15^th – 19^th June 2006

We flew into Alghero in the evening and headed for the boat in Fertilia.  Chucked the bags below and went straight into town to get some food in Il Peguro, one of the 2 restaurants in Fertilia.  Had a great meal and then chilled out back at the boat to discuss what we were going to do over the weekend.

The next day the boys cleaned the topsides while Nat & I checked out supplies.  Once we had breakfast we took the Merc and headed off into Alghero to do some provisioning and show Nat & Guy around the town.  Fridge still not working so while Nat & I went to the supermarket for food Jon & Guy went in search of ice at the fish market. Successful trip all round so when we got back to the boat we left our mooring and sailed down to Porto Conte for the weekend.  We dropped anchor just near the Marina and relaxed. Nat taught me the intracacies of Sudoku!!!  After our sundowners we had dinner in the cockpit followed by plenty of red wine rounded off with a fair amount of Limoncello. This lead to us playing the hilarious ‘Nob’ game!  You basically think of all the songs you can that have ‘love’ in the title and change ‘love’ to ‘nob’.  There are loads of them. We were in stiches. The alcohol definitely added to the hilarity!!   Needless to say, at around midnight, we all collapsed into our beds. 

Not for long mind you!  I couldn’t sleep with the sloshing of water in the bilge where the boiler was still leaking.  By the time Jon had got up to check it out the wind had picked up big time and we started to drag the anchor towards the shore!  All hands on deck in various states of dress, Jon got the engine started and was motoring away from the shore while Guy and I got the anchor up.  Nat was the ‘man in the middle’ calling out orders as the wind was so strong we couldn’t hear each other from one end of the boat to the other.  Once out of immediate danger we gilled around for about half an hour waiting for the winds to drop.  Funny how we all suddenly had to use the heads!!!  The wind had gone from nothing to 37 knots in no time at all.  Within an hour the wind had disappeared so we again dropped the anchor and collapsed into our beds.  The rest of the night was uneventful thankfully and we managed to get a good night’s sleep.

Imagine in all her glory!                    

After breakfast the next morning we congratulated ourselves on how we all worked together so well in getting out of danger.  We have all done a lot of sailing and racing together though so that definitely helped.  Our skipper was definitely the hero of the night!!  No panic or abusive shouting you sometimes come across when skippers are under pressure/stress.  Jon just calmly gave his orders on what we needed to do and all was sorted without a hitch. 

We later moved closer to the beach and Guy jumped into the dinghy to go ashore for more provisions.  We’d run out of Rose!  When he got back we all had a swim, had lunch and chilled for the rest of the day.  We later went ashore to the beach bar for drinks.  The boys oggled the topless Italian chicas while Nat & I perused the strapping young Italian lads!!!  We took the dinghy back to the boat just before dark and prepared dinner.  The wind decided to flare up again in the night but thankfully it dropped within minutes and we had no problems with the anchor dragging.  Phew!

“Have they started lunch without us?!”                Sundowners at the beach bar – heavenly!           “I’m clean” al fresco

Over breakfast on Sunday Jon & Guy discussed tackling the boiler.  We’d brought a new one over from the UK but it needed to be installed.  Jon was very keen to get it sorted but had resigned himself to waiting as we were on ‘holiday’ with friends.  Guy however had other ideas and was well up for tackling the job.  They spent all day in very hot cramped conditions removing the old one and installing the new one.  Nat & I chilled but made sure that they were well watered and fed through the day and we gave them plenty of encouragement and praise.  All was finished by 7pm and once cleaned off they settled down to a well earned beer while Nat prepared a fabulous meal.  Jon was so pleased to get one more job out the way and was truly grateful to Guy. 

Our last day in Sardinia had arrived all too quickly and we set sail back to our berth in Fertilia.  The winds were very light so Guy and I jumped in the sea behind the boat and we were towed along which was great when we were only doing 1.5 knots.  Jon thought it would be funny to pick up speed.  At 3 knots my arms were being pulled out of their sockets and my bikini top was suddenly round my waist!!  Time to get back on the boat, once bikini was back in place!  Thanks Jon!  We then continued and had a great sail back to Fertilia.  The wind piped up and we put the cruising chute up.  Wasn’t long though before we had just too much wind though and were forced to drop it.  Shame – we were spanking along although I think guy still has the scars on his hands from the sheets whipping him!!!  We finally moored up in Fertilia late afternoon where we cleaned and tidied the boat ready for the off.  Hate this part.  One day we won’t have to rush off.  One day……