How quickly weeks fly by when you’re having fun.  David and Giovanna, the perfect guests, took to their first sailing cruise as if it was their every day activity.  David relaxed into the slow pace of life, contentedly taking in the visual delights of the islands and medieval or renaissance fortifications and palaces that abound in Sardinia, Corsica and of course Elba, of Napoleon fame.  Joined in Alghero, on the north west coast of Sardinia by two good friends – The Vidals from Madrid, the calm was broken for a time by animated conversation in a mixture of Spanish, Italian, English and even a little Catalan, as far as I could tell!  Stories of fast cars, even faster motor bikes and tough decisions on whether to sell the Aston Martin in favour of a Ferrari played to male testosterone.  The ladies left them to it, gently toasting on the coach roof on the now much praised bean bags.

To suggest that Giovanna simply took it easy would not be close to the truth, however.  Intent on achieving an RYA competent crew qualification, she quizzed me for hours on the names of parts of the boat, she tied knots in every rope she could find, she even sweated up the mainsail and pulled in reefs – she was a natural and will make a good sailor – well done Gio.

Also to suggest that all was plain sailing would not be true.  With two days to reach Genova, we headed north from Portoferraio in light airs only to be confronted an hour later with rapidly increasing winds and seas.  Ferocious would not be too strong a word to describe what we faced.  One reef, two reefs, no headsail and still 8 kts with waves breaking over the boat on the beam spelled danger for this v. conservative skipper.  It spelled exhilaration for everyone else of course but despite this, being the boss, I bolted for cover but even this was a challenge.  Rosignano’s marina entrance was a sharp right turn in 4m of surf amongst the wet suited “kids” surfing the stormy waves.  Oboe, all 16 tons of her, joined in and bailed out at the last moment, entering the calm of the harbour and an audible sigh from the helm.  Who said you should never approach lee shore in an onshore gale – umm …..

Follow our progress here:

http://blog.mailasail.com/oboe, where you can see our daily progress on Google Earth.  Email us at: oboe {CHANGE TO AT} mailasail {DOT} com any time you like.  Phone us on +881 631 669 194 and we’ll pick up via Iridium satellite.

Fair winds to you all.

Nigel

Josef

Giovanna

David