The Arrival of the Boys

Steven and his mate Sam joined us yesterday on the 3rd July. More hands to help change the sails with the ever continuing variable winds!

We put them to good use even before we set sail, with a 15 minute hike to the supermarket to stock up… bit of a shock working out what to buy food wise for 2 growing 16/17 year olds and us, for a week on board … worse still where to store it all!!!

First giggle for the boys was at my expense, as we are walking back, having “borrowed” a trolley for the walk home, I jumped out of my skin as I walked past a dense hedge only to have an Alsatian throw himself at the fence, I jumped so far I ended up in the middle of the road, my language rather choice all to the boys amusement!.

Back at the boat, and after dinner, the boys went off to have a wander around the marina, gob smacked at the size of some of the super yachts there, we are after all in one of the Italy’s richest play grounds!

We set sail on the 4th, leaving Olbia behind us heading north…with the winds changing from a Force 6 to a Force 2 within seconds, and every 20 minutes or so, meaning sails in, sails out, sails in, sails out.. we did tell the boys they would get some arm muscles on this trip.. not sure they took us seriously before though!.

We finally dropped anchor in the Golf di Arzachena, just south of the Maddalena islands where the boys blew up the kayak and ventured off to explore and David and I decided to take the dingy out for a run…. having believed we had filled up the fuel tank a couple of weeks ago and only used it for 30 minutes, we didn’t bother to check.. fortunately we did take the oars so when the engine spluttered to a standstill, Redgrave and Pinsent took to the oars and had a 40 minute row home, we did manage to limp home much to the boys amusement! What are we like!!!

The boys, chilling:

Hopefully tomorrow the winds will be settled another to really explore the Maddelana Islands for a couple of days which is meant to be the most  beautiful area of Sardinia, before setting off to Corsica and Bonifacio!

Quick update as WIFI is non exitent and am on data roaming. More details will follow later, that said, the Maddelena Islands, what we saw of them on 2 days, are stunning, see piccs below.

The Maddelena Islands 

Now in Bonifacio, hiding from another Mistral forecasts to blow a Force 9 til Thursday!