6th - 8th June Capo d'Orlando, Sicily to Cagliari, Sardinia

After a short delay while the crew, marina office and boatyard staff searched for our spare set of keys (which it turned out were actually resting quite happily in the boat’s key drawer) we left Sicily for the final time. 

Ready to depart

The journey was scheduled to last just under two days and would include two overnight passages, which meant that we needed a watch system to allow crew to get some rest while others keep lookout and monitored progress en-route.  I opted for an overlapping 4-hour watch system which meant that there would be two people on watch at all times.  The disadvantage of this system is that you can an only get a maximum of 4 hours sleep at a time and, while the scientists say that this should be sufficient, it is not necessarily the case for those for whom bed is their natural habitat.  However, when you have certain crew members asking “what’s that country down there (short pause) – oh its Africa” and “I didn’t know that Sardinia was in Italy” I felt that it was a little risky to leave the navigation in the hands of any one person.  Who knows where we might have ended up.

Final Sicilian meal of Arancini

It was actually quite an uneventful trip as there was very little wind and, apart from a bit of motor sailing at the start, we were forced to motor the whole time.  The highlight was probably the wildlife, over a period of several hours we saw large numbers of turtles swimming along on the surface, apparently on their way to holiday in Greece.  

One of many turtles

We also saw dolphins, a swordfish jumping and “twitcher” Richard celebrated by spotting a hitherto unseen Cory’s shearwater.  

"Twitcher Fletch" spotting a Cory's shearwater

Dolphins at the bow

Greg did his best to decimate the Mediterranean’s population by catching a bluefin tuna. Fortunately for the fish, having been reeled in close to the boat, Greg then spent so long pondering what to do next that it was able to spot its chance and make a quick getaway.

The Battle of Man and Beast (fish)

We arrived in Cagliari at about 9:30 in the morning and after a quick trip to the fuel dock to fill up we headed to the marina, Portus Karalis, an excellent spot in the centre of town.

In Portus Karalis marina