Our diving deferred we headed off towards Cagliari, the wind decided to be on the nose pretty much the whole trip so we motored in light westerly winds over the 20 miles to our berth in Marina St Elmo.

We were about 10 days earlier than our booking so ended up further out on the pontoon than booked but we will be able to move inwards in a day or so. As we moored up Bruce and Caroline from 'Flirtie' came out to say hello. We last saw each other a year ago in Chipiona and had a lot to catch up on. We spent the rest of the day getting secure and tidying up and at 19.00hrs Bruce and Caroline came on board and we spent the evening over pasta, salad, cheese and biscuits (and a few bottles of red wine) discussing our journeys to Sardinia and sharing recommended places to visit and plans for next year's voyages. We also seemed to cover everything else from families, politics, weather, Corsican and Sardinian society etc, etc. With surprise we realized it was 01.45 in the morning and decided to call it a day. We all slept well.

The wind was stronger the next day and we spent a while reinforcing and tightening our lines to prevent being pushed back against the pontoon. We worked up the list of jobs to be done which as usual spills over two pages of A4 and looks somewhat daunting. We tried to start by getting advice from the office on local trades-people to do some of the work but it was closed so we will probably have to wait until Monday now. We did manage to arrange with the mariniero to move along the pontoon into better shelter next door to 'Flirtie' when the current occupant leaves tomorrow.

Our focus for the next couple of weeks will be the maintenance list and getting Splice ready for winter. Sails off, external gear removed, lines doubles and, given what we have heard, rat protection in place!!
A busy time to come.

Photo: The view of Cagliari from our berth. The church to the right of picture rings a tune on its bells every hour!