Sardinia is an Island!

Alghero is an important port to us yachties as it is the landfall from the Balearics and is a great place to rest a few days if hiking up the West coast.

Hermy appreciates a rest.

As does the Galley boy!

The Aroganese took possession of Alghero in 1350 something and the Spanish tinge is still present with Spanish words popping up all over the place. I like this idea as my Italian includes a lot of French and quite a bit of English. The other great thing about this place is that it has quite a few nice shops for Mrs K to wander around picking things up and putting them down again as well as feeling the material of all items of clothing on display. I love watching the urge to buy competing with the urge to save, the latter almost always wins.

Apparently The holy Roman Emperor Charles V of Spain stayed in this building around 1540 ish before heading off to bash up pirates in Algeria. He addressed the Sardinian people who were decidedly friendly with Charles just having parked his fleet in the harbour . His address went something like this.

'The Sardinian people are lovely and you have a strong and lovely town now bring me all your cattle as I have thousands of soldiers to feed but it's okay we'll have a bull fight or two before we slaughter them all.'

Giuseppe Garibaldi turned up here too in 1855 on his way to try and unite the Italies.

I don't know what it is but people always insist on scribbling on everything. Luckily offset by a sexy girl sight seer.

One of the great things about Mrs K is that she will always try whatever is unusual on a menu. Myself always driven by hunger always has to be sure that I will like what I eat.

Mrs K goes for the strange Chickpea omelette while I plumb for the Pepperoni Pizza. Of course should it turn out to be a little dodgy then sharing is always an option.

The cost for staying a night at Alghero was 28 Euros and with the Cruising Association discount it remained at 28 Euros.

Next port was Stintino 35 miles up the coast and through a shallow patch between the mainland and the Island of Asinara. So to get a head start we decided to do the first 5 miles and anchor in Porto Conte beneath the spectacular cliffs. And of course the statutory Spanish tower.

The route around Capo Caccia was the spectacular bit.

Who put that hole through there?

Stintino on the Assinara peninsular was famous for being a Tuna fishing village and for having a rare breed of  white donkey. So rare infact we didn't see any. Somebody obviously shouted ' Get your scrawny white ass out of here' and they did!

Having negotiated the leading lines through the shallow Fornelli Channel where we slid in to the harbour and up to the preferred sailing club only to be told to sod off as they were full up so we went in to the marina and tied up next to  'Reverie' a couple from Blighty doing the same thing but in a posher boat.

Still a lovely place and a short scramble along the coast showed a huge variety of plant life.

Next stop across the bay was Isola Rossa aptly named after the red island just outside.  A pleasant little harbour with nice staff but as has become usual when it comes to taking your papers to the office and paying it always seems to come as a complete surprise to the staff that you have parked a boat in their harbour and wish to pay them some money for the privilege. Forms have to be found and filled in, entry cards for the showers need to be distributed, and payment card machines completely baffle them. You get the impression that each harbour employs new office staff daily to maintain this element of surprise.

Our stop here gave us the chance to inflate the dinghy, try out the outboard and give Hermy's hull a long needed clean. The next day was our final leg in the circumnavigation of Sardinia. after a short lunch stop at Capo Testa and a clean of the propeller we entered Santa Teresa in a hail of glory. Well okay no one noticed but we did and celebrated with a Pizza with the crew of 'Reverie'

Rounding Capo Testa marking our circumnavigation of Sardinia 455 Nautical Miles. We can confirm Sardinia is an island.