15th to 16th June - Buggerru to Carloforte (preparations for the big fight begin)

Bali Hai
Neal Stow
Tue 16 Jun 2009 21:33
Monday began in much the same way as previous days. No wind initially but
by mid-morning a good breeze that gave us a good sail down to Carloforte
on the island of San Pietro off the Sardinian coast. As we tacked down
the channel we came across a vessel displaying three black balls and I am
sure that all sailors reading this will appreciate why we kept well clear.

Carloforte is a chocolate-box town with a palm tree lined waterfront
backed by stately pastel coloured buildings. On arrival in the marina we
were met by Andrea from Marinatour marina, which is the smaller of the two
marinas, but he was so friendly and helpful throughout our stay that I
would definitely recommend anyone visiting to stay there. The only slight
problem was that the loos/showers were just marked with the words
'signori' and 'signore'. Both sets of facilities were identical and it
was only as we were leaving that we discovered that in Italian, plural
nouns ending in 'i' are masculine and ending in 'e' are feminine - the
realisation that we had got them the wrong way round was quite distressing
for some.

Although Carloforte is supposedly packed in the high season at this time
there seemed to be only two or three other visiting yachts. We followed
the recommendation of the Lonely Planet and had a drink on the promenade
before a meal of Carloforte tuna at the "Between the Two Palms"
restaurant. Another place with amazing friendly service, happily
exchanging Ian's pizza when the one that he ordered turned out to have a
meat topping.

The next day was spent strolling the pleasant cobbled streets of the town
and buying Emma her own rubber wear. You could only do this in the
morning or evening as the afternoon was stifling hot and along with the
locals we went for a siesta. In the evening we went back to the same
restaurant as the previous night and enjoyed a couple of bottles of local
bubbly to celebrate the fact that our house purchase in France had finally
been completed.

Over the meal the conversation then turned to the arrival of John and Rob
on Friday. Having been on Rally Portugal with Jackie, both Jackie and Ian
were looking forward to the reunion for different reasons. Readers of
this log will recall the picture of John fondling Jackie's cheeses in
Santiago di Compostela and it turns out that mild mannered Ian is in fact
quite the jealous type. Apparently he has been working out daily for the
last year and avidly reading Joe Calzaghi's "Boxing for Beginners"
handbook in anticipation of John's arrival......