from other yachts that were down for a few days or others who had left their boats there for the winter and would pop out for a break now and then. We also got friendly with Otti & Rosi and some

of the other liveaboards from the marina next to us and had a few good nights out with them as well.

We decided we needed bikes; the marina was a good twenty five minute walk to the supermarket which is fine going, but on the way back loaded up it was a different story. Andrea who worked at the marina managed to get hold of a couple of second hand bikes for a total of eighty Euros, however within the first few days we had to buy a new chain, a tyre inner and puncture repair kit along with a rivet extractor for changing the chain, so all in all they probably cost us about 120 Euros. The best 120 Euros we spent, even although my brakes didn’t work. We loved them

Over the course of the winter we did around 1,200 – 1,400 miles. These weren’t all to the supermarket you understand. We would go down to the beach front which was 8 kilometres long, round to Poetto harbour, through the parks, out to some of the outlying villages, Marinas forts, and the Sella Diablo, the Devils Saddle.

There was the Carrefour Chain Saw Massacre incident. Having cycled 12 Km to the supermarket & loaded up the cheep chain we have bought in the Chinese shop refused to budge. Gordon spent an hour and 7 blades sawing through the think, I tried not to laugh too much.

That was a hoot the day we went to climb the Sella Di Diablo. We met an ex Special Services guy who was out for a run but very kindly showed us the way to the top of the Devils Saddle – this was of course done at Special Services guys’ speed,- gosh, I thought I was quite fit. Mmmm, maybe not.

Sella Di Diabalo

View down to Marina Picolo and Poetto beach

Poetto Beach in November!!

We decided not to go home for Christmas so this was our first experience of Christmas aboard. Although we missed family, we still had a really nice time. No stress on the day, in fact we went out for our usual cycle and a play in the swing park before heading back to the boat for Christmas dinner followed by our own motown party and dancing.

We also celebrated our twenty fifth Wedding Anniversary this year. Well done….I’m not sure who deserves the medal. (Editor’s note deffy – me)

Anniversary Breakfast

Anniversary Lunch

Anniversary Dinner

We spent New Year with friends Otti, Rosie, Gary and Lyn and a few others in the next marina, Marina del Sole, where we partied into the wee small hours.

We even managed not to break our first New Year’s resolution which was to go swimming in the sea on New Year’s Day, chilly let me say, but Rosie’s Gluwein helped thaw us out afterwards.

It is a lovely island with lovely people who do take a bit of time to open up to you but when they do, they are so warm and welcoming, like our Sardinian friends :

Valeria who we met at Poetto and works in Cork

and Federica, who we met at her family’s wine “filling station” She wants to go to Scotland in February time, so if anyone requires a helping hand she is looking for any kind of work for a month, please send me a text, she’s a lovely girl.

Diane arrived on Monday 5^th October.

The weather up to then had been a wee bit fluky but it knew better than to rain on her parade.

We met her off the train in downtown Cagliari in the sunshine. She had her usual red trolley dolly case and was strutting her stuff, full of business, in 4” heeled sandals. Little did she know it was a mile and a half’s walk to the boat! More anon, suffice to say her nod at Italian chic was a little premature as blisters caused her to choose between Louise’s trainers or my designer flip flops for the remainder of her visit.

Our first meal out wasn’t a great success, the waiter tempted us with crispy suckling pig. Well it was at least one of those – it was pig!, we knew this from the “hooded claw” sitting on the plate in front of us. For those not in the know, that’s our name for a pigs’ trotter. If nothing else, we had a good laugh, not that it looks like it with that finger in the air. Diane and Gordon wondered how many people would recognise that pose, seemingly I do it a lot…..all I can say is I must have cause!

I’ve always wanted to go to the Opera and what better place to do this than Italy.

Nabucco was on at the Cagliari Opera House so Diane and I got the glad rags on and headed out for a bit of culture.

What a fantastic night, we loved it……….didn’t understand a word of it, but we loved it. The audience was so mixed, from school kids to adults and the dress code was anything from jeans to that wee black cocktail dress. I don’t think that will be my last visit to the opera while I’m here. Next time though I will drag Gordon along, he didn’t fancy it, so went for a pint, but I think he’ll really enjoy it.

We couldn’t have Diane here and not go for a wee sail, so we took a trip to Villasimius about twenty-five miles east of here.

 

Leaving Cagliari Harbour

The day started out great, a nice 10-15 knots of wind, however, as we were approaching Villasimius the wind increased to a rather breezy thirty five knots. Not what you want for parking Med style in a marina. We made two brave attempts at it but with a cross wind it was nigh on impossible to tie up stern to, so we eventually went in British style, alongside, thankfully there was loads of space to allow us to do this.

Gordon and I have been to Villasimius before and knew that it was about a three kilometre walk to town. As mentioned, Diane’s feet were giving her a bit of bother so there was only one thing for it…..hitch a lift. Gordon was mortified by our goings on, but not so much so that he refused the lift from the lovely wee Sardinian man who obligingly stopped for us.

We nominated Diane to sit in front. Much to her horror when she got in there was a tub of what looked like maggots on the floor, but on closer inspection it was just left over food for the man’s dog. Not put off by this, we had a lovely night sipping cocktails followed by pizza, yum!

We decided to head back next day as the forecast was a bit iffy, which for once turned out to be right. Diane’s last two days the weather broke and we had a few showers and some pretty torrential rain.

In between times however we still managed to get out and about.

We went up to the old town to watch the sunset but we were too late in getting there so we missed it. Instead, Gordon put on a show for us dressed as the hooded claw or was it Dracula, not sure….

We also introduced Diane to the more basic side of sailing……showering in the cockpit with cold water. We didn’t bother to tell her we actually have hot water, it was more fun watching her antics when the cold water hit her, sorry Diane.

All too soon her week was up and she headed back home.

Now it’s time for Gordon and I to settle into Sardinia and get ourselves organised for the winter. I have always wanted to visit Sardinia but I think when I imagined it I would have been on the Costa Smeralda which is where the rich and famous go (and why not?). It’s an area developed by the Aga Khan. Cagliari is very different; it’s more real, it’s a working city, not just a holiday destination.

Our marina is about a twenty minute walk from the main area and there are not many liveaboards, so it’s quiet, very different form Lagos last year. But, you know what, I think we are going to like it. There are so many things to do and see, great restaurants and bars, lovely beaches, something tells me we won’t weary. We have organised 2^nd had bikes which will hopefully appear next week. Mine seems to be made up with parts from about four different bikes from the brief colourful photograph I saw of it. As long as it works and has brakes, who cares? lol.

We decided we would head for Cagliari, which would be less travel hassle for Susan and also meant she could spend more time aboard. We decided to make it a two day trip of reasonable day sails. The first planned stop was Teulada. It was a very clean marina with an egg that opened and served drinks, no kidding! It was in the middle of nowhere though.

We got a taxi that night on the premise of whether we wanted fish or meat. We chose meat, I think the girls let me chose meat when they might have preferred fish, however what a choice or rather lack of it. It was a massive beautiful set meal and they just kept bringing out more. In the end we took some back in a doggy bag for lunch on the next day’s sail.

Passage to Teulada

Galley slave making lunch with the leftovers

Content or what?

Peggy Too on the helm

Teulada Marina

The next day we set off on Susan’s final leg with us to Cagliari

The main harbour and old town in the background at Cagliari

The walkway in from St Elmo Marina were we are now berthed (masts in the background)

Having seen Susan off at 0500 onto her next holiday in Alicante via Edinburgh we went back to sleep.

Over the next few days we visited a few other potential wintering stops around the area by bus.

We finally settled on where we were in Cagliari. They all had pros and cons so only time will tell.

The next visitor will be Snawbaw, my sister in law, who is coming out for a week on the 5^th October, cannae wait. Captain Chaos signing off for now……..

We spent a couple of nights in Calasetta. It was a nice place and we even considered wintering here. Though we all agreed it could probably get a bit quiet in the winter. We tried two different restaurants and had a day at the beach just chilling, bliss after two nights at sea.

The woman from Del Monte

Goes with my eyes No ?

A Passage to India Sardinia!

Susan is a sailor back home and she was keen to do the passage to Sardinia with us. This was about 300 miles, two days and two nights at sea. So we spent the day checking alternative flights back to Edinburgh to see if it was a goer.

It was.

We set off on Monday at 0800 into an expected swell that we had hoped would subside. It didn’t and the first day was a bit uncomfortable but it quickly got Susan used to Camira.

Having three on board made the passage a whole lot easier. The second day was far better and we managed a good sail for a sustained period of the passage. We could have sailed into the night but decided to shorten sail and motor sail. This was just as well as for six hours of the night passage we altered course continually to skirt electrical storms.

At 11:00 on the Wednesday we made landfall in Porto Callaseta, Sardinia.

Leaving Palma

Sunset at sea

Dinner being prepared

Italian courtesy flag being raised by Susan

3,000 miles so far since Ardrossan

Arriving Porto Calasetta – Do we look tired and smelly , Nah not us !

Louise singing into the radio on arrival

Susan arrived from Edinburgh on the Saturday morning. The plan had been to let her catch up on her sleep as she had been up since silly o clock. However we went supermarket shopping instead!

How much fun can the one man have?

Having been to Palma before Susan wanted to treat us to a cocktail at Abaco and amazingly she found her way directly to it via numerous wee alleyways. If anyone has been in Arta in Glasgow this is where they got the idea.

This is us on our way for dinner after cocktails, Spanish style it’s now about 23:00 hours and we have between us hatched a plan for the weeks sailing ahead.

It was obviously going to be unsettled weather but we took the opportunity over the next couple of days or so to anchor in some of the callas. Dragonera is a nature reserve and you have to pick up a buoy to preserve the posedonia grass. However we managed a few nights free anchoring.

Dragonera Island in the distance

Louise in swimming before the fish came!

Me feeding the fish pieces of bread. If you look carefully you can just see them under the surface. Well come to think of it where else would they be? Down the bingo perhaps?

Only one other yacht for company that night

The next night was anchored in Camp de Mar we dighied ashore for a beer before having dinner on board.

The anchorage with Camira way in the distance

The next day the rain came on with vengeance so about 15:00 we upped anchor and set off for Palma where we arrived at 19:00 and did a tricky bit off stern too berthing. It looks easy in the picture though!

We are now waiting here for our pal Susan to come out for a week’s break.

The view from our berth in RYCP

Just so we are not totally hacking you off with good weather photos, here are a few of our epic bus trip from Andtratx into Palma.

The bus trip should only take about 45 minutes or so but it took two and a half hours on the way in and three and a bit on the way back. The weather was so severe in the Islands that it made the national news; we know this because Manuel & Victoria contacted us by email to check we were OK!

While we were in Palma a mini tornado apparently hit Port Andtratx.

However in spite of the weather that we had a sightseeing day around the capital and checked out the marina for when we moved along that way.

Mmm Chilli Heaven

Palma Cathedral