The Admiral and I had a great sail from the northern Maddalena Islands to Cannigione on Sardinia. Quite a bit of upwind work but it's easy around here. You go up to the scary looking rocks until the depth gauge shows 20 meters, you press the "tack" button on the autopilot and 10 seconds later the boat starts turning. We have to furl in some part of the genoa to make it easier to go through the small opening between the forestay and the staysail stay but that's just a button press. So is the unfurling and trimming in on the new tack .....

Cannigione was our first experience with the Italian harbor situation. There are no less than 7 different quais where we could moor, all of which seem to have different owners, different phone numbers, VHF channels and email addresses (which theoretically could be used if they responded). Something tells me that I didn't do a good job exploring the differences in pricing because Cannigione isn't a hotbed of Costa Smeralda activity yet the price we're paying is over the top. But everything is convenient close by and the restaurants good.

My sister Rieke and her husband Benno as well as my cousin Rainer and his wife Almut joined us in Cannigione and off we went back to the Maddalena Islands to explore the southern part of the archipelago. The Italian forecast was good, including the 2 day outlook. But no sooner did we pick up a mooring in Cala Portese, the new forecast was for 35 knots and more from the West in the Maddelenas and surrounding areas and that didn't change for the next 3 days! The park rangers helpfully suggested that the mooring was good for 10 knots but we decided to stay put after snorkeling and taking a look at the solid looking mooring plate. We were also very protected in our little bay so all was good. The next day we ventured to Tahiti Beach around the corner and yes, it was windy. We didn't last long with vicious gusts and flying water from all directions but the scenery and beach were great and our guests even managed to take the paddleboards into the shore. Back to Cala Portese, this time closer to the Western shore at anchor which was quieter than the mooring 200 yards away from the shore. So more paddleboarding, even some morning yoga on the aft deck!

After a couple of days of this we decided that we'd had enough of the noise and waves and sailed down the coast away from the Strait. Staysail and reefed mizzen was the rig we used and we were moving nicely without much excitement. We stopped for lunch in Porto Cervo harbor, where we anchored close to the shore in the outer harbor with a great view of the mega yachts moored to the mole. The biggest was "Ona," a 110 meter long Luerssen, Germany's finest. We also took a peek into the inner harbor but decided not to spring for the Euro 650 docking fee for the night. Overall, I found PC a bit disappointing - I much prefer Monaco among the excessive places we've visited so far. We ended up in Portisco, a nice upscale harbor with lots more superyachts to look at. My favorite was the Swan 86 (or 90?) named "White Lie." I wonder about the story behind that name .....