After arriving so late, we eventually emerged mid-morning to tour the two marinas that are side-by-side in Cagliari harbour. Marina Sant ‘Elmo definitely had the smarter pontoons, posher loos and security fences, with prices to match. Marina del Sole was more ‘rustic’, friendlier and much cheaper – and had a bar. We moved across to Marina del Sole. David is delighted with our berth – we can see the dry dock and its attendant tugs from the cockpit. From the deck we can see across the marina to the city.

A berth with a view – what more could an ex-tug-boat driver ask for?

The view from the deck – across the marina to the city.

The view across the harbour to the mountains beyond; the marina is tucked away to the left.

Dov’è…?

We met up with Karen, Richard, Stephen and Anne on PYXIS for an ‘orientation meeting’. Stephen and Anne have been here since August so have done lots of exploring and were able to point us in the right direction for most things. They had even sorted out city maps and bus route maps and had marked up useful bits for us. This particular evening degenerated into an impromptu pasta and pesto supper on CAPE. Just for the record, the nearest supermarket, café and newsagents are about 15–20 minutes walk from the marina. There is another supermarket and produce market about 20 minutes walk in the opposite direction. The city centre is about 30 minutes walk from the marina.

One of our first outings into the big city was to find Carrefour, which is about 20 minutes by bus. Going on the bus is a bit different to what we are used to – you have to buy the bus ticket in the newsagents and get it validated on the bus. Italian pedestrian crossings are interesting – vehicles are allowed on the crossing even if you are walking across them, while close shaves are (apparently) dealt with severely, this doesn’t do much for the nerves of the pedestrians!

We found a superb Sunday market with what seemed like miles of produce stalls – fresh olives, marinated olives, home-pressed olive oil and limoncella, fruit and vegetables, home-make cakes, bread stalls, fish and eggs.

Re-connected at last!

The Spanish Vodafone internet dongle with a Spanish 3G data card worked perfectly on ‘roaming’ in Carloforte, and, despite using up our remaining credit quickly, we were optimistic that internet access would just be a matter of buying a new SIM card. Life, of course, is never that simple, and we ended up having to buy a complete new set of stuff (Italian dongle and Italian 3G data card). To get to this point took about 3 days and a lot of miles of David walking backwards and forwards to the mobile phone shops. Never mind, we finally have internet access again.

Back-to-back BBQs and other activities

The Marina del Sole buzzes with things going on. The first weekend there was a BBQ on the Saturday night, despite the fact that we had a full mistral blowing – 17ºC (that is now freezing by our standards) and gusts of up to 35 knots. I wore long trousers, thermal underwear, 2 fleeces and a body warmer, and socks in my Crocs, which was fine until I started dancing! Unfortunately, the down side of the marina (for our livers that is) is that there is a little man who owns a vineyard who delivers wine to the boat in 5 litre bottles (7€ for 5 litres).

The next weekend there was a surprise BBQ for someone’s birthday, and everyone was invited. David and Richard got stuck in with the cooking.

David and Richard wielding BBQ implements.

Apart from the back-to-back BBQs, we are now settling down to a winter routine of boat jobs, school, and work (for me). My laptop isn’t in the best of health, so we have invested in a new (cheap) laptop. Unfortunately, buying the laptop here in Italy means that Vista is in Italian... That should speed up our grasp of Italian!

Bryn and David went on a hunt for Cagliari rugby club, and to watch a match that was scheduled on the Saturday afternoon. They found the club, and as the match had been cancelled, they both joined in with a training session instead. From now on David can go training on Tuesdays and Bryn can go with the juniors on Thursdays. Bethany is keen to join a swimming club and has already been for a trial session at a sports club just 500 metres from the marina.

The children have been across to WANDERING DRAGON to cook chocolate cornflake cakes, special recipe treacle and cherry fudge, and to torture the cats, Yoyo and Koshka. Luckily Stephen, Anne, WANDERING DRAGON and the cats all survived. Anne, Stephen, Karen and Richard came across to CAPE for Sizzling Bananas and American Pancakes cooked by Beth and Bryn.

As there isn’t a handy little bread shop close by, we have bought a bread maker (one of those things we were sure we wouldn’t need on the boat, so gave away before we left). This is another purchase that will speed up our Italian and we have instructions in Italian, French, Romanian, and Greek – but not English (despite an extensive internet search)! The children recycled the box into a ‘Bratz Mansion’, complete with painted wallpaper and corrugated iron garage (the sparkly silver paint was too good not to use…).

The ‘Bratz Mansion’ nears completion.

My first outing with the bread maker was a disaster. It has a ‘cake’ setting, so I was very optimistic. Unfortunately the cake rose and cooked around the edges only, leaving a slightly soggy well in the centre (but that didn’t stop us eating it). My attempts at bread have been more successful. The first loaf was small but perfectly formed, and I have now progressed to sun-dried tomato bread and corn bread, and revisited cake to turn out a very respectable boiled fruit cake.

Loaf number 1 – small but perfectly formed.

Boiled fruit cake à la bread maker.

This weekend there is a lamb roast planned…