After provisioning we decided to have a quick pizza before our planned departure of 1500. Things in Italy never go to plan and we had to wait another hour, before we finally got our €200 deposit back. The yacht club we stayed in “Circola Nautico Olbia”, is a fantastic place to moor up in Olbia. Very welcoming staff, great club house and all for €35 per night and right in the centre of town.

So we slipped lines at 1604 and immediately put sails up and started sailing though the main channel, on genoa alone, and pulling 6 kts. This area is now so familiar to us, it’s almost like home ground.

The wind was with us all the way, to our intended anchorage location of “Salinedda” just on the south eastern tip of “Capo Coda Cavallo”. We anchored 150 metres off the beach, in 4.5 metres of water and into sand. The wind was a light westerly and the sea state was so calm, that you could have mistaken it for a lake. Settling down to a home made spag bols, which I have prepared earlier, with the added delight of home made garlic bread, we laid the table on deck and enjoyed the food and the tranquil surroundings, beautiful clear skies and amazing sunset. Not a yacht in our bay, just a few in the next bay along. As the stars and planets appeared, we contemplated our new home and settled in for the night.

We couldn’t have had a more peaceful night, not a single movement, I occasionally stirred and just not believing, that I was actually at anchor.

As if that wasn’t enough, I was rewarded with the most beautiful sunrise over still waters, with only the sound of birds, fish jumping and lightly splashing waves on the shore, not 150 metres away. What a wonderful way to start the day and it’s not even 0600.