The morning brought a moderate westerly breeze, that had veered to north west by the time we had recovered the dinghy, taken down the cockpit awning, then Willy the air generator, and John had done his essential nerding. Buoyweather is predicting southerlies for Tuesday, Wednesday so that looks hopeful for Sardinia. We raised anchor and set sail off the town, so that we had to put in one tack to clear the easterly point at the entrance. After that it was plain sailing as we bore away to the east. We decided to stop for lunch and a swim at Cala Pudenta, where there was plenty of room for the other boats with the same idea. Lovely clear water, no jellyfish we could see, and we swam from the boat to the shore and back, a creditable effort. We motored the short distance around Punta Codollada, into Cala Addaya. The pilotage in was a little anxious, although the plotter was spot on. We passed the entrance to the marina, beyond which there were many boats moored, to anchor above them as the depth began to dwindle below 4 metres. It was a most attractive spot, that we enjoyed until we detected an aura surrounding us that appeared to indicate a sewage outlet nearby. Unfortunately, on investigation, the culprit proved to be ourselves. Once again we had a blockage on the outlet from our holding tank to deal with. John declined the option to undo the clips holding the exit pipe onto the tank, and tried more subtle measures, including blowing air up the outlet with the dinghy pump. We went to bed tired from sailing, and exhausted from pumping, with little to show for our efforts apart from a little pollution.
John rose enthusiastically at 7 am having been tossing over the problem in his mind. He whittled down last night's wine bottle cork to block the air vent hole, and then set about pressurising the tank. Washing up liquid indicated some success, as soap suds surrounded the boat, then bleach for good measure. The toilet rubber was then assuaged with generous quantities of cooking oil. More...
We left Addaya about midday. A fish attracted John's attention, and he spent a while trying to attract it to the fishing line. Unfortunately on the first cast, the lure was attracted to the sea grass on the bottom. It took a while to recover it by dinghy, but then it happened again, and again.. but no fish! The fish are having the laugh, as this rod was urgently acquired back in Concarneau, but has yet to feel the thrill of a fish on the line!
We stopped for lunch and a swim at a Cala behind Isla Colom, on the way to Mahon. A very interesting bottom, riven with deep cracks between the rocks, and a variety of fish, but on the whole very few and disappointing. Eventually we up anchored, and joined the hordes rushing back to harbour on Sunday evening. We did not rush, and sailed all the way, which required tacking against the southerly breeze. We anchored in Cala Taurera, with Unique, Pandora, Skot, Jonas among the dozen or so boats there.
We still had a problem with the heads, and we had spent the previous evening trying to ensure that the holding tank had cleared. John had a go with some heavy garden wire to dislodge some of the limescale that appeared to be causing the problem. It appeared that flakes had formed on the tank, and when dislodged placed themselves across the exit pipe. David, from Skot, who claimed that he had been known as Aspro, for his ability to clear heads, came along and recommended some Agua Fuera, and gave us all he had. Whether it was the Agua Fuera, or John's efforts to remove the heavy wire when it became entrapped, when re-assembled the tank appeared to be leaking. However, as it is totally built in behind the heads cupboards, it is impossible to assess. In order to get it out to repair, the saloon bulkhead will have to be sawn away. We decided to bypass it, and were on our way to the chandlers when Svein offered an anti-syphon valve that he had stored away. This saved us a trip, and meant that we were able to bypass the tank, and enjoy a swim before going out for supper as we had originally arranged. Across the main channel into Mahon, at Les Estelle (?) there was a delightful spot, with moorings around a harbour, backed by restaurants and bars set into the rock face. We landed there, and found a restaurant that Svein and Kari had used before, still having its Menu del Dia advertised at only 9€ (three courses, with wine included). They soon took it down having sold 8! We lingered a while with drinks and moved to another bar for a beer.
We were a little late getting up, as Svein, Bjorn and John continued drinking in Fuga's cockpit for a while after we got back to the boat. There was a fair amount of re-stowing following the heads exercise. John obtained a buoyweather forecast that he had ordered previously for intermediate points along our route, and printed off some log sheets. David and Claire returned at lunch time from the shops, and then called for a beer on board. In the afternoon we set off in the dinghy to Cala Llonga, where they had told us about a supermarket a stone's throw from the water. It proved to be rather small, but we obtained what we needed, and were soon back on the dinghy without a long walk loaded up with water, fruit and other supplies.
As usual it took a while to get the boat ready for sea. Mo prepared below, with a goody bag that would keep us going over the first night. John recovered the dinghy, lashed the bikes on the windward rail, etc. It was not until 2110 that we finally raised anchor and waved goodbye. Once out of the Cala, we were able to raise our sail and set up the waypoints. At first the wind was quite light, and we could barely fetch our course. We briefly debated whether to keep the reef that was already in, and decided that this would be prudent, and so for a while we were making slow progress. The wind then freed up and freshened, so we were able to make our course and were making good progress during the early part of John's watch. By the time Mo came up, it was necessary to start the engine for a while. Early in the morning, the wind freshened, but at the same time it backed and headed us. Gradually it veered back and freshened. For the greater part of the day it was free, and we were roaring boisterously over the bumpy seas. We managed a pizza at mid afternoon going along, but when it came to happy hour we had to heave to on the port tack as best we could in order to extract the necessary items from the (front-opening) fridge. We managed to keep the speed (going backwards towards the SW) down to a couple of knots. We enjoyed supper of Chilli and Rice, this time hove to on the starboard tack while the food was heated up and the rice cooked. We decided on another reef, and when this was taken out, we still resumed our rollicking progress at over 7 knots. Just after Mo had gone off watch, at 2335, John had a run in with a motor vessel, the Carthage, that showed up on the AIS and looked at over 8 miles away like a close encounter. He was doing 21 knots and we were doing 7.5, and the triangle looked a bit like 3:1. The distance narrowed rapidly as John tried to find out whether they had seen us on their radar and what their intentions were, but no response was obtained calling by name. We had to round up into the wind and managed to show him a red light while he steamed merrily on his way. Afterwards we had time to put in a DSC call which also went unanswered. By 0300 the wind had died to nearly nothing, so the engine had to come on. It recovered briefly so that we started roaring along again, but soon gave up before coming back rather lightly from the NE! The final few hours were thus spent motoring into it in very awkward seas.
We crashed out for a while. It was just before lunch when John went in search of a phone shop. The old walled town is full of boutique type shops, bars and restaurants, so he spent a while looking around the newer parts. As luck would have it, he used his tongue and found the shop he needed just as it was closing up. They said that they opened again at 5 pm. so John noted his surroundings, and the local prison nearby. After lunch, Mo did some washing and John assisted with the rinsing to assuage his conscience. A shirt is fresh for only 10 minutes in these conditions! We then set out to find the phone shop. Unfortunately although the prison was no problem the shop could not be found. This time Mo was there to spot another shop, who fixed us up. Be aware that on recharging a phone, there is a fixed tax of 5€. So if you recharge 10€ you only get 5€, but with 100€ you get 95€. It pays to think big! We wandered back across the old town and behind the walls, but it was threatening a thunderstorm and we needed to recover the washing that was hanging out. The forecast tomorow is for a F7 Maestral, so the marina staff were round checking the lines, but we do not relish another 58€ tomorrow. We crashed out after supper, oblivious. We were up late, but spent the day working. There was a wifi set up in the next door 'marina' so John had paid 5€ for an hour. The wifi in ours was not working! This concentrated the mind wonderfully, and all the e-mails and web update were prepared before signing on. We were able to look at the credit card, bank accounts, and look up dial-up internet access codes within the hour as well. Mo had again populated the washing line, and we filled the tanks and water bottles, and washed the canvas bike bags making the most of our marina charge. Finally we became a little embarassed as we were still there in the afternoon, 32 hours after arrival, as more boats came in. The wind had never really been more than Force 5, but it was from the north west. We decided to motor back along the coast to Cala Tramariglio in the large bay of Porto Conte. We had trouble getting the Bruce through the weedy bottom, but were luckier second time around, anchoring in the company of a handful of other boats, including one memorable 5-spreader yacht called Red Dragon flying a defaced Red Ensign - so probably registered somewhere exotic. We thought we would explore the marina at Porto Conte, around the point with the Torre to the east of the bay, and in the afternoon drifted over there with the jib set, and Willie (wind generator) still hanging in the rigging. We anchored off and went inshore by dinghy to find a rather disappointing and run down set up. It was good to stretch our legs and we returned to the bar with tables out on the grass to be charged 6€ for a small beer and a wine in plastic glasses. Thus fortified, we decided to cross the bay as we were near hotels, and fancied a quieter anchorage. However, anchoring off another hotel was probably not the best idea in the world, the party continued until 0430, and the pedallos were out by 1000. It looked a good place though, they had sailing dinghies, etc. for the use of. The following morning we set the jib again, and returned past our original anchorage to Cala del Bollo, where we anchored at the north end off another hotel. It was John's turn to experience the lash of a jellyfish. We watched with some amusement 'Macho Man' who came in to re-anchor nearby after a sail around the bay. His intention was to land a mature lady visitor, his remaining crew being young children, the oldest in her teens and not entrusted to do anything. He came in at a great rate in his XXX 49 and deployed the anchor at the run with the mainsail up. One young lad gets into the water, the remainder take the dinghy with the visitor ashore. Macho runs up and down the deck, while the yacht forereaches on her anchor with the sail still up and sheeted in. The kids row back, and at this point Macho decides that they are being blown past the boat. He runs to a locker, dons some flippers, and jumps into the water, leaving the yacht to its own devices. He soon has the rubber dinghy back under control, and his kids back on board. Macho goes to weigh anchor (he does everything himself), but something goes wrong. The anchor chain is somehow wrapped around the underside of the yacht, which continued to forereach as before. Out come the flippers and goggles, and Macho takes to the water once more. In fairness, he soon had the problem solved, as now the yacht begins to take off without him! Disappointingly, he regains the boat, and for no obvious reason then drops the sail! We hope we don't meet many like him on our travels! Oblivious to the fact that the world cup had not in fact finished, and that Italy were playing France in the final, we decided that the hotel nearby was not the best place to be for a quiet evening. We moved ourselves to the southern end of the bay, and very soon were left on our own by the large motor yacht and Halberg anchored nearby. We certainly heard a little noise coming to across the bay from the hotel, but there was no party it seemed, and we did not know that Italy had finally won on penalties. Although we had looked up the local access numbers for Budget Dial Up, these did not work, and I asked Peter Manly by text message to see what he could find out with his internet resources. There followed many text messages, and Peter had a call running with the support operation in the States. Finally Peter found the clues that enabled us to connect. BDU publish an access point at Olbia, but this does not seem to exist, and the numbers they publish lack the leading zero which remains in place even with international dialling. I was therefore able to get some mail away. It so happened that with the morning mail a reply came back from John and Sharon on Seraphim (US) whom we had last seen in Lagos. They were in Fertilia, a few miles away opposite Alghero. We had planned to go to Alghero for fuel, and to try to find some books on Sardinia and a dictionary. Despite working in Italy at times in the 70's, John had even forgotten the word 'birra'! So we set off for Alghero, to do some shopping, and e-mailed back that we would come over later. We were met by a rib labelled 'Port Control'. We said we were going in for fuel, but asked whether we could tie up for a couple of hours to do some shopping. No, he couldn't help us for that length of time. At the fuelling berth we met the HR 'Inga' GB who said that they had been told they could use the public quay for a while. We anchored off, but noted that there was plenty of space on the public quay, where we left our dinghy in any case. Be warned! There seem to be a number of marina operations in Alghero, and the reception rib's objective seems to be to get you to the berth to which he owes allegiance! We had noted the dilligence with which they appeared to perform their duties. There appeared to be no 'authority' as such. While we were there we experienced some loud noises which we attributed to blasting underwater in the harbour nearby. This is in the vicinity of Secca del Murge and the Mare Club Italia berths that appear to have disappeared. Fishing boats are now moored against the pontoon off the end of the northern breakwater. There are operations underway to deepen the water inside the western breakwater, and the rock is being dug out and used to extend the breakwater. Since the pilot guide was published (Italian Waters Pilot, Imray, 2002) the general arrangements within Alghero harbour seem to have radically altered. New moorings are being installed inside the length of the western breakwater. The marina operation that relieved us of our euros was Ser-Mar, and the pontoons the first you encounter to starboard on the way to the old town. These are in addition to their operations off the northern breakwater. They were perfectly charming about it, but there were no toilets connected, and showers (if working) were 1€. A lot of money for not much. Another operation, Aquatica, with a smart open-air bar, operates the adjacent berths, and it was their wifi I used. There were at one point last Thursday a large number of Spanish boats on the public quay, but these had disappeared by the end of that evening. Further evidence of Sardinian business ethics emerged when we caught up with John and Sharon in Fertilia that evening. Despite being forewarned, and getting everything in writing, the rates to be charged were on a separate paper that became mislaid. On returning from the States and wanting their boat relaunched, the rates jumped, not once, but became a moving target as the launch approached. They were unfortunately awaiting a new oil cooler, as they had found plenty of sea water with the oil in their sump. We hope they get under way soon, as they are so philosophical about the set backs they have had - last year requiring a complete engine rebuild that kept them in Lagos long after we had mostly departed. 6th July, Alghero
7th July, Alghero to Cala Cala Tramariglio, Porto Conte (6m)
8th, 9th July Porto Conte
Monday 10th July, Alghero and Fertilia
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