The morning of the 1st of July was spent provisioning. Massimo and I went to get gas, groceries and some flippers for moi, whilst Marta and Alex stayed on Arya and filled water tanks and cleaned inside and out. I took my huge canvas trolley suitcase, which has proved useful, for such provisioning trips, on multitude of occasions. This time it was full to the brim, with gas bottle, 12 litres of water, tinned foods, fresh meats, fruit and vegetables and also the now essential mask and flippers.

Once back on Arya, I completed the cold Polish Borsch, which I had prepared several days earlier. A welcomed cold soup in these high temperatures. I also managed to get a quick chat in with Roman and Rachel, such lovely people, and I was sorry not to have been able to spend more time with them, hopefully, they’ll be another time.

We slipped lines just before 1500 and headed up the coast and almost immediately anchored just 0.4nm north of Pedra Longa. We stayed an hour and I tried my new mask and flippers and as usual Alex shot off in search of sea snakes and fish.

Heading north, but only a cable or two off shore, we passed fantastic sights of shear cliff faces, darting out of the sea and rises vertically several hundred metres. We passed Cala Goloritze, Mariolu, Grotto Del Fico, the pools of Venus and many others, before finally anchoring for dinner at Cala Sisine. I had visited all these places a company of months earlier, but by a tourist pleasure boat, and seeing it from a yacht showed it through a different perspective.

Marta made a wonderful pesto and tomatoes pasta, which was devoured in minutes, primarily by Alex. Then we set sail in a north easterly direction, towards Capo Comino and then northwards towards the Maddalena islands.

The sun disappeared behind the towering mountains and the stars came out in all their glory. A fantastic view of the Milky Way and I reminisced my viewing of this awesome sight of our Galaxy, when, as a child, I visited my grandparents in the Cotswolds. I clearly recall it being brighter then, so either my eyesight is going or we are polluting our planet so quickly, that within 55 years this wondrous sight has somewhat diminished. That said, this beautiful night sky was accompanied by the most glorious smell of Sardinia fauna, quite incredible and overpowering, even 2 nms off shore. Alex was in awe of the sights of the Milky Way and the millions of stars within our galaxy.

It’s now 0345 and we have Capo Comino on our beam and I can see the red and green entrance lateral marks of Caletta in the distance. So I continue my watch and wait for the dawn and what that brings.

It’s tempting to stop at all these lovely beaches and anchorages on our northward journey, especially in the fine settled weather we are having, with minimal swell. But today, we set our objective as Santa Maria Navarrese, for few reason.

One. We need to dispose of Rubish

Two. We need to refill our water tanks

Three. Provision

Four. We need to make some headway north and stop being distracted by beautiful anchorages along the way.

Five. Take advantage of the last day of the month and reduced rates of €50 per night, reduced to €45 for C A Members.

So we weighed anchor at 12 and headed north in a 7 to 10 kts south easterly. Even though we had our sights set for the marina, we were drawn like magnets to a couple of anchorages for a swim. The final one was the small rocky Isola dell’Ogliastra only 1 nm south east of Santa Maria Navarrese marina..

We anchorages some 100 metres from the rocky shore, not because of any restriction, but because it was quite busy with yachts and other pleasure craft. So we snorkels up and swan ashore. It was Alex’s first time, with mask and snorkel and he was a natural. He beat us all to the rocky outcrop and immediately started exploring. This boy has not fear of water, its amazing how he just goes of and swims endlessly. Alex was lucky enough to see an Moray eel, unfortunately, he didn’t have the Go Pro to hand to film it, but by all accounts it was a large beast, hiding in the rocks.

After a few hours on the rocky outcrop, we headed for the marina. After a quick splash down, crew not yacht, I met my Swiss friends from the last visit. Roman, Rachel and their children Louis and Morris. They were happy and surprised to see me and we chatted and caught up on adventures.

A pizza beckoned, and we soon made our way to a fantastic restaurant by the beach, some 1.5 kms from the marina, “Ristorante e Pizzeria Tancau”. Delicious pizzas, deserts and views.