It’s wonderful to wake up on a yacht and in a new location. The sun was streaming through the small windows o Aria and into the galley. I popped my head through the hatch and into our new world and into the glorious welcoming sun lit marina. It’s a great feeling being back in Sardinia and Sant Elmo marina.

Alex was still sleeping, but awoke shortly and we made our way for coffee and doughnuts at club Rari Nantes.

A text from Massimo said that he was running late and we arranged to meet on Aria at 1130.

We had loads to do. Bringing the tender on board, taking down the old genoa and putting up the new one, filling tanks and general yacht readiness. We were done by 1300, and then we joined Marta and their home for our customary pasta and the famous Massimo ragu.

After lunch, one last task of provisioning and we were ready to set of.

We slipped lines at 1600 and engined out of the marina and into open water, setting a course of 117 degrees for Maretimmo, one the the Egadi islands.

We engined as far as Villasimius and as predicted the wind picked up to between 8 and 12 kts, just ahead of our port beam, enough to turn the iron maiden off and sail under Gods own.

I volunteered for the first 3 hour watch from 2000 to 2300.

I spotted a bright red/ orange glow and initially wondered what it was, but within seconds realised that it was the moon rising over that last, eastern part of Sardinia. Within half an hour, it was high enough and bright enough to illuminate our passage, almost as if it was twighlight. As it rose higher the whole area was flooded with intense moonlight making for the most visible night sail i have ever experienced. The constellation of Orion, together with Venus setting in the west were clearly visible in the heavens.

By the time of my second watch at 0200, the moon had passed overhead and although obsured by light cloud, still managed to illuminate our world at sea.

The cloud cover soon passed and once again the moon cast shadows of Arias mast onto the deck and illuminated the horizon.

The wind picked up to 10 to 12 knots and Aria was consistently pulling between 5.5 to 6.5 kts.

Beautiful as this was it was nice to get my head down when my watch ended at 0500 and Massimo took over.

After spending a day and night in Viulasimius we pondered our situation. With the weather getting worst over the next 3 to 4 days our prospects were slim and a 3 day stay in Vilasinius seemed likely. No one seemed particulary happy about this prospect, one becasue nearly everything is closed in the winter season, two, theres nothing to do and three, anything open is extremely expensive.

Waking up on the morning of the of the 21st I made a decision, if everyone agreed, that Massimo and I would sail back to Cagliari in a Force 7-8 and Alex, Marta and Arba, would take the bus back to Caliari some 65 kms.

And so it was decied and after breakfast, Massimo and I readied Aria for a short, but windy hoope to Sant Elmo marina and Cagliari.

We slipped lines at 1010 and motored out of the marina and immediatly put out our genoa. The wind was more or less behind us 42 kts ( thats a Force 9 ). At times we were pulling 12 kts on the surf. A cracking and auxhilarating sail. Some of the wave must have been 4 to 5 metres. It was great fun and Massimo reveled in the fact that he had been out in such strong wind and that is was manageable.

We arrived at 1302. Thats 2 hours and 52 minutes, covering 20.2 nms, an average speed of 7.04 kts. We entered Sant Elmo to very suprised marina staff who helped to take our lines and we were safely in.

Literally 2 minutes later we were greeted by Alex, Marta and Arba, who had just arrived. We had beaten them and the bus.

A wonderful sail and a fantastic climax to a great 363 nm trip to the Egadi islands and Sicily.