What a special day we had - about two days ago now, but oh, so fresh in my memory.

We had arrived at Cala Ganone the afternoon before with an expectation of "the prettiest spot along the coast", so a little disappointed in what we saw. Little did we know what was to come!

Moving on a little further south from the beach town, a maze of caves and rock formations greeted our eyes, and we decided to put down an anchor in the shallow little bay of Cala de Luna. After all, the weather was being extra kind to us at the moment, and the promise of exploring those sea caves on that lovely stretch of beach was an exciting prospect for the next morning.

Even the customary chill in the air, that is our early greeting these days, didn't perturb us. We jumped out of bed and straight into the dinghy. Well rugged up, and the foresight of a torch strung to my back, we eagerly departed our warm haven.

The ensuing adventure of huge caverns and secret winding passages through fissures and rock, conjured up an image of myself (in my bare feet), as that eternal Hobbit seeking out an answer someplace deep. We had recently been watching, you guessed, Lord of the Rings. My feet didn't fair as well as Frodo's would have and I became a little nervous when Kevin mentioned the fact that if the torch failed we would be lost. So our return journey held that added element of nervous anticipation, and a mix of wonder and relief was felt when the first glimmer of natural light started to appear again.

With reluctance we left our wondrous ghettoes as we still had the beach caves to explore. Scooting back towards our anchorage in the tender, we noticed that the boat we had seen running along the coast, had suddenly done an about turn and was looming towards us at great speed. Intimidating, sitting in a tiny dinghy, with a large boat nearly abeam of you and not appearing to want to stop. But with typical Italian aplomb and skill the Guardia captain suddenly pulled alongside us, then escorted us, at speed, back to the mother ship. The normal check of legal papers ensued (we had become used to this by now and were well prepared), a jovial wave goodbye, they were off, and we too were off again to explore.

First the beach with it's icy water, it's smooth pebbles and washed driftwood, then the caves, huge and deep into the cliff face. Then the delight of sitting in the sunny river valley as we watched the group of mountaineers climbing down the steep incline with an agility that no man could equal. A herd of Sardinian goats made light of moving down the cliffs to join us below.

We were reluctant to leave this spot, the sun had lulled our spirits into a false sense of "this is as it always will be". We had ahead of us a lot of unprotected coastline to cover, and only a week ago we had sat out 65 - 70 knot winds. No complaints though, the late afternoon cruise south greeted us with yet more fascinating scenery, sheer cliffs with pinnacles of rock climbing abruptly into the sky. The night anchorage proving calm, and the backdrop of "where we had been" as our backyard on this day.

"So that was one wondrous day", I thought as we motored in serene waters the next morning. But wait, it wasn't quiet finished! A cheerfully, happy dolphin decided to cavort with us and send us on our way. As I stood at the bow, he played with us for a little while, then rolled over under my feet, smiled, showed me his white belly, and waved goodbye.