On the move again...

Leaving La Grande Motte, France

Back in Monastir

Time seems to have flown by and it was soon time to cast off the lines and set sail again. We thoroughly enjoyed the warm climate Monastir had to offer as well as the social camaraderie of the few English speaking cruisers that came and went during our stay. We had a change of scenery in February when we flew to the south of France to help some friends bring their new catamaran back from La Grande Motte to Tunisia. Not a great time of year to be sailing in the notorious Gulf of Lyon and we duly set off in strong northerly winds which were forecast to drop. Instead they increased rapidly to gale force. Five days later with everything intact we arrived in Monastir. It was nice to be back in the sunshine. The girls continued to meet for morning walks and we swapped a couple of days for pilates in an effort to trim up for the season. Otherwise it was on with the numerous boat jobs. We had a dinghy cover made as well as a new sun awning, cockpit cushions and wheel and outboard covers. Ride of a Lifetime was beginning to look quite smart! Having stocked up with the delicious Harissa chilli paste and diesel at 0.50 euro cents per litre we just needed to give the boat a final wash to remove all the red Saharan sand that seemed to have got into everything and we were finally ready for off.

Identified as a western yellow wagtail by my twitcher sister

Coda Cavallo, Sardinia

We set sail in early May after waiting some time for suitable winds. We decided to make the most of the force 5 southerlies when they arrived and go for north east Sardinia in one hop. We managed to sail for most of the three day passage but the weather soon deteriorated and we saw more rain and cloud than we had throughout our winter in Monastir and we were back in our winter fleeces! We picked up a few exhausted migrant passengers of the feathery variety as night fell on the third night. By day break we were now a short distance from land and once recovered the wagtails and swift happily continued on their way. We finally anchored in Coda Cavallo, a beautiful bay just south of Olbia for a couple of nights. Thankfully the sun came out, we watched dolphins play in the bay and we had our first swim of the season. Unfortunately during the passage we sprang a fresh water leak which we didn't notice until the saloon was awash. At least the floors got a good clean. The faulty accumulator tank was fixed by removing it and bunging the open pipe with a wooden plug. A couple of hours later the bung flew out which resulted in more clean floors but this time the bilge pump decided to fail. With strong winds forecast and our precious freshwater reserves now very low we decided to sail into Olbia and moor alongside the free harbour wall. We spent the day fixing the problems and shopping for all things Italian. By evening all yachts were turfed off the wall to make way for the early morning arrival of a 1934 Italian navy sail training vessel. We anchored in the harbour and were up at 8am to watch the Palinuro being towed to her alongside berth.

The sail training ship Palinuro alongside Olbia town quay

The following day we treated ourselves to a night in Marina di Olbia. We caught up with old friends, did a huge supermarket shop, cleaned the decks of yet more Saharan sand and topped up with freshwater. We left the next morning and with yet more strong winds forecast we spent the next few days anchored in Cala di Volpe waiting for the Mistral to abate. As soon as the winds dropped we continued north past Porto Cervo admiring the superyachts as we went and spent our last night on Sardinia at anchor in Golfo delle Saline. We planned to make a very early start the following morning to cross the notorious Bonifacio Straits over to Corsica.