We are in Sardinia, we are back in Italy😃.

We left the stunning town of Bonifacio behind to travel over the Straits of Bonifacio to Sardinia. Suddenly there is lots of boat traffic so we needed to be pretty vigilant but luckily the sea was flat & the wind quite calm. We passed between the stunning Maddalena Islands & the Costa Smerelda weaving through channels to get to Marina di Olbia in the huge Golfo di Olbia, an almost 5 hour trip.

Marina di Olbia (MOYS) is one of those newish soulless marinas out of town that serve well for winter berthing because it’s close to the airport. It is the airport we wanted to be close to though to pick up Alex from his flight from Bristol (which luckily was not cancelled) so perfect for us although not a great intro to Sardinia.

The one restaurant on site wasn’t bad on our first night though & yesterday we did boat cleaning & supermarket shopping before heading to the airport to collect my favourite oldest son. He arrived only 30 minutes later than scheduled and as always it is lovely to see him. It is his first time in Italy.

Today we took the marina shuttle into Olbia & did the tourist thing. Not a huge amount to see but we visited Basilica San Simplicio, Chiesa San Paolo, the punic wall, the sea promenade & the old back streets. The best thing about Olbia was the lovely Italian lunch we had, it was delicious & compared to Corsica very reasonably priced.

The problem is that we have been to so many lovely places that we are spoilt. Olbia is probably lovely but it is time to move on…..

With Alex onboard we left Olbia in perfect cruising conditions for the shortish journey here up the Costa Smeralda to Porto Rotondo. A beautiful trip & a lovely (albeit pricey marina) and here we are back in Super yacht territory.

This is a purpose built resort, built in the 1970’s and 80’s for wealthy holiday makers. It is beautifully landscaped, set in lovely scenery with little bays dotted along the coast. Our nearest beach is about 2 mins walk & has lovely clear waters and is perfect for swimming. The marina & village is dotted with nice shops and a variety of bars & restaurants. It’s all lovely perhaps a little bit too lovely.

We are most definitely enjoying being back in Italy for the cuisine. Our very beautifully presented dinner last night with amazing views was top notch. As was the delicious local vermentina white wine we drank with it.

Tomorrow we hope to anchor in the Maddalena Archipelago for which we needed a permit to visit (not an easy thing to get). Fingers crossed the sea state is ok for it.

We are at anchor 😃 in a stunning bay just off Isola Caprera in La Maddalena Archipelago. It’s everything as lovely as we read with crystal clear turquoise sea, a white sand beach & a lovely beach restaurant which we tested out for lunch.

We have spent the afternoon swimming in the sea & it’s warm & lovely. Tomorrow morning I hope it will be flat enough for some paddle boarding too.

There are a few other boats here but most will leave tonight & we should have a quiet night with a fabulous sunset, stars & sunrise tomorrow.

We are here in the resort of the very rich & famous - Porto Cervo on the Costa Smeralda. To be honest it is not our favourite place, \240in fact it is like the emperors new clothes, soulless & a bit like telly tubby land with posh shops & very expensive restaurants. Yes there are many super yachts, yes there are beautiful people & yes there is clearly lots of money here but there isn’t anything to do or see, the only walkable beach (20 mins) wasn’t nice so unless you want to shop Rolex, Gucci, Prada, LV etc etc I am not sure why people come.

We arrived in yet another wind. We also had to drop anchor again but at least this time we knew what to do & our berthing was seamless. This is the 2nd most expensive marina we have ever stayed in, second to Ibiza Town and at least Ibiza was a lovely place to visit.

We did find a good and not so extortionate restaurant for dinner last night & ate some very nice Sardinian dishes. Today however has been a bit dull. We wandered through the expensive shops, we visited the not brilliant supermarket & we walked to the not very nice beach, sat there for a while, didn’t fancy a swim because the water in this bay sutpringly smelt very bad (due to rotting sea grass) & it didn’t look that clean (compared to all the others we have seen) & then we walked back. We have watched massive super yachts come & go & we have people watched. Tonight we will cook & eat on board.

We are looking forward to moving on tomorrow knowing we will never be back here.

We are back in a happy place, a real town & a nice one at that. Santa Teresa di Gallura is a lovely Sardinian beach resort on the north coast directly opposite Bonifacio in Corsica. The marina here is in a similar but slightly less impressive gorge but is very lovely.

When we left our berth in Porto Cervo we had a near crisis whilst pulling up our anchor it picked up the hugest chain I have ever seen, massive & it was dangling on our anchor. Luckily the ormaggiores were on hand & they did a clever manoeuvre with a rope enabling the chain to be extricated from the anchor with no damage - phew! After that little excitement our journey from Porto Cervo was fairly pleasant & only 2 hours. We were given a very tight berth here between 2 big boats but managed to get in very professionally.

Santa Teresa is a lovely little town with beautiful beaches & nice restaurants. We toured the town yesterday & today took the bikes and scooter to a lovely beach on the isthmus of the Capo di Testo about 7km away. Andrew & I swam whilst Alex watched. Alex & I then cycled up to the Capo di Testa and walked through the amazing rocky landscape to the Faro & then back to our bikes for the ride back.

Tonight Alex is cooking onboard & tomorrow we return to Bonifacio because it is so impressive we thought Alex should see it.

Back to Corsica

We are back in Bonifacio because it is so spectacular we thought Alex should see it. We rarely return to a place we have been but this place certainly deserved another visit. It’s a bit quieter this time but no less lovely. We have done much as last time, walked the harbour, walked the Citadelle, walked the cliffs, eaten nice food & drunk nice wine. Here are a few more photos.

Alex cooked us a very delicious Bucatini con sarde last night without the sardines because we couldn’t get any. We improvised with a very fresh sea bass instead. It was a triumph although will be interesting to try it with fresh sardines one day too.

Tomorrow we are going back to Sardinia & Santa Teresa di Gallura so that Alex can get the bus to Olbia for his flight back. It has been so lovely having him onboard we will miss him. We will then continue our exploration of Sardinia for another 10 days or so.

Goodbye today to Alex our last guest of this summers travel’s. We waved him off on the bus to Olbia earlier & then there were just us 2 again. It has been so lovely having visitors onboard again this year to share some of our adventures with us.

Alex’s last meal out was at a Spaghetteria and apparently most delicious spaghetti vongole e bottarga, the best spaghetti dish Andrew has ever had so it went down well. I had spaghetti with Gorgonzola & radicchio which was also very delicious.

We depart again tomorrow (hopefully) across the bay to Stintino on the north west of Sardinia. I say hopefully because the weather is a bit iffy so we will make a call tomorrow morning. Today it is very windy again & this morning we had several showers of filthy Sandy rain all over my beautifully cleaned VA so I was cross. I have washed her again today & will be furious if it rains again!!

We had a hideous journey here with huge rolling swell and a constant force 5 westerly wind & we were going west!! We wouldn’t normally travel in these conditions but we didn’t want to spend another day in Santa Teresa (nice as it was) & the conditions had been forecast to improve after 11 so we left late ish & they didn’t really improve until about 3 hours into our 4 hour journey!! We even wore life jackets, a very rare occurrence these days. We survived though & arrived here in this little town on the west side of the north coast.

The town is an old fishing village & built around 2 harbours. It’s quite pretty with some nice restaurants overlooking the water but not a lot else. However just up the coast is probably one of the most beautiful white sand beaches we have seen on this trip. A lovely beach with bright clear azure waters - stunning. The only downside is that when we cycled there today half of Italy were already on the beach. It was rammed, people were cheek by jowl in only the way the Italians can sunbathe, certainly not British. We abandoned plans to squeeze onto the beach & found a quieter beach with a nice beach bar which still had white sand & azure water.

We have been here in Alghero for 3 days & it’s lovely. Another walled city with old cobbled streets & churches. Here there is a Catalan influence because it was ruled by the Catalans for several centuries. It is bloody hot though so exploring has been early morning & evenings. We are the furthest south we will be this year everywhere from now will be north.

Our marina here is very expensive & that means we get the stinky lazy lines put on for us & a nice cover for the power cables & hose - yep it’s worth the €200 a night!!! We have met some more new friends though, yachties Neil & Janette from a Lagoon Catamaran just down the pontoon. We were invited for drinks aboard Topcat on our first night here & then we returned the gesture with drinks & dinner onboard last night, we drank far far too much and stayed up very late (for us 🤭) but it was a lovely evening. It’s always fun to share boating stories. \240Tonight we are joining them & some other yachtie friends of theirs for dinner in town - can our livers take it!!!

Tomorrow we start heading back north again on our path back to Sanremo.

Just a stopover where we spent most of our time anchored at Isola di Piana. We had a good run from Alghero after a rather stressy start. As we left the engines didn’t go into gear and we had no power so we quickly had to throw ropes back & secure the boat, a few seconds later all was well again & we set off for the fuel pump, 1000litres of fuel later we headed north on our gradual journey back to Sanremo.

We spent a gorgeous afternoon at anchor swimming in 24 degree absolutely clear seas. I paddle boarded to the Isola & we took the tender over to Isola di Asinara. All wonderful. A night in the marina though so we could get good sleep & a nice pizza ahead of a long 6 hours run tomorrow.

Part 4 - Corsica again and back to Sanremo