Thursday 26 September 2019

The day got off to a great start.  The shower facilities were by far the best we have come across in Sardinia so far.  Clean and spacious, and with limitless supplies of hot water, it was a real pleasure to be able to indulge oneself.

We then had to prepare the boat for departure and set off on a not quite so mega voyage.  We were moving on to another marina on the other side of the bay only.  We wanted to visit both ports as we finalise our overwintering spot and both were candidates.  It seemed a little odd to be putting away all of the in-port gear knowing that we would be getting it out again in an hour or so, but it must be done. Even on a short journey in benign conditions the unexpected may occur, and it is essential to have the decks clear and be ready for anything.

The biggest navigational challenge of the day was which side of a large group of rocks to go, we opted for the deeper seaward side as it only added a couple of hundred yard to the trip. As ever there were fishing boats and pots to avoid, but nothing too difficult.

So, 3 miles after departure, we entered the spacious harbour of Arbatax. We had phoned ahead as ever to reserve a space, and on this occasion I was able to give an accurate arrival time. We radioed as we entered and by the time we were approaching the marina, a marinaro was waiting for us. He took the lines and even got our electricity cable plugged in before we had the passerelle out of its storage.  I don’t remember ever having that sort of service before.

Arbatax is a small village around the port with a road leading 5 km inland to the bigger town of Tortoli.  We walked around the village to get our bearings and will explore further tomorrow.

One of the challenges in this part of Sardinia has been getting water of drinkable standard. Each of the marinas that we have been too lately have said that the water to the taps on the jetty is not suitable for drinking but it is OK for cooking and cleaning.  This marina even has two standards of water to the pontoons, one for just boat cleaning and one for cooking etc. The Sards seem to buy bottled water for drinking, but we are reluctant to consume yet more single use plastic.  We were told that there was a machine here dispensing drinking water, and we found it during our exploration.  It was the most elaborate drinking water station I have ever seen. You could get either normal or fizzy water, so we had taken a couple of our 5 litre battles and filled them.  We will take more tomorrow, but we can’t carry too many at once.

I have been very impressed with the scenery in this part of the island.  The centre is relatively mountainous and from the sea you can see the various layers of hills.  I don’t remember seeing scenery with this sort of depth since we left Scotland.  It was probably there in Norway, but the low cloud prevented us from seeing it.

Distance covered today	3	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	321	nautical miles
Distance covered 2019	1374	nautical miles

Steve (and Tricia)