We are approaching the end of this Summer’s sailing season: Merryn has been lifted out and is now tucked away safely in Umberto’s boatyard on the east coast of Sardinia. We are spending a few days in Santa Maria Navarrese – just a few minutes drive from the boatyard – doing the final cleaning and preparation for leaving Merryn over the winter. The last few weeks have been busy; we had some long sailing trips and plenty of work to do.
Starting in Mallorca… once we had seen the solar eclipse we sailed out of Palma making a stop at a mooring in Porto Petro before crossing to Menorca and our favourite anchorage there in Fornells bay. Cate surpassed herself by trying out a new bread recipe, which she had got from one of our Viking explorer friends, and made delicious Focaccia. Cate is now officially the Master Baker! I summoned the enthusiasm to fly my drone and got some lovely dawn shots of the bay. Fornells is a very sheltered bay, perfect for a few nights at anchor, and with a pretty town on the waterfront with lots of good restaurants. We made sure to sample one or two!
Once the weather conditions were right, we made the overnight passage from Menorca to Sardinia, making landfall at Carloforte on the island of San Pietro. This is another of our top spots; one we visited just after our first passage to Sardinia five years ago. This time we were earlier in the season and the streets were crowded with tourists. A live band was playing in the square, and our biggest problem was finding restaurants that were not fully booked. A big change from the sleepy island we encountered on our first visit.
Moving on from Carloforte, we sailed anti-clockwise around the South of Sardinia, stopping at a couple of beautiful anchorages on our way. Perfect for a bit of relaxation and swimming in the waters that felt at least as warm as those we swam in when we were in the Caribbean.
Eventually we reached Santa Maria Navarrese; the marina which has almost become our home port. You can see Merryn on the picture below, at the end of the pontoon just above the superyacht that is dominating the centre of the marina!
It was time to roll up our sleeves and get busy. Our end-of-season preparations included cleaning the whole boat, taking down all the sails and running rigging, getting the engine serviced, repairing the roller blinds covering the hatches, and generally getting the boat ready for winter storage. Merryn has been plagued by a leak in the coachroof that we had spent months investigating and trying to fix – to no avail. We decided to have one more try and took down all the coachroof headlining, itself a job taking most of the day. Amazingly, this time success! We discovered a small screw hole passing up from the curtain rail fitting and penetrating the GRP of the roof – all caused by some workman using a screw just quarter of an inch longer than it should have been to support the curtain rail. We have now (we hope) sealed the leak, and will have to wait until our return next spring to see if our fix has worked.
On the 2nd of September we took Merryn round to the haul out dock in Arbatax and handed over to Umberto for her lift out. She has now been in his yard for a few days, allowing us to finish the jobs that can only be done on dry land.
As the boat is on the hard, we have moved into a small apartment in Santa Maria Navarrese, allowing us to finish off remaining jobs (mainly getting a stack of washing done!). We have had some free time. The highlight has been meeting up with our friends Alistair and Dolores, who we first bonded with whilst waiting in a Gatwick departure lounge for a flight to Sardinia that was delayed for over seven hours! That was in 2022, and we have kept in touch with them since. Dolores was born and raised in Santa Maria Navarrese, and they spend their time between Sardinia and London. Luckily they were here when we arrived and we have joined them on a couple of evenings for aperitivo and a catch-up.
We have taken a road trip a little inland and south of our base, visiting the Grotta su Marmuri, which is an amazing and vast cave complex, complete with stalactites, stalacmites, and home to a colony of some 27,000 tiny bats. We even managed a short walk in the hills above the cave, although temperatures are still too high for anything more than short and gentle walks. Later we headed to a beach complete with a historic tower – the Torre di Bari.
It is time to move on. Tomorrow we will be driving across Sardinia to the west coast and to Alghero. My Dad is flying out to join us and we will have a week to explore the west and south of Sardinia: Alghero, Iglesias, Cagliari and all stops in-between. Hopefully plenty to see and do for our final week in Sardinia before we fly back to the UK, then on to France for the next chapter.
