Sailaway - Logbook

To continue our adventures into 2010, please use the following link:Italy, Sardinia 2010

We wait anxiously at the airport for Mum, she is joining us for a couple of weeks. I (Kevin) have to return to the UK mid January, I take her back with me then - an escort ensures she leaves!

Mum very quickly falls into the way of life, well hers any way - we are guaranteed to loose weight servicing her every whim!

Once back aboard Sailaway we grab a bite to eat, as I check our email she settles down to an Irish coffee, then for dinner moves onto "Bucks Fizz" - not bad for a women that does not drink? Still realises when she discovers we have "Bacardy Breezers" on board.

To see the New Year in we plan to walk down to "Via Roma", the main promenade, off the water front. There are numerous attractions, street markets, fun fare and a theatre, on which would be live music.

We walked the street, inspected the stalls, I had a burger, then as it was still early for the main attraction, settled down for coffee.

The main attraction was "Claudio Bagolioni, with the Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio". Unknown to us but, from an Italian perspective "very popular" the whole area was packed! The stage was complemented with the typical large screens, a great help to all.

Log Entry Wednesday 30th December - Dinner with Ann & Steven (Wandering Dragon)

A couple of weeks previously we had drinks on "Wandering Dragon" with Steven & Ann, we had been promising to have them over onto Sailaway before Ann's mum arrived - tonight was the night! Our on-board Chef (Ann) cooked a wonderful Mediterranean Peppers, it was lovely, even Steven and Ann enjoyed it and they did not have too!

There was a very good match in humour that evening, fuelled by red wine, the best combination I feel. Strangely, Ann (Wandering Dragon, not the Chef) did not say a great deal - she was unable most of the time?

Log Entry Monday 28th December - Kevin makes new friends, but, looses his Christmas present!

Kevin had been good, well "quite good", so, Santa brought him a remote control power boat. We had been experiencing a lot of strong winds, typical to this time of year. A calm day, as today, gave him his first real opportunity to try it out. Off he went, I watched from Sailaway with the camera. It was not long before the kids spotted him, now he was in trouble!

It was not long before he con seeded, the kids now had an "order of turn" sorted, not sure where Kevin was? He left them to it, asking them to return it when the batteries went flat as he had others in reserve.

There is "traditionally", we are told a Christmas dinner on Christmas Day, we initially decline, as we prefer to spend that particular day alone on Sailaway. There is a meeting called, it turns out that many others voice their reluctance to participate - in true style a vote is held, they opt for the 24th. Steven (Wandering Dragon), an other of the objectors, knock on Sailaway to invite us to the 24th, we join the meeting.

All participants help create a menu from English, Dutch, German, Italian and French dishes, all are given dishes to prepare. Kevin volunteers for the position of treasurer, to collect monies in and pay out the relevant costs. There are 22 adults and 5 children to cater for. Ann and Julia (Wild Oats) are also tasked with acquiring and wrapping gifts for the Santa's sack for the children - I keep them topped up with irish coffees

All is to be prepared by the individuals on the respective boats, then brought together in the club house, the marina contributes nothing other than to allow us to purchase any drinks over their bar.

The dinner kicks off about 1400 hours, it came together as one large buffet (starters, main and sweets) combined, still, it worked well. Electric hot plates from the respective boats along with the kitchen stove kept all that was required, warm. We concentrated on the non-english dishes.

Socially, the event works extremely well, assisted by the volume of alcohol consumed. The original table seating re-organised as one would expect.

"Santa's sack" went extremely well, we had a separate sack for the children. The adult sack was full of interesting gifts, each spent no more than €5 on each gift. As you can imagine, some items caused a real stir - we all had a good laugh over them.

We retired early evening, not the first I must say, no doubt some would have stayed until early hours.

At last, its time to get out the Christmas decorations, we keep them securely stored in the unit above the starboard tanks. The girls have been talking, there are whispers of a competition - "its not the winning, it is the participation" I say to Ann. I have heard that "bollocks" many times before, and that is exactly what it is - of coarse we must win!

Santa chuckles and giggles with excitement as I pull him out of storage, he is very patient, waiting for "his time" each year. He soon finds his place, hanging off the "A" frame on the stern - keeping any eye on all movement on the pontoon.

The interior is also decorated, the cards from family and friends complement the two fibre optic trees we have. Little is said about the competition, certainly nothing is organised, it looks like "fear" has warned them all off? I declare Sailaway the winner by default.

Come evening, as darkness falls the rewards from the days work are clearly visible - an excellant display both inside and out. It is clear now why "others" were afraid to participate, still, one can under stand their reluctance!

Log Entry Sunday 27th September - Our final sail before returning to the UK for a couple of months.

We, as many know are due to return back to the UK, we fly tomorrow evening but the weather today is great, the electrical storms have passed over. The skies are blue and the winds fickle, but light, we decide to take sailaway out for a final sail before we make her secure. We ask our friend Julia (Wild Oats) if she would like to join us - not such a good move as I find out at my peril!

We slip our lines and make our way out of the harbour, our sail begins at a "snails pace", less than two knots at times but we are in no hurry. We head east into the bay, we can see more wind ahead so we make our way towards it. I pop down below, only for a few moments, but upon my return on deck I witness some thing I had never experienced before on board Sailaway, hopefully never again! A mutiny, our coarse has changed, the sails re trimmed - all without a single input from myself (the Captain!)

I voice my anger but it seems to fall on "deaf ears" I have to be careful as I appear to be out numbered (2:1), fearing for my own safety I take up a suitable position watching "other things" going on on the water.

In a tense situation like this, the Captain has to manage the crew "any one for coffee" I enquire and go back down below to put the kettle on!

Log Entry Saturday 12th September - Engine sorted, ran out of time, Cagliari for the winter!

Ann and I begin the strip down, a job we are both dreading but necessary, obviously. We discovered out at sea that the camshaft drive belt had snapped, we now had to access the degree of damage to the engine. The possibility of the valve gear colliding with the pistons was real, the real question was, is the damage restricted to the cylinder head, or more wide spread to the engine block. The later requiring the removal and rework of the complete engine. It is relatively easy to see the damage to the cylinder head, the camshaft had snapped over cylinder number one, two of the local bearing support caps have also cracked. To have sustained such damage the impact must have damaged the valve gear - a requirement for a new head is clearly evident. We continue the strip down, in our minds we truly expect damaged pistons in view of the damage already witnessed. Progress is fairly slow by formula one standards, we lift off the head and stare at the pistons fearing the worst!

Unbelievably there is no visible damage to the pistons, as this does not explain the degree of damage to the head we look closer, progressively cleaning the pistons down and individually inspecting them at various parts of their operating cycle, we discuss our findings with our good friend Dave back in the UK. The final conclusion is that the pistons have, indeed escaped damage, looks like the camshaft snapped first?- with enlightened spirits (our own emotions) we celebrate our findings with other spirits (alcohol)!

We now need "experts" to repair/replace the cylinder head, first thing Monday, with Gary (Wild Oats(, a marina resident, we visit a local company (FANNI) who specialise in engine refurbishment. The same company had been used by Dave & Sarah, aboard Cape to rework their cylinder head so their quality was known. I was impressed by the clear "passion" in which the technical discussions took place. The Company agreed to source a second hand head, refurbish it, and supply all gaskets, cylinder head bolts etc. Price agreed, it was promised for Friday, and it was ready for Friday - what a result! When we picked up the head, they offered the services of an engineer as one would expect, I declined. We were then asked, "who would time up the system?". I replied, "I am", my comments were acknowledged with body language only. I had Gary translate into Italian "see you on Monday again!" My comments were met with laughter from the guy, as well as our own.

During the week we had prepared for the heads arrival, every thing was checked and cleaned ready for it's arrival - all has to be done it quite a systematic manner. Space is precious on a boat as you can imagine, if you are bored, try stripping down an engine and working on it in your living room! It is now "all hands to the pumps", we are both keen to get her back together as soon as possible, that's exactly what we do.

Timing etc, is checked and rechecked, it is now time to "turn the key", that's exactly what we do, both of us with our fingers in our ears, and near by boats warned.

Obviously she fired up and ran well, we took her up to running temperature, checking her over periodically - all is well as we had clearly anticipated, time for a cooling beer!

Glad that's over, we now are to get ready for our return to the UK, "things" will keep us there for a couple of months before we return. We have since been approached by two leading formula one teams, negotiations are at a critical point, details will be disclosed when appropriate.

We now know that we have almost four weeks before we return to the UK, we decide to head south to Tunisia, the winds are not due to be favourable for a day or so, so we plan to spend a couple of nights at Pula before making the 24 hour jump with hopefully good winds. We leave Cagliari with extremely light winds, but, we are able to sail, progress is slow but we are in no hurry. We are amazed to have our first sighting of dolphins here in the bay, always a beautiful site to us. They keep us company until their boredom sets in and they leave as quickly as they arrived. We arrive at the anchorage at Pula at dust, drop our anchor and settle down for the evening, checking the forecast looks like we will spend a couple of nights here, we do not mind we love this anchorage, even more so now, in September we are the only boat present - perfect!

The forecast gives us indication that we can at least make an attempt at moving further south, we raise our anchor and leave the anchorage, the wind is light and un -settled so we raise our canvas, keeping our engine on tick over, keeping our speed up, but more importantly re-charging our batteries from the over night usage. We get about 2 miles south of Pula, we hear a "bang" and the engine comes to a stop. We let Sailaway, round up into the wind and settle, I go down below to investigate, it is not good news, the camshaft belt has snapped.

Our only option is to sail back 20 miles to Cagliari to have repairs under taken, ones mind certainly works over time on a failure of this nature. We call our friend Dave on "Brumby" back in Cagliari marina to seek possible assistance/tow. Our progress is slow, we head out to sea to look for better wind and agree to call Dave in an hour with an update. As we head out we find stronger, clean winds, which on our stern will take us straight back to Cagliari - must be a first finding the correct winds?

We are now able to sail at speed through the ongoing traffic that use the bay, both commercial and fishing/trawling. The time and distance passes very quickly, time to call Dave with a further update.

Dave tells us there is little activity within the harbour, making the possibility of sailing directly into the harbour and dropping our sails in it's shelter feasible. This was to become our plan, Dave comes out of the harbour to meet us, we are to sail in, Dave (Brumby) will stand by should assistance be required. Dave was good enough to arrange with the marina a dory to push us into a berth. All went well and according to plan, once we were secure we went to help Dave tight up Brumby.

Once all are secure we retire to the bar to, as is tradition, celebrate our safe return - a celebration which was to lead into early evening, tomorrow we investigate our problem.

Log Entry Friday 28th August - time to begin the journey north, flights to catch and a new haircut for me!

We leave the anchorage quite early by our standards (0830 hours), there is no wind at all, the next few hours will see us motor north. We will over night again at Pula the leave early again on Saturday to arrive at Cagliari early enough for the kids flight about 1700 hours.

With the engine on and Sailaway controlled by the autopilot all have plenty of time to pass on board, the lack of even the slightest breeze making the air temperature even higher.

As we drop anchor at Pula, the first task is to cool down in the sea water. We decide then to venture ashore, by now it is early evening, the beach is some what deserted which improves the view some what.

Our plan was to dine ashore in the beach bar we had visited earlier, on our way south. The evening, especially the pizzas when down extremely well, we also had my new haircut to celebrate. Ann uses clippers on my hair, with the No 4 attachment fitted, this controls my hair length to 12mm in length. Warren had borrowed our clippers as he keeps his head shaven. As I sat on the back of Sailaway Ann took the clippers to the back of my head and I heard her scream "Oh my god!" repeatedly. Ann had taken the clippers to the back of my head with no attachments fitted - I now had a bald stripe up the back of my head. This I must say is the first time I have seen Ann in a panic, and, as you can imagine we have been in some interesting situations! The only option I had now was to have my head shaven completely. It was a good thing that Warren was aboard as Ann refused to touch the clippers again, I do believe Warren got some weird please from shaving my head - we (except Ann obviously) laughed.

For clarification in above pictures (centre & right) I (Kevin) is on the right, Warren on the left.

We decide to move on, there are so many beautiful anchorages within this small area, we raise our anchor and venture around the nearby options within the Capo Malfantano, we decide on the west side of the I. Teredda. This provides relatively good protection, a good beach for Poppy and a traditional, wooden beach bar for the "grown ups".

The sea life in this area is far greater in quantity and variance, snorkeling becomes the main form of entertainment, even Adel swims, neglecting her tan for a short period.

We spend the morning again snorkeling, we are in no hurry we decide to move on after lunch. We have a forecast head wind which means motoring to a certain extent, we actually get a 20 knot tail wind we enjoy a fast, but "lumpy" sail south, the wind increases further as we round "Capo Spartivento" and head for the anchorages of Malfantano, now up to 26 knots plus gusts. We, like many others move around the anchorages looking for the best shelter, we finally settle to the east of "I. Teredda", still in 20/25 knots but the best holding we could find. The anchor goes down, and as tradition, the drinks come out to celebrate our safe arrival.

The surrounding of this area Ann & I know well now but we continue to be amazed by their beauty - time to keep out of the hot sun and keep our selves occupied, nosey Poppy keeps an eye on things.

Dinner this evening is agreed, we are to barbeque aboard Sailaway - Poppy asks "can we squeeze in a trip to the beach first?", off we go in the dinghy.

The heat makes the water a pleasant relief, a pleasant way to spend an hour or so, then it is back for dinner.

Warren takes over the barbeque, with which I certainly have no problem, we all eat our fill, then settle down for the evening.

Today we intend to enjoy the short 15 mile leg down to Pula and anchor off the ancient ruins of Nora. Forecast light winds, combined with the 30C plus temperatures will ensure a good introduction to sailing. We leave the marina about 1100 hours, Poppy steers Sailaway across the harbour as we store away the ropes and fenders etc. As we leave the harbour Warren gets his first taste of hard work - raising the mainsail! The light winds are favourable allowing us to sail "close hauled" in the direction of Pula, in fact we sail directly into the anchorage. Once all are adjusted to the angle at which Sailaway continues south the atmosphere becomes more relaxed, the extreme heat then becoming an issue.

To try and combat the heat the girls hang their feet over the side into the cooling water, I put Poppy's mind at ease pledging to watch out for sharks! The sail south is a very good introduction to all, we sail into the anchorage, drop the canvas and make for the anchorage adjacent to Nora. Once the anchor is set we have our usual drink to celebrate our safe arrival, we then hit the water to cool down - Adel is 100% focused on her tan.

Once all are cooled down and some what bored with the snorkeling it is then time for the beach, we launch the dinghy and make our way over.

Over looking the local beach there is a raised "beach bar", visited many times now by Ann and myself. We revisit the bar to replace some of the essential fluids and grab a bite to eat. Some hours later we return to the dinghy, for some reason Adel's nervousness with regards to the water has now disappeared completely - hopefully this new state of mind remains when she sobers up?

As night falls chores have to be complete, life aboard "slave ship Sailaway" is not easy says Poppy. Tomorrow we head further south and around to the south coast to Malfantano.

I arrive back from the UK late in the day, Poppy (plus mum & dad, Warren and Adel) had arrived the day before. They are to spend the week with us, we are to leave first thing in the morning, well after breakfast, as nothing happens here too early.

It is our intension to take them down the west coast of the bay down to Malfantano and the associated beautiful anchorages.

We leave the anchorage fairly early as again, head winds were forecast the day before, due to the terrain we are unable to pick up a weather forecast (Navtex or VHF). We are to round the "Capo Spartivento" and head north up the "Golfo Di Cagliari", if the winds allow we intend to stop at Pula, breaking up the journey. As we round the Capo, we are able to receive a weather forecast, head winds are due later to day and tomorrow. We decide to stop at Pula, but only for lunch then continue on to Cagliari. I (Kevin) has a flight on the 19th to the UK, not to be missed due to weather.

Well, the forecast was wrong again, no head winds, in fact 20 knots plus on the stern, we average just over 6 knots per hour on the way to Cagliari - an excellant, brisk final sail for Mum!

We wake quite early, my first job is to access the weather, from the safety of our cove it is clear from the "whites" that there are still strong winds off the coast line, certainly across the "Golfo di Palmas" ahead of us, we decide to sit put and see what the day unfolds, more snorkeling and sun bathing for Mum. Our next target destination is the anchorage at the "I. Teredda, Capo Malfantano" only some 30 mile ahead. We lifted our anchor late afternoon and headed south, we met the on going head wind, it grew up to 25 knots as we crossed the Golfo and of coarse it brought with it the short sharp pitched waves, a good 3m or more - we battled on. We are met by a group of dolphins, difficult to see in the confused waters but clearly visible at times. It took over 5 hours to cover the 15 miles to "Capo Teulada", as we approached the Capo, with evening approaching the wind dropped completely - on went the engine. We rounded "Capo Malfantano" as darkness fell, entering the busy anchorage in complete darkness. The entrance made a little more interesting with "unlit vessels" at anchor!

Calasetta is as far as we travel with Mum, it is time to retrace our steps back to Cagliari. We lift our anchor and head around the north coast of the Isloa Di S. Antiocco, with favourable light winds the engine is soon off and sails up. We pass the time watching the local boats, both fishing and pleasure. As we round the lighthouse on "I. Mangiabarche" a head wind (obviously not forecast) awaits us, still this leg is only 8 miles so we begin to tack south east. The wind steadily increases and reaches 28 knots plus gusts, we are now heavily reefed but face the building sea, waves of 4-5m plus begin to break over us - all of us, including Mum are by now quite wet. Thankfully, a satisfactory, cooling condition, as by now Mum is stuck in the cockpit as it is too rough to go down below. Two hours pass and we are little more than half way down the coast of the island, my fear is that as we round the "Capo Sperone" and cross the open waters of the "Golfo di Palmas" we will be further exposed to stronger winds and larger seas - time to look for options.

There were no harbours or ports on the section of the island, so that was not an option, we start searching the coast line for possible shelter, small coves etc. In time, as we climbed the top od the waves we spot "an option", just north of the "Capo Sperone" we make our way over.

As we make our way over the winds drop as we move into the shelter of the small cove, we have no chart details so we need to check out it's feasibility to use as an anchorage - it's good so we drop anchor and settle down. It's a great relief to be in such a beautiful calm but watching other yachts battling their way south, we know where we would rather be! We spend a couple of hours snorkeling a round the rocks and small caves within the cove, quite an experience considering what we were in only a few hours ago, we will over night here and see what the morning brings. Mum is still not put off by the weather and talks about how she enjoyed crashing through the waves, she is definitely coming back - better luck next time!

From Carloforte we head south, only a few miles across the protected bay to Calasetta, we motor out of the harbour, with the wind almost dead astern we sail across with only the head sail up. Our track is well followed by the ferries that link both Calasetta, on the neighbouring Isloa Di S. Antiocco, and Carloforte.

We drop anchor in relatively good shelter just south of the harbour, we climb into the dinghy and make our way ashore.

With a quick glimpse at the harbour Mum shouts "any one fancy a beer?" Well it is gone 1030 hours so we pop into the nearby cafe.

The town of Calasetta is a small tourist centre, most buildings painted in white. Although it does have a reasonable fishing fleet for it's size, it's recently developed marina must bring a sizable amount os cash in too.

We last visited Calasetta during the winter of last year, again the atmosphere at this time of year is totally different as one might expect. We walk up to the "street" of this quaint little town then back down to the harbour as we have already chosen our place for lunch.

Mum quite enjoyed this little town, especially the beer any way - she made a number of friends, Ann and I are sure she will return.

We make our way back across the Golfo Palmas and up the west coast of the Isloa Di S. Antiocco, the weather has settled, the journey quite pleasant but unfortunately under motor.

We arrive in Carloforte marina late afternoon, settle in and make plans to head into town. We know the town well having spent three months here during the winter, it is interesting to see the contrast of winter verses summer.

Every where is busy, queues for every thing, it was our intension to have dinner ashore, finding some where with a free table was quite a challenge as one would expect.

We check out all of our all haunts, as well as discussing possible winter periods here once more with the two marinas.

We eventually find a restaurant that can fit us in on the water front on the out skirts of town, as we order, that too begins to fill up.

As we make our way through the port area we approach a Taxi rank and decide in view of the distance involved a taxi may be the more sensible option, we try calling the posted telephone number - no answer. One of the gentleman from the customers area ask if he can help, we explain our problem. He try's calling a couple of his "friends" to drive us in, he receives no answer either and decided to take us in himself. On our way to town he explains where things are making short detours in his car, dropping us off in the town centre. A very helpful chap, explains that he finishes work at 1400 hours, he can pick us up if we wish - we graciously decline his kind gesture.

The town is busy, it is market day, the town is pretty and clean, we make our way around the narrow streets.

We make our way to the market, Mum is in desperate need of some lighter close - it is just too hot!

There is no where to try clothes on so they improvise, tops are bought and we head for refreshment.

We spend a day or so behind the "Isle Teredda" taking advantage of the calm, Ann and I snorkel, exploring the sea bed - Mum rests!

On the local beach, only a short distance away, is a beach bar, that evening we visit, the local life guard helps us up the beach with the dinghy, we make it secure and step into the bar.

We hold a small, private party in anticipation of our departure in the morning, we are heading for Carloforte on the Isloa Di San Pietro, on the south west corner of the mainland.

We continue under motor as there is insufficient wind to allow us to sail, we round Capo Teulada and once again it's all change, the wind sets in hard and fast from the north east reaching 25/26 knots - the sea begins to build very quickly as is the norm! We have two options, to bash on making very little headway or look for cover and sit it out - we choose the later. We head for Porto Ponte Romano, Isloa Di S. Antiocco, a long way off our track but the better option.

We arrive in what is a commercial port and tie up along side the east pier, we check with the port authorities, and complete the required documentation - our first in Sardinia! It is some distance to the town but it is a journey worth while trying. The real challenge is now to get Mum up the pier wall, we rise to the challenge.

As we get Mum up the wall we place a mat on the concrete to help Mum's knees - we receive two complaints, it's too thin and it ain 't red!

Mum arrives, we pick her up from the airport in one of the marina cars. The next day or so is to re-a custom her to Sailaway, how we live and do things, we celebrate her arrival with a visit to a local pizza restruant, this to be only the second pizza Mum has ever had, the first one in England.

Mum must have enjoyed it as it disappeared quickly, as did a couple of bottles of rose' she did not like either?

The next day we take our first trip south, the plan is to slowly move down to the south of Sardinia, then leave from there for Tunisia. We make for Pula, a slight head wind leaves us with no real choice but to motor.

We stay two nights at Pula, adjusting Mum to life a float, especially at anchor which can at time disturb one's sleep pattern.

She adjusts very quickly, even try's fishing but does not catch any thing either - good job too! We promise a barbecue but strong evening winds postpone that idea, we take Mum a shore in the dinghy, visiting a local cafe and returning to watch the sun go down.

The next day we leave the busy anchorage to head for the south coast, a light south westerly breeze promises a good sail, around Capo Spartivento to the anchorages on the south coast of the island.

We begin "tack" for a good hour with a steady 6-8 knots of wind as fore cast, quite proud of our selves as many boats motor south with us with no sign of canvas at all which appears to be the norm? Then as we line our selves up on the last tack to take us round the headland a wind shift of about 90 degrees hits us and the wind accelerates quickly to a steady 22 knots with gusts over 25 knots, now directly from the head land we want to round. The sea quickly begins to build, we continue our coarse looking for the calmer waters near the shore - rounding the headland would certainly now become quite difficult under these conditions. In shore the wind is significantly reduced as one would expect, we make into an anchorage just south of Chia to sit out the strong winds.

From this anchorage we watch the crowded anchorage a head where other craft had sought shelter as we had just before the head land. We had dinner, the wind had begin to drop as expected during the afternoon as had the sea. We left Chia about 1930 hours, we needed one of the southerly anchorages as we could not get a weather forecast by VHF or Navtex where we where, we knew we could a head. The water was still confused around the head, as we turned westward we still had 20 knots of head wind. We made our way into the anchorage behind "Isle Teredda", in perfect calm.

It's time to return to Cagliari to pick up Ann's mum, she is with us for three weeks - you get less for murder I think to myself! We raise our anchor and leave the security of the bay inside Capo Malfatano, before we round Capo Spartivento and make our way north to Cagliari we head west into the bay of Capo Teulada. We had previously visited a small, quaint restruant to the east of Porto Teulada, under Budello Tower. It served only fish, farmed in the bay and supplied by the small local boats - that was to be our lunch stop. At the head of the cove are a series of sluice gates, they open, the fish flood in. Once the gates are closed the fish are harvested.

We exit the anchorage and round Capo Malfatano, passing Porto Malfantano as we did so making our way westward, passing Piscinni Tower.

The coastline is very rugged with many reefs and rock out crops to negotiate, we follow the 20m contour line along the coast.

As we approach the cove (with our lunch stop over) Porto Teulada and Budello Tower is clear on our port side - the restaurant to our starboard. The seabed is thick weed, we set our anchor twice before we are happy.

Once fed and watered we head east, we have a moderate breeze to beat against, as we reach Capo Spartivento the wind falls of completely. We continue our journey north by motor, stopping at Pula as darkness falls.

We leave early as again we have a moderate breeze to beat north against - obviously not forecast. As we head out into the bay to begin our tacking north, the wind picked up very quickly. We reefed the head sail, then the main, the wind continued to increase, now up a continuous 30knts with gusts - we put a second reef in the main. Unfortunately as we were doing so one of the sail battens caught on the lazy jack and tore it's pocket, down came the main and the batten removed for safe keeping, just what you need in these conditions. The sea has now began to build as it does in the Mediterranean, 2-3m high, but short sharp pitching. Every time a wave hits our bow it pushes us about twenty degrees off coarse, so frustrating. For about an hour and a half we were 6.5 miles from Cagliari making no head way at all. It was now late afternoon, fortunately the wind began to drop allowing us to move forward towards our destination, as we got closer to land the sea also began to fall and we eventually entered Cagliari Harbour.

Our aim today was to continue south, round Capo Spartivento and make for the anchorages at Capo Malfatano and Capo Teulada. We had passed them by in February as we traveled to Cagliari from Carloforte, but we had heard much of their beauty. They are all used extensively by "locals" at weekends so we expected them to be busy. Warren, Adel and Poppy join us for a week later in the month, we thought this area an ideal setting for their week - another good reason to investigate.

The forecast over the VHF and Navtex resembled nothing to what we actually had (light south easterlies) but this was normal, we lifted anchor and headed out into deep water. Safety & deep water, not two statements every one would always associate!

As we turned south, passing "Capo di Pula", some of the ancient Roman ruins of Nora could be seen from sea. The sailing was very relaxing, we set the sails, and the autopilot and watched the world go by (Sardinian coastline anyway).

The winds were light, only 5/6 knots, but we were in no hurry, as long as we got some where by dinner time.

As we approached "Chia" the sails needed more attention to keep us moving, but it kept me busy. It appeared now we were the only sailboat sailing down this coast line. At times, less than 3 knots, dozens of boats motored past - we were true "sea farers". As life often is the wind picked up as we rounded Capo Spartivento, time was getting on, approaching dinner time, so we made for a small anchorage behind "I. Teredda" just east of Capo Malfatano.

We took our time as we made our way towards the anchorage watching our depths, Ann acting as "look out" on the bow, as information is a little sparse. The anchorage was quite busy, we could get no where near the little beach so we picked our spot and dropped our anchor. Our selection of anchorage was a good one, the wind blew up to 25 knots (not forecast) during the night, in the early hours boats began to appear from other nearby anchorages looking for better shelter. The wind blew for most of the next day (Sunday), we decided just to sit it out and relax. The forecast had changed to northerlies for the next few days, therefore we would have to "beat" back to Cagliari to pick up Ann's mum.

Returning from the UK we decide to head south towards Capo Malfatano and Capo Teulada - we need to be back for next Wednesday to pick up Ann's mum, she is with us for three weeks. We leave the harbour with a good light wind on our stern as forecast, within 30 minutes or so the wind swings round to our favourite, relative position - on our nose! We decide to continue our intended trip south and begin to "beat", we are in no hurry and the weather is warm. Within the hour we have a good 20 knots (not forecast either). Still nothing we can do about it, so we continue. After four or five hours we decide to head into Pula, spend the night, then continue south in the morning. Pula is quite busy as expected, Ann's bored as she has nothing to do, she goes snorkeling, I suggest she polishes the anchor, so off she goes!

Capo di Pula holds the ancient city of Nora, the ruins of the Phoenician- Punic, Roman City dating back to 850BC and in some areas over the years has clearly fallen into the sea. The pilotage clearly warns of the submerged ruins, we decided to have Ann on the bow as "look out" as there are no buoys or markers. We, at one point, took Sailaway too close to the shore, water depths fell form 7m to 2m below our keel in an instant. I reacted to Ann's advice "get us out of here" as she peered over the bow at what lay below.

Sitting aboard Sailaway it seemed strange to have behind us these ancient ruins, then next door a maze of tourist beaches, full from 10am - 8pm, or even longer.

We take a trip ashore, early as to avoid walking around the ruins in the mid day sun - getting over to the beach early also gives us more room to get the dinghy ashore before the beaches fill up. We cannot under stand why these people "bake" them selves as they do - we hide from the sun!

It is interesting walking through the ruins of the ancient city, in sections all can be seen, buildings, streets and temples.

The public are not as "controlled" as one might expect, you literally find yourself wandering through the streets and into the ruins of the tiny buildings.

In some sections even the sewers can be seen along with wells for fresh water, mosaics on the floors of some of the villas are also visible.

As one would certainly expect from Roman influence, there are the ruins of the town public baths. We spend a couple of hours walking around the city, the heat becomes unbearable, time for a beer or two in one of the nearby beach bars - what a contrast in back grounds!

Today is the day we have been waiting for some time - off to sea. The forecast gives us a moderate south easterly breeze, our intentions are to head south, primarily to the anchorage at Capo di Pula/Nora. We plan to be out for 6 days before we return for my scheduled trip back to the UK. Once out of the harbour the canvas goes up and the engine off, (a great sensation) we begin to beat to wind ward, we head east way past "Capo St Elia" making our way across the "Golfo di Cagliari".

We have the restricted area of the Sarrock Oil Terminal to clear to the east on our way south. Once out into the bay, clear of most of the shipping, we try the various points of sail - all is good, we obviously had put every thing back the way it should be? As the early evening approaches, the wind begins to fall off, we head directly for the anchorage under sail, making only 2 knots at times - but we are in no hurry.

As we pass "Isle St Macario" with it's conspicuous tower, the "Capo di Pula" and it's tower are clearly visible, as is it's bay/anchorage. We drop anchor, and as is tradition, toast our safe arrival with a "tipple or two". We had covered 23 miles to an anchorage initially only 12 miles away but all has been tested and works well - a further reason for a "tipple or two".