Sailing around the world on the traditional gaff rigged schooner Windjammer

After sitting out a few stormy days in Syracusa on the Island of Sicily, we set sail for Kefalonia, in the Ionian Islands just ahead of our friends, an Aussie family from Brisbane with their three boys on their catamaran "All Together". It was a good crossing with a nice brisk breeze and we did the journey in good time. Arriving in the early hours of the morning we anchored off the harbour in Argostoli. Went ashore in the morning for formalities and tiropitas. AAHH... it was so good to be back in Greece. We have such fond memories of this country and Argostoli didn't disappoint. It is such a lovely town with friendly people. After clearance it was off to find "souvlaki mi pita" for lunch! A couple of day's later we headed south to the island of Zakynthos and Agios Nikolaos where we tied up to a private jetty with the help of the family who also owns the taverna, service station and the supermarket. We stayed for three days, eating our favourite dishes at their taverna which was excellent. They produce lots of honey on Zakynthos so we re-stocked our supplies from a nearby farm.

We sailed around to the west coast of the Island to Shipwreck Bay. This is a spectacular bay with massive cliffs rising from the turquoise waters and a huge shipwreck sitting high and dry on the beach. It was certainly a magical place and we had it all to ourselves once the day trip boats had left. The water was cold but it was so inviting that it called for the first skinny dip of the season.

We continued south around the Peleponnese visiting many small towns and villages along the way among them Pilos, Finikounda and Methoni where we had one of our most memorable lunch. We were given a choice of local specialities directly from the oven. The taverna "Sapienza", set amongst a stand of trees including Eucalypt was owned by a young Greek couple who had lived in Australia for a number of years. It was still the month of May and the tourist season had yet to start allowing us to enjoyed the warm hospitality of the Greeks prior to the silly season. We also visited the island of Kythera at the very bottom of the Peloponnesus, being the only boat anchored in the port in Kipsali. Magnificent views from the Chora on the hill. Almost the entire island moved to Australia during the 1960's, (as did many other Greek islands) and today they call Australia big Kythera and the island Little Kythera.

We then sailed north to the spectacular medieval fortress town of Monemvassia where we spent hours exploring the narrow streets with a host of souvenir shops, tavernas and unique accommodation dwellings. We met another Australian couple, John and Jenny on "Faraway" who had been cruising in Greece and Turkey each summer for 8 years.

Hydra Island: spent a few days tied up in the main harbour. Still no cars allowed, the only form of transport is by donkey and mule. Did lots of hiking around the hills. Whilst tied up in the harbour, this guy on the dock comes over for a chat with Ashley "as they do ", and it turns out they know each other from the early 1980's when he used to run Antigua 4 out of Hydra, a beautiful Swan 60 and Ashley was just starting out as a bareboat skipper.

Poros: tied up to the town dock and got stuck into some maintenance and met up with Jenny and John again. The wind was very gusty and on the port quarter. The boat next to us left after first losing its owner over the side between the dock and the boat as he slipped off the passer rail and into the water. After all the mayhem, they dragged their anchor over ours and we ended up leaning on the guy on our starboard side. The wind was gusting at 35Knots and in an effort to avoid any incident we decided to leave in a hurry and caught our dinghy painter, which was tied to the aft rail, on an overhanging steel extrusion protruding from the other guy's pulpit. Wow, lots of damage to our stern rail but there was very little damage to the other boat. The damage to Windjammer, was to say the least extensive. We were due to meet our kids in 5 day's time for a months of cruising in Greece and this was not good timing. The starboard side timber stern rail and adjoining stainless rail incorporating the davits had been totally ripped out. We considered renting a bareboat among other things, however, after assessing the situation and determining that there was no structural damage we proceeded to put all the stern gear back together again. With a lot grunt and sheer determination plus a bit of duct tape we managed to get her looking reasonably tidy. We headed off to Aegina on Jenny and Johns recommendation to get a quote for Windjammer's repairs and deal with the insurance people. We then collected our son Sam and his girlfriend Kate the following week from Poros and made our way to Ermiono on the mainland to get another quote from Basimikopolous Shipyard. The quotes were both in excess of 20,000 Euro. There was quite a bit of work to be done but as nothing was structural we decided to continue with our cruising commitments and get the repairs done at the end of the season.

The next six weeks we cruised the Cyclades with our family, Alex joined us from London with her old school buddy Fran. Maggie our youngest who was working on a yacht in Spain at the time flew in to join us in Mykonos for 4 days. This was the first time in four years that we were all together. Being June. the weather was mostly good and we visited Siros, Sifnos, Milos, Santorini, Mykonos, Amorgos, Folegandros and one of my favourites Sikinos. There were so many os's that Sam couldn't remember the names of the islands so Folegandros was referred to as Fairy floss, and so on. We had done a two-week bareboat charter with the kids 12 years earlier so they were all keen to relive the experience. It was a fabulous time but over too soon.







After the kids departed, we continued on our journey to Turkey. We left for Turkey from Rhodes, the island that Ashley had been hankering to get back to since his early days of skippering in Greece. It was now totally overrun by tourist from cruise ships with virtually every spare space in the old city dedicated to selling souvenirs. We couldn't wait to leave so we handed in our cruising log to the port authorities who informed us that we had overstayed our Schengen visa by 1 day. They made a bit of a fuss about their rights to fine us 600 Euro each but chose not to, so with that we left for Turkey the following morning.


Turkey

One of our reasons for visiting Turkey was to get a new suit of sails as the old ones had done 65,000 miles. We had quotes from Croatia, Portugal and Spain which were really expensive and from China which was much cheaper. The quote we got from Turkey was very reasonable and if we could get them exported without VAT, the price would be comparable to what we could get out of China. With this in mind we headed straight for Gocek where we had arranged for North Sails to measure up for us. In the end we decided on UK Sails in Marmaris. They have a large loft in Marmaris and did a fabulous job. We were originally only looking at having the main and foresail done but were so impressed with the quality and workmanship we decided to have the balloon jib done as well.

We cruised in Turkey for just over 2 months spending time in Fethiye, Marmaris, Bodrum, Datca and Didim with numerous stops along the way. Our favourite places were Datca and Bozborun and the anchorage at Ekincik where we hopped on a tour boat that took us up river to Daylan and the spectacular tombs built into the cliffs. We had many a night anchored off Marmaris and Bodrum with all night party music and the morning call to prayer leaving little time for sleep. The lira took a steep fall whilst we were there so we ate like kings for the majority of the time.




We had arranged to meet our friends Rudi and Gerda in Greece for 5 days but with the Schenghen restrictions, technically we were not supposed to go back to Greece for another month, but decided to do an "illegal" entry and just stay out of the main harbours. We left Didim with our first stop in Greece being the island of Agathonisi. We figured if we kept a low profile we should be fine. So to say the least we were shocked when entering the tiny harbour we saw a parade of port police and army trucks on the dock! We attempted to drop anchor and in a "lost in translation" moment we understood them to be demanding us to tie up to the dock and they were to come aboard. We now had to get our story straight, coming up with all sorts of excuses as to why we hadn't checked out of Turkey and into Greece. It soon became clear that in fact they were telling us to get out of the harbour as there was another vessel coming in that needed room on the dock. This turned out to be a Greek naval vessel with Brigadiers and Generals on board. The port police actually had no interest in us so we tootled off and anchored in a stunning little bay next door. Phew that was close!

We then made our way to Samos to pick up Rudi and Gerda. After the ATM eating my credit card in Samos we spent the next 5 days sailing through the Dodecanese to the islands of Lipsi Leros, Patmos and finally ending up in Kos where Rudi and Gerda left us. We had a lovely few days, some nice sailing, good food, laughs and swimming in the crystal clear waters.

We sailed back to Marmaris to pick up our sails then back to Bozburun to clear out of Turkey and back into Greece. We were just short of the 3 months required to be out of Greece but decided to give it a try and checked into Simi in early September where no one batted an eyelid. We caught up with our friends Sandy and Phil from "Southern Wing" whom we had met in Fethiye. It was Phil's birthday so we went out for a celebratory lunch.


From Simi we sailed back through the Cyclades and met up with our English friends Peter and Sandra. We picked them up in the "Small Cyclades" which encompass the islands of Schinousa, Irakleia and Koufonisos. These were very pretty however Koufonisis was packed with tourists. We tied up to the last remaining spot at the end of the small pier in Schinousa one evening and were rudely awakened at 2.00am in the morning by the massive Blue Star Ferry which had backed up to the pier just metres from Windjammer (that's why it was empty) and was creating a huge turbulence.


Peter and Sandra spent the next week with us and we sailed to the southern end of Naxos where we found a taverna up on the hill serving locally grown, killed and barbecued lamb, served with the equally famous Naxos potatoes. A great evening.

There was some weather developing, with the Meltemi on its way and we ended up having an exhilarating sail across to Sifnos anchoring in Platas Gialos on the eastern side of the island. Its a beautiful anchorage with lots of activity ashore. We had been here earlier in the season but this time it was pretty uncomfortable so motored around the west side of the island stopping at a couple of the anchorages then on to the main harbour in Kamares. We hired a car for a day and drove around the island. This is our favourite island and particularly the village of Kastro on the East side. It is quite diverse with pretty little towns and lovely anchorages.

Peter and Sandra left us and took a ferry to Folegandros while we headed off to the Saronic gulf with a short stop in Serifos. Peter and Sandra's intended 3 day stay on Folegandros was cut short by a day as they were advised to leave the island early as the ferries would not be running for the following few days due to heavy weather. They ended up having an horrific 18 hour ferry trip back to Piraeus.

The heavy weather was a pre cursor to the forecast for a Medicane (Mediterranean Hurricane). The forecast had been changing daily and the whole of the Greek Islands and mainland and also parts of Turkey, were on alert. In the end the worst of it passed over the eastern Peloponnesus where we were. We took refuge in Portocheli as it was reported to be one of the best anchorages to sit this out. It's a very large and protected anchorage with a narrow entrance and good holding. There were lots of boats, both on the quay and at anchor. As the storm hit, boats on the quay were having trouble and scrambling to get off the dock. Our anchor held well but there were a number of boats dragging throughout the night. The storm lasted more than 36 hours, a tiring couple of days.

We were due to haulout in Aegina in another week so spent a couple of days exploring Spetses then back to Hydra (another favourite) for a short stint. On the 5th October we hauled out at Planaco to commence the repairs.


PLANACO

Wow where to begin.
We had a quote for repairs and the time frame quoted to do the job was 4-6 weeks. But being Greece we knew it would take a little longer. It became apparent after 3 weeks that work was going slowly so the time frame was extended to 6-8 weeks. The insurance company agreed to the extension. At least we would be finished before our scheduled trip to England and Australia mid December. We had originally considered getting the work done in July after our cruise with the kids, luckily however we didn't because the job ended up taking over 6 months. We would have foregone the whole summer. Two steps forward and one step backward, and at times two steps backward and one forward.

The carpenter employed to do the job was a very nice guy and spoke perfect English and at the time of quoting seemed skilled enough. However he was not always on the job and left unskilled employees to do the work which meant Ashley had to manage the job all the time. We couldn't leave the boat for a moment. It was a very frustrating experience however it did allow us to do a lot of work which we had not planned on so all was good. We made our trip to England to catch up with Alex over Christmas doing a road trip to Cornwall, Devon and the Cotswolds. Very pretty but oh so cold that time of year. We then left for 6 weeks visiting Sydney, Gold Coast and the Whitsundays to sort out problems with our house and damage it had sustained 18 months earlier in Cyclone Debbie. There was no further work done on Windjammer during our absence and on returning mid February we were expectant that the job would be completed by the end of March at the latest.

But with inclement weather and lack of commitment from the yard to get the job done we were there until the 25th April. In addition to the repairs to the damaged stern and rail, we had touch up work done to the topsides and painted the entire combings as well as fitting our new propeller. We also had new upholstery both internal and external.

So now in the water its off to Aegina Customs to collect our Cruising permit and head out. Surprise surprise, Customs closed due to Easter break, mind you this was three days before the Easter break. We had to wait a week before they reopened as we could not leave with out the permit. AAAHHHH. So spent a few days at the adjacent island of Agistri where we joined in the Easter festivities. On Easter Sunday, the end of lent, whole lambs are roasted on the spit in towns and villages, large and small all over Greece. It is a celebratory day with lots of eating, drinking, dancing and music.

We spent the morning preparing for our departure to Sicily and then went for lunch to the delightful L'Osteria Di Castello, a small cafe come delicatessen next to the bastion. The slow cooked dishes were to die for. Definitely one of the highlights as far as food goes in Sardinia. Simple but delicious.

5th April 2018
We left Cagliari at 8.00am with a nice light westerly wind which lasted most of the day but eventually dropped by the evening and therefore had to motor the remainder of the way. Around 9.00am next morning we arrived at Isla Marrettimo in the Egadi Islands about 20 miles east of Trapani. We were not able to tie up at the wharf as space was limited and the ferry was due in so anchored just at the entrance to the harbour. The island has a huge fishing community and also sees its share of tourism although not as much as is experienced on the two adjacent islands of Favignana and Levanza. There wasn't a lot going on but it is a lovely little island.

We had lunch at a small cafe overlooking the harbour . The wind was picking up so decided to up anchor and head for Trapani. There is a lot of rock on the bottom here and it played havoc with the anchor chain. We had a frustrating hour or so trying to weigh anchor. Finally done, we had a nice breeze to take us into Trapani. We anchored next to the main fort guarding the harbour.


The following morning we took our "Bromptons" ashore and up with the cable car to Erice, a fortified town on top of the mountain overlooking Trapani. Historic castles, churches and picture postcard cobble stoned streets overlooking farmlands and the sea. 750 metres above see level we could see the winding road back down to the port, so decided to try out the Bromptons on a steep downhill run.

Spring was in the air and there were wildflowers everywhere. Such a beautiful scenic ride down. The weather turned that evening and so had to anchor on the other side of the harbour which is marked as a designated anchorage. There was one other boat anchored with us and he soon joined us. We waited out the weather, stayed put and made use of our time doing maintenance. The following morning the French boat that was anchored next us brought up his anchor which was fouled very badly with a long fishing net. It was all caught up in his chain and he had to bring the entire thing on board to try and cut it away from the chain. A couple of hours later when we decided to leave, we found the remainder of the net on our chain. Due to our anchor not being able be brought on deck ( it comes through a hawsehole) we had to launch the dingy to cut it away. It's scary to think how much of this type of rubbish lies on the bottom of the ocean floor. We eventually set sail for Mazara de Vello a fishing port about 30 miles to the south. We considered taking a marina berth but entering the harbour we found it to be silted up and very dirty so we chose instead to anchor just outside the harbour wall which turned out to be a quite a comfortable spot. We took the dinghy into the harbour and ran aground! The harbour and river entrance was full of old derelict fishing boats, possibly to do with the tussles over fishing rights and sequestrations of North African fishing boats. The town itself was really quite interesting. It has a very large Tunisian population who seem to integrate well but live mainly in the ancient Arab quarter or Casbah with its beautiful murals and decorative painted tiles.

10th April
Birthday celebrations for Ashley, lovely lunch ashore at one of the many restaurants. Next morning at 2.00am we left for the fishing port of Kelibia in Tunisia. A good stiff northerly with a reef in the main gave us a fairly quick passage. 12 hrs. We arrived in the fishing harbour with the plan to refuel. Diesel here is a less than 1/3 of the price of Italy. At €.047c per litre it was certainly worth the detour.

It was however not without its challenges. The fuel wharf was very busy with both small and large fishing boats. We waited our turn and eventually went stern to the fuel wharf in between one large and one small boat. Mayhem for a bit but we were finally tucked in. There was no way to secure the bow ( dropping anchor was not an option) and all was well until the big boat next us decided to leave whilst we were in the middle of refuelling. Trying to keep Windjammer (with her large flared bow) stern to a dock with a stiff beam breeze and no bow anchor is not an easy task. We did end up with a bit of damage on the stern but nothing too serious.

This is a very busy fishing harbour and there is very little room in the harbour for leisure boats. When we eventually finished fuelling we were directed by the self appointed dock master to tie up against a 30ft boat for the night, however after a little discussion we managed to get ourselves alongside something a little bigger at 40ft. We visited the local village and also took a taxi into the main town about 5km away, a bustling town with typical markets, dust concrete and rubble, men chatting in cafes and lots of tantalising takeaway food outlets.We checked out the following morning and headed east for the island of Pantelleria where we docked in the main port at Porto Vecchio. We had been led to believe that berthing was free on the main quay but after docking we were advised that it was going to cost us €50 per night. As we intended staying 3 days we negotiated a rate and handed over the cash up front with no receipt offered. There is a big monument in the town dedicated to a number of men who have been killed by the mafia, so we didn't argue, anyway we were expecting another big blow and were only to glad to be secure.

Next day we unfolded the Bromptons and cycled around the south coast of the island. It is very volcanic, black rock everywhere. The houses are traditionally built in the North African style with volcanic rock and concrete domes on the roof for the purpose of collecting water. The island is very fertile and agricultural. The following day we cycled to the Mirror of Venus, a lake in a volcanic crater with hot springs. Apparently the singer Madonna spent time here when she was pregnant. We lathered ourselves in sulphuric mud and took our first plunge for the year. It is a very interesting island with fantastic views and interesting architecture. Definitely worth a visit.

15th April
Left Pantalleria at 3.00pm for Malta. Wind was light to start with but filled in later in the day and we had a great sail. Arrived in Malta next afternoon and dropped anchor in St Paul's Bay anchored just adjacent the big cliffs across the bay from the town. The anchorage itself was quite pretty but there were numerous fish farms and one immediately behind us. We went for an afternoon nap to catch up on sleep and soon woke up to a thud. The wind had picked up substantially and we had dragged on to the fish farm. The stern had drifted over the huge floating line surrounding the farm and the anchor chain was on the other side! With careful planning and then quick action we managed to come out of the incident unscathed. Phew! We reset the anchor, set the anchor alarm and had a peaceful nights sleep. Next morning we motored into Valletta. We had booked a berth at one of the marinas for 5 days. Due to high demand, the marinas here are quite expensive so upon entering the harbour we cruised around to see what other options might be available. We turned into Siliema Harbour where all of the tour day boats leave from and saw a German flagged catamaran on the town quay. We questioned whether private boats could tie up and they told us they were actually a charter boat and paid berthage but we could tie up overnight free of charge but would probably be asked to leave the next day. So we did. There was a bit of a wash on the dock from the passing ferry and cruise boats but it was in the midst of the action so to speak, which we always enjoy. Our new German friend then informed us that there was a mooring in the harbour that was owned by another charter boat who wouldn't be back for a month or so and suggested we may choose to use this for our stay which we did.

Great spot overlooking the fantastic city of Valletta. We had a great time here catching up with old and new friends and managed to pick up some maintenance supplies which we hadn't been able to find elsewhere. We went to see a symphony orchestra, visited the Old town of Mdina, chased down the best Maltese Ftira sandwich (a local specialty that Ashley had more 40 years ago and couldn't wait to get to Malta to have again to make sure it was still the same) and wandered around the old city visiting various bars and cafes.

24 April
There had been no wind the previous few days and no wind forecast for the next few, but it was time to leave, so after a quick cruise around Grand Harbour we were heading back to Sicily. We motored all the way to Syracusa arriving late in the evening. We anchored out in the bay that night and moved to the town dock the next morning. Syracusa is a very lively town and the dock is a hive of activity. Lots of people, tourists and locals walking, talking, eating and laughing.

The Ortigia Street market in the old town is a buzzing and colourful place. We ate lunch there most days enjoying many Sicilian delights. We also managed to catch up with one of our old crew members Georgina who happened to be visiting Sicily at the time. We visited the local puppet theatre which was really fun. Almost life sized puppets, the knight rescuing the damsel in distress and killing the soldiers, chopping off heads and saving the day. It was really funny and quite fascinating.

We hired a car for a few days and drove out to the town of Noto, Modica and Ragusa. Noto was a lovely town, as was Ragusa. The following day we had planned to drive to Mt Etna but the weather was due to deteriorate and a strong SW wind forecast which blows straight onto the dock and I had heard that a lot of swell also fetches up on the dock in these conditions. So not wanting to leave Windjammer on the dock unattended, we made use of the car to do some extra provisioning in the morning, then returned it early and moved out to anchor in the protected part of the bay. There were a lot of boats tied up on the dock, sailing yachts as well as some big motor yachts. Some moved off the dock that afternoon and some stayed. The big motor yachts who had decided to stay had all sorts of problems when eventually deciding to leave with anchors overlayed, one picked up another's and ended up hitting the dock causing damage to the stern. We thankfully had a nice quiet night.

We met a delightful family from Brisbane with three young boys who had been living on board their catamaran for 3 years and were being home schooled. We exchanged stories and enjoyed listening to their adventures and bid them farewell hoping to catch up with them somewhere further in our travels as you inevitably do.

A now it's off to Greece!

After three and a half months at Almerimar, we are finally leaving and starting off on our Mediterranean Odyssey . It was a very productive 3 months though. We hauled out for three weeks and did some much needed paint work on the hull and combings. We had originally organised for the yard to do a lot of the work but they just didn't seem interested or motivated so we ended up doing all the work ourselves. A job well done though and very economical. A lot of work was needed after our harsh winter the year before in Amsterdam. We found a great German mechanic, Frank and used the opportunity to have him overhaul the anchor winch. It was a job that had been waiting for just the right time and this was it. Ashley took advantage of the downtime to have his right thumb seen to. An old rugby injury that came back to haunt him. This ended up with surgery. The second thumb knuckle was pinned and fused followed by 6 weeks in a cast.
We hired a car for a couple of months, went to visit some old friends who have a house in the north of Spain over the new year. We had a lovely five days just hanging out in their house, chatting, a few drives and bicycle trips around the countryside and a wee bit of gardening. We bought a couple of Brompton folding bikes which they had bought with them from the UK. They fold up into a small vinyl bag which we made onboard and weigh less than 10kg handy for stowing in the lazarette or in the back of a car.

We also did a bit of touring around Spain visiting Córdoba, Granada, Valencia and managed some skiing in the Sierra Nevada's.



Almerimar itself was not a very interesting place, a large marina with many expat live aboards from Scandinavia, UK and Germany. However the location was great in terms of weather to do maintenance and access to the Sierra Nevada's and Andalusian countryside.


From Almerimar we planned on sailing up the coast then across to the Balaeric Islands. There was a strong south westerly breeze when we left and getting out of the marina (after a slime line snag on the propellor) and a big sea running was an abrupt wake up to be back on the move again. After a few hours all was calm and we had a lovely sail up to Cartagena. We spent a couple of days at the Club Nautica waiting out a blow and mending sails. Our foresail is in dire need of replacement so we have to be gentle with it and try and keep up the preventative maintenance. Its looking like a bit of a patchwork quilt.

Our daughter Alex who had joined us in Almerimar took a bus to visit Maggie in Valencia for a few days and arranged to meet us in Denia. After a somewhat challenging and nerve racking exit from the Port of Cartagena (due to the seabed rising fairly rapidly as it nears the shore the swell really pumps through here, especially after a big blow) we once gain had a lovely sail up to the island of Tabarca just south of Alicante where we anchored for a couple of nights. A lovely little island just a few miles off the coast. It was very quite as it was off season, but very quaint and I'm sure a lively place to visit in the summer. From there we continued on to Denia and checked in at the El Portet marina. I'm not sure if this is a family run marina but the staff were just great, extremely accommodating and friendly. It was one of the most pleasant personal encounters we had during our time in Spain. Alex returned from Valencia and the it was off to Ibiza. My only knowledge of Ibiza prior to this time was that it was a big party island with loud music and late nights. We had originally not planned to visit as this is not really our scene, but being out of season we decided on a short visit. We crossed to the bay of San Antoni, the shortest distance with best protection and anchored just off the marina. We had anticipated going ashore but after reading this excerpt from the lonely planet, "San Antoni, widely known as 'San An', is big and about as Spanish as bangers and mash. The locals joke that even football hooligans need holidays, and somehow they seem to end up in San An. It's the perfect destination if you've come in search of booze-ups, brawls and hangovers" we decided to stay onboard and leave early the next morning for the north of the island. We had another great sail and the weather was starting to warm up. Still only early March but things were looking good. We anchored in Cala Portinax in beautiful clear blue water and I could actually see the anchor on the bottom. Its a long time since we have seen that. Alex decided it all looked to enticing that she was over the side for a swim, whaaa! water was only 16.8 degrees. A quick exit. The next day we did a great hike up along the ridge to the north eastern side of the island.

This really is quite a spectacular coastline and well worth the stop. Being out of season though most of the town was shut down but we did manage a nice lunch at one of the local restaurants. A good SW breeze took us across to Mallorca where we anchored in the pretty little bay Cala la Portals on the south western side of Bahia de Palma. We were expecting another blow that night and despite the anchor being set in sand we dragged 3 times. A long night so left early in the morning and took a berth at the Palma Yacht Club. Alex left for London to start an 8 month work stint. We caught up with an old Airlie Beach friend, Christian Pleydell and his wife Amy who have been living on the island for the past 8 years. It's always great to meet up with people in random places. After coffee and a chat we were off to the north end of the island to catch up with some other Airlie friends Charles and Megan Wallis who were on a cycling tour in the town of Pollensa. First day we had a great sail up to Puerto Soller, then continued the following day to Pollensa. Once again the SW breeze was up, but turned out to be quite a bit stronger than forecast. 15-20 turned into 35-40 knots, too late to drop sail so we goose winged up the coast until the main shackle on the main boom suddenly gave way. The gaff hit the spreader which broke. Finally got things under control and fortunately no other damage. Made it for our lunch appointment with Megan and Charles and had a lovely afternoon catching up. Our plan was to spend four or five days in Menorca but due to another weather system coming through which was going to hit Menorca pretty hard and our plans to meet another friend in Sardinia gave way to us deciding to sail straight for Alghero in Sardinia. The weather appeared to be favourable and so we left about midday estimating an approximately 40 hour trip. A nice 15 knot breeze faded to no wind about 24 hrs later and within 1/2 hour to 35 knots. Once again too much sail up and too late to take it down or reef we rode it downwind for about 1 1/2 hrs and arrived in Alghero at 3.00am. Exhausted, we dropped anchor inside the harbour wall and slept until the coastguard turned up at 8.00am informing us we could not anchor in the harbour (which we knew but could not find anywhere to berth on our arrival). We found a space on the main dock just outside the gate to the old town and headed off in search of a good Italian spaghetti for lunch. We spent a week in Alghero. A nice old walled city with lots of charm. Murray joined us and and we headed across the bay to Porto Conte where we picked up a mooring in Cala Dragonera and walked to one of Sardinia's most famous attractions, Neptune's Cave.

We had a guided tour of this fascinating cave. Only 5 of us on the tour. In summer, the cave can be accessed directly by boat and tours sometimes consist of 300-400 people. Hard to imagine. Some things are just better done off season.

Contemplating the weather again...do we go north east to Bonafaccia in Corsica and then to the Maddelana islands or head down the west coast to Cagliari. The wind made the decision for us and down the west coast it was.

Had some great sailing, with stops made at the pretty town of Bosa and the Island of Carloforte. In Carloforte we bought some of the local wine for €2.50 a litre and had a great meal at the local pescheria (retail fish shop) directly opposite the town dock where we docked for free. We wandered in to take a look and noticing a few tables in the back asked if we could eat. The proprietor informed us that he would need to wake the cook (his wife) as she was taking a short nap. She cooked us some local pasta, octopus and two large fresh bass. Fabulous meal and company. We were aiming to make it Cagliari for the Easter weekend where there were reputed to be local festivities so we left early next morning and rather than going straight to the city, anchored off the ancient ruins of Nora, just 10 miles SW of Cagliari. We took a guided tour through the ancient city with its old bath houses and mosaics. Beautiful sunny day!
We finally made it to Cagliari and booked a berth for a week at the Sant Elmo Marina about 2kms out of the city.

After exploring the city for a couple of days we hired a car and drove into the interior of the island. Our mission was to find some roast suckling pig, a Sardinian specialty. Murrays' nose for food took us to the town of Oliena and the Su Gologone restaurant. This town is in the Barbadian hinterland between the mountains (which had a fresh dusting of snow) and the valleys. It is a large agricultural region with vineyards and olive groves. We booked an apartment in the town and went for dinner.


It didn't disappoint, everything we expected and more. They offered us a wine tasting of the regional wines after dinner which was really very personable and interesting.

The following day, Easter Sunday, saw a religious procession through the town which included men firing guns of all types, rifles, pistols and even an AK 47 from the roof tops. It was really quite bizarre, there were plastic shells everywhere. It is apparently a tradition (not sure where it comes from) but there are many murals in the town, one of which depicts a local granny who loved to fire her rifle every Easter Sunday from her balcony.

Back in Cagliari, we dropped Murray off at the airport to fly home to Australia and we were off to Sicily.