Mafia country
27 May 2012 | Favignana, Sicily
George, hot!
We're moving along so quickly, I haven't got time to write info on everywhere we have been. I have at long last managed to buy a SIM card for my iPad on the Italian WIND network, pay as you go, rechargeable anywhere. It was seemingly impossible to buy one in France, they wanted you to have a French address and French bank account, but not so in Italy. It is apparently ten euro a month for ulimited Internet access, which is ideal.
After leaving Olbia and having no mooring fees for two nights we moved south down the east coast of Sardinia, first to a relatively new harbour called La Caletta. The town was unattractive but we stayed for free overnight on the quay without water or electricity. We spoke to a friendly German guy who knew the area well as he had been living aboard his boat for a while. We had a walk around the small but uninteresting town and had a drink at a small bar that the local fishermen seemed to use. When we came to pay, the lady behind the counter appeared not to be able to give us any change from a ten euro note, which seemed a little strange, so we had to dig into our pockets to find the right money which was only 2.50 for one large bottle of local beer
The next day we left for our final port of call in Sardinia, a very nice small town called Arbatax. The joke being that we hoped we didn't have to pay too much 'arbour tax, which turned out to be true, as it was one of the lowest charging marinas we had been to, only 12 euros a night including free water and electricity. The little marina had a bar and restaurant attached, but we walked into town and found a bar with friendly locals. There was also a well shocked supermarket, bread shop and a cash machine.
A very sad occasion the next morning - we decided to leave behind my eBay bike which we had brought with us from Gosport. The bike had been really useful while in France, particularly for shopping in Beaucaire, but now it was getting to be a hassle tied on the aft deck. So we decided to give the bike a new home and I left it in a bike rack in Arbatax marina with a couple of other bikes already there for company. Must remember to send the bike a postcard now and again ....