Wednesday 4^th , Thursday 5^th and  Friday 6^th August.

Well you have to hand it to the Italians, they do have style. Over the past weeks we have sailed from the dusty, rather hostile middle east, via Malta which was a blessed relief, but caught in something of a time warp based around the 1960s,to Sardinia  which although it likes to consider itself fairly independent of Italy, fairly oozes everything Italian.

The second biggest island in the Med after Sicily, Sardinia has long been something of an enigma and only comparatively recently has begun to reinvent itself as a tourist destination. Cagliari where we are currently moored was heavily bombed by the Allies during WWII, but despite everything thrown at it over the years by successive invaders from the Phoenicians onwards, including the Carthaginians, Romans and the Spanish, it has retained its charm and the wide open Spanish boulevards along the front give it some style whilst the medieval town in the centre has been largely protected.

Despite the clear blue skies, the strong wind has been quite definitely cold and even on the passage here from Malta we found ourselves putting on warm clothes each night. The marina is on the edge of the town and is a long walk or a reasonable bike ride away, but following our trip in on the first evening, it did not take Sarah long to plan a return visit, however it was not until Thursday that she was able to take a break from restoring Serafina’s topsides to their former glory and spend some time exploring the shops.

So Wednesday was spent washing down the decks and generally breathing new life into the boat, whilst also catching up on emails and the like. In the evening we sat down to watch the film ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ which was all the better now that we know so much more about the geography of the area and had visited the desert at Wadi Rum. The only downside was that it turned out that the file we had been given only had the first half of the film and so we now have to wait until we meet up with a yacht that has the second half!

On Thursday, as I said, Sarah interrupted her polishing to spend some time visiting the shops and although she had a good time, she only made a very modest purchase in the sales. The wind kept up a fairly constant howling through all the masts in the marina, but there was always the Italian women to admire. Not quite sure how they manage to always look so cool, but even the children seem to practise putting a swing into their walking! Sarah very miffed that the men seem universally to be fat and middle aged. I cycled into town in the late afternoon to get to the internet cafe and came across police blocking the main thoroughfare. As I progressed further I came across a very noisy and colourful parade which involved loads of young and pretty protesters (yes mostly girls) sitting in the road blocking it, blowing whistles and sounding gas powered horns and generally making a commotion. They were being observed by bored looking police and riot police who appeared to be simply waiting for the moment when they would be told to sweep this lot out of the way and restore order. I discovered that they were protesting against the fact that they were all due to lose their jobs and they were outside the local government offices responsible. It was serious in its purpose, but Arthur Scargill and the miners it wasn’t.

Another cool evening – hope that this is just the effect of the cold front (described in one weather forecast as a severe cold front!) sweeping over this part of the Med. We are more than a little fascinated by the aquatic life in the marina. We met two dolphins in the filthy harbour, just outside the marina pontoons on our way in which seemed strange, however around and under the boats here we have loads of very lively and quite large fish that spend all day and all night thrashing around on or near the surface. The first night here I honestly thought that someone had fallen in and was silently struggling to get out.

On Friday we had to get ready again to depart, heading hopefully for one of the bays fairly nearby to spend a few nights at anchor for a change. Only possible problem is that it will be a weekend and that is what just about every local boat owner seeks to do as well. Sarah went off in the morning to explore the old town further and take some photos.  She reported that it was very picturesque, but not necessarily very photogenic with a very large piazza at the top of the town (sadly covered in graffiti) surrounded by incredibly narrow streets with many floored houses covered in vegetation and washing.  From the top she could see a huge swirling cloud across the salt pans but couldn’t make out if it was dust, salt or water – and sadly not a sign of a pink flamingo. In the afternoon it was time for a big shop to prepare for possibly up to a week away from shops.

The wind was still blowing hard as we went to bed, but we are confident in the forecast for lighter winds in the morning.