Saturday 28 September

We were disturbed again during the night, this time by the large commercial vessel leaving the port.  Prior to departure there were various messages broadcast on the tannoy system, and then there was both the noise and the wake of her departure.  Oh well, business must go on, and we managed to get back off to sleep afterwards.

We are continuing to press southwards down the east side of Sardinia, and again were working on the plan of stopping overnight in a cala.  The wind was forecast to be light and from the west, which would have been ideal.  The forecast was right about the strength but not necessarily the direction, and as a result we motor sailed for most of the day and abandoned the idea of the cala.

When we are motoring, we often use “George” the autopilot to steer.  In calm, flat waters it is good to be given a break from the concentration of hand steering.  When we are sailing, it is our preference to do this manually for a number of reasons. These include better handling of the waves as a human is able to steer proactively, and also that the autohelm uses our available electricity more quickly, and we potentially have to run the generator more frequently. Even when not hand steering, we still have to keep a good lookout.  There are boats and fishing gear to avoid, plus potential changes in the weather conditions or sea state that all need to be taken into account.  Our route took us just alongside a row of fishing related buoys, but fortunately they caused us no problem. We spend many happy hours daily in the pattern of scanning the sea, checking the instruments and other settings, checking the course, scanning the sea and so on.   While doing this, I thought I spotted a couple of dolphin splashes, but was not sure and nothing came close to the boat. We have not seen that many dolphins in recent weeks, although some of the orts have advertised boat trips to see them.

The coastline has now changed a bit, with a wider, green, coastal strip in evidence before the hills and mountains start.   The scenery is still spectacular.

In the late afternoon, as we neared our destination the wind picked up, but was still from dead ahead. We did some calculations and realised that we could continue to motor at the current speed, and cover a certain distance, or we could sail and by tacking go 30% further but be going 30% faster. The resulting arrival time would be the same.  The sailing option that involved a more comfortable ride and using less fuel won out and we had a very nice sail for a couple of hours.

The trouble started when we tried to take the sails down.  There was a problem with the furling system of the jib, and it would not work.  Fortunately, we were able to take it down and secure it on the foredeck.  Not an easy task as there is quite a lot of sail cloth to fight back, and the only one of us able to be on the foredeck, while the other works in the cockpit.

We entered Porto Coralli, looking a bit of a mess, but were greeted by a friendly marinaro, and directed to a space where we could berth alongside the jetty.  This is the first time we have not been stern to in weeks, it was quite a shock.

Distance covered today	32	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	353	nautical miles
Distance covered 2019	1406	nautical miles