Alghero - La Premiere rests while La Deuxieme & La Troisieme play.

Having spent the last hour of the passage tidying up, once the anchor was safely bedded in the only task to be completed was pumping up the dinghy. Chris made a start on that while I made the G&T, complete with ice. There are some advantages of having the engine on for so long; the freezer shelf in the fridge works well! We felt it would be a bit mean leaving Gibletto (her new Italian nick-name) on her own having endured such a long passage so we decided to take her across to Zephyrus in the dinghy. She was as good as gold and scrambled up their boarding ladder and proceeded to explore. As part of the never-ending battle against mosquitoes, Ian and Jo have made screens to fit across their hatches. While we were sat, chatting, Giblet decided to walk onto one of these nets. For a split second it held all her weight and then, much to her surprise, it gave way and she plunged down, onto Ian and Jo's bed! We laughed so much. Who needs cartoons when you've got the real thing! She wasn't bothered though, and soon reappeared at the companionway, mewing as if to say "Here I am!"

Dinner was much appreciated but we headed back for a proper sleep by about 2230. It was a calm anchorage and we both slept well. The following day, Sunday, was declared a day of rest, although we returned the dinner invite to the Zephs. By Monday we were feeling a little more adventurous and were running low on supplies. We spent the morning exploring the fantastic cliff tops overlooking the anchorage with Ian and Jo, and decided to take the dinghy across to Alghero town later in the afternoon rather than up-anchor and the hassle of berthing in the marina. This would have been fine had the dinghy trip really been the 2.5 miles Chris had measured off the chart. It turned out to be nearer 6.5! He had not realised that two different scale charts were on top of each other, the join being covered by the computer, and had measured the distance off one against the scale of the other! Oooops. Anyway, it was quite a trip in the dinghy, but well worth it. Alghero has a lovely fortified old town, and the architecture is an interesting mix of styles, the Spanish/Catalan influence still evident.

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in a small mobile phone shop where we tried to explain to a non-English speaking Italian what we wanted. Our half dozen words of Italian weren't getting us very far and he popped next door to get a lady who spoke Spanish. We were astounded as to how much easier Spanish seemed and then at some point she also dropped into French! Eventually we sorted out what we wanted and the lady offered us the use of her address and 'Numero Fizcale' which seems to be required when purchasing an Italian SIM card. We were very grateful for her efforts and went in search of some flowers to say thank-you, failed to find a florists that was open and finally plumped for some chocolates, which she accepted with lots of smiles and "Ciao Ciao!" Our first experience with Italians has given us a lot of confidence and we are amazed how multi-lingual we have become!

Loaded down with shopping we returned to the dinghy for the epic trip back to La Premiere. Thankfully it was virtually flat calm and the shopping wasn't so heavy and we still managed to plane. We moved anchorage that evening, further into the bay for more shelter in Porto Conte, only two miles away. "Captain Giblet" enjoyed another dinghy trip for card games on Zephyrus, and has become a regular visitor there now! Chris decided to make use of La Troisieme (the sail board) and after a few false starts actually got going rather well, although to be on the safe side I practised my dinghy skills acting as rescue boat! The wind got up on Wednesday night while we were on Zephyrus and poor Gibletto had to be put in a zipped up shopping bag for the dinghy trip back to La Premiere! I got completely soaked as the waves surged over the front of the dinghy but once back on the boat we were fine, let out a bit more anchor chain and settled down for a bit of a rolly night.