Eventually we set off, and experienced nothing of the forecasted winds that would have made this a perfect sail and relied once more on our engine to bring us safely to Porto Conte just north of Alghero.

After the first six hours I was able to enjoy my first long voyage and was lucky enough to see two whales, a school of dolphins, a turtle and a tuna. In fact it was so hot on the second day we put our Italian phrase book down, stopped Kluut and jumped overboard for a cooling swim, with the tuna. The sea was so calm it was like a mirror and the most enchanting crystal clear turquoise. My nerves of having to do the night watch completely disappeared as soon as I looked up and wondered why we ever sleep at night and miss all this beauty. Constellations, shooting stars and a rising moon at sea make overnight passages a mesmerizing experience. In all of the 42 hours it took to cross we only saw 5 other ships and they were on the horizon.

Dave raised the Italian courtesy flag to vocal accompaniment, ‘Just one Cornetto’, as we arrived in our third new country.

That's all for now folks.  More news later!

Pip and Dave