We are in Italy!

Well,.....Sardinia to be precise, and it feels like we have escaped from Hotel California! We are in a little town called Carloforte on a small island off the south coast of Sardinia. We arrived here yesterday after a fairly gruelling 190 mile overnight passage from Menorca and so far our impressions have been very favourable. The marina fees are quite reasonable, they gave us an adaptor for the electricity and the keys for the showers without being asked and without requiring a huge deposit, and the WiFi actually works!! We were in Spain for 9 months and whilst we loved it there, it is really nice to be finally moving on.

Our Italian courtesy flag at last.....

Our last post was from Valencia and since then lots has happened, mostly bad....we have almost been bankrupted - but the internet connection at the various places we have stayed has been so poor that we haven't been able to post anything so here is a catch-up. Apologies in advance because its a bit of a long one.

Whilst we were in Valencia for Las Fallas we decided to get our engine serviced and to get some repairs done after the damage in Fuengirola. We chose a supposedly reputable firm called Valencia Varadero to do the work but sadly they were nowhere near as good as we had hoped. I won't bore you with the details of the struggles we had, but suffice to say that the bill was almost double what we had expected and we are still arguing with them about it.

From Valencia we went to Ibiza, staying on anchorage in Eivissa to avoid their horrendous marina charges. I love Ibiza - it has a really cool vibe, it's just a shame its so expensive to moor there.

Eivissa

Chilling in Eivissa

Good music, good views, cold beer, happy days!!!....

From Ibiza we went to Majorca and we had hoped to anchor there, but gale force winds were forecast so we had to go on to moorings in Port Andratx for a few days. Port Andratx is a very pretty and very exclusive town - I guess we should have guessed from the exotic cars parked in the marina, but even in the off-season the marina fees there are shocking - literally triple those of Valencia. Anyway the storm hit and we were very glad we weren't on anchor because it was quite scary even in the marina.

Glad we weren't anchored!

Damage after the storm....

Port Andratx

Automotive exotica in Port Andratx

We departed to go to an anchorage as soon as we could leave and found a beautiful spot, but our bad luck continued. Obviously when we are on anchor we need to use the dinghy to get to the shore. Well we were going to get some groceries and Jan slipped.......I promise that I didn't laugh (too much!).

A lovely anchorage

No comment!

The water is still cold here....

One of the reasons for stopping in Majorca was to try and get our watermaker fixed and we had been recommended Marlin Marine, a firm in Port Adriano. The watermaker is an on-going saga, once it is working it will greatly increase the time we can spend on anchor but we have been trying with huge expense and without success to get it working since we left the UK. Well as we entered Port Adriano the alarm bells starting ringing - all the boats there were huge superyachts!! Included amongst them was Sybaris, a Perini Navi which at 70m long is apparently the world's 6th largest private yacht and was on sale for €88,000,000!

Superyachts in Port Adriano

To get an idea of its size, look at the bloke on its deck near the mast!!

Sybaris - this is what €88m looks like! 

Marlin Marine sent their engineer on-board who quickly diagnosed and replaced a broken fuse, so now the watermaker functioned,.....but still would not produce fresh water. Several hours and €385 later he decided that we needed two new membranes for our unit. I investigated the cost from the manufacturers and discovered that they cost €300 each. Independently Marlin Marine quoted the cost if they were to source the membranes for us as €2,500 with an additional cost for fitting them! We decided to get the membranes ourselves and get them fitted elsewhere.

By now we had decided that Majorca was a bit too rich for us and we needed to move on, but as we were sailing, heading for an anchorage in preparation for our departure to Menorca the mainsail halyard broke and the sail started to fall down. Those of you who know sailing boats will understand that safely removing the mainsail from a 50 foot boat in 18 knots of wind is not an easy undertaking - we needed to find shelter from the wind. 

The mainsail looks a bit unhappy....

Unfortunately some World Championship dinghy racing was taking place in Palma Bay and the route we chose initially took us right across their race course. As you can imagine we were quickly chased down and instructed to find an alternative route. 

Only a few racers out there

We finally managed to find some shelter and removed the sail then had to return to Palma to get the halyard replaced....this is when the song Hotel California started playing in my mind. To add to our trials, in Palma when we were mooring the Marinero managed to get a mooring line caught around our propellor - brilliant! 

Fortunately we managed to find some good riggers to replace our halyard and the marina sent us a diver to get the prop freed, on our way once again. 

Our 1st saviour - the diver

Our 2nd saviour - the rigger

From Majorca we went to Menorca, originally intending to moor in Ciutadella, but when we reached the port the because of the recent strong winds the entry looked so hazardous that we decided to travel on and find somewhere else.  Fortunately we found a nice secure anchorage overnight and then moved on to Mahon on the other side of the island. 

Its not looking too welcoming

From Mahon we departed for Sardinia - which is where we are now. Fingers crossed that there are no more disasters for a little while. 

Pizza instead of paella