A delayed start to the Summer season! The first delay was in Gatwick airport, where our flight to Sardinia was delayed by ten hours. Arriving, eventually, in Cagliari, we found that the car hire desk had shut for the night, so suffered a further delay with a night in a airport hotel in the capital. It was a relief to pick up the hire car the next morning and head north along the coastal road to Arbatax, and a night in a lovely hotel by the sea (and our first dip in the sea – not yet as warm as we would like!), before watching the relaunch of Merryn the next day.
As she settled in the water we climbed aboard and ran through a few checks: immediately it was clear that the sea-cock supplying water to the engine coolant system was leaking. Out she came again, and Umberto (the owner of the boatyard where Merryn wintered) came to our rescue, arranging for a mechanic to replace the seal in just one hour.
Once back in the water, this time with no leaks, we motored into a berth in Arbatax marina to get started on re-commissioning her. A winter’s worth of dirt needed scrubbing off, the sails and running rigging put back, and a myriad minor tasks seen to. Whilst we began that work in Arbatax, on the second day we took advantage of gentle conditions to motor across the bay to Santa Maria Navaresse to spend a few days there finishing the jobs.
We spent six days in Santa Maria Navaresse – a combination of jobs to do, a weather window to wait for, and also waiting for a local bicycle repair man to replace the seized Sturmey-Archer gear mechanism on my bike (thanks to me dropping the bike in the water last season!) Unfortunately, that last task proved too much: it turned out that the part was not compatible, and I am now the owner of a broken bike, and hoping I might find somewhere in a bigger town in the next few weeks where it can be fixed.
One upside of our time in Santa Maria was that we met up with a couple – Alistair and Delores – who we first met during our long delay in Gatwick airport. They have a house on the hill above the village, and proved to be incredibly generous and friendly: helping us find a hotel in Cagliari when we got stuck there, driving me around to try and get the bike fixed, and joining us for Aperitivo on a couple of evenings during our time there.
Eventually it was time to leave. Today we set sail, heading South to Porto Corallo, a small harbour that we visited last Autumn, and that will be our departure point for the crossing to Sicily, planned for tomorrow morning. I’ve taken a short video of the relaunch and shakedown sail…
It all looks amazing and wishing you a fab summer. Xx