| We were now on the downhill stretch, and back
again in familiar waters. 150 Miles to Carloforte, off the SW coast
of Sardinia, and
moored up on the town quay for a few days. We then headed up the coast
to Alghero and Marina Aquatica where we had spent the previous
winter. We had arranged to come back here to collect our new, more
powerful diesel generator which had been delivered to our old friend
Salvatori at Marina Diesel. He was also going to help us install it,
providing us with loads of advice, sourcing parts and doing the
bits that we couldn't manage even with his advice.
We had installed most of the plumbing and the exhaust whilst we were in Malta, so now it was just a question of a group of us manhandling it on board, installing it under the companionway steps and turning it on. It all actually went quite well and was finished in about three days. The cosmetics (shown below) would take much longer and would be completed in Barcelona. |
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| On to Mahon on Menorca and anchored in Cala
Taulera where we'd spent a couple of weeks the previous summer. Now
it was deserted, we had the bay to ourselves and could anchor wherever we
wanted without any difficult manouvring. So simple - of course we
ran aground, but only in a small way!
Mahon itself was a very different place in late October than it had been in August the previous year. We could actually park the dinghy easily to go ashore, something barely possible in August. Still a lot of very large pasty-looking British tourists though, looking very out-of-place. We assume Mahon must be where failed Weight Watchers go on holiday after being expelled for binging on cream buns. Finally, finally, we admitted the season was over. The wind was with us so we hauled the anchor and headed for Barcelona. The sails were up, autohelm on, dolphins along side and just to make it a perfect day - we caught a small tuna for dinner - could anything go wrong on our last sail of the year?? |
