day 6 - aug 10th

we motored/sailed out and up along the Golfo de Orosei, a neat half-crescent bay. in case you're wondering what the map looks like:



View Larger Map

lots of boats were on their way out with us:
and one was on its way in. get out of the way!


the sailing life ...
we still had little wind so we tried to put the spinnaker up.



but it was twisted and wouldn't go ...

but it was still pretty.
another pic of the happy couple!



we had a very bizarre swim that started out with a shock:
and also included spearhunters, more jellyfish, an octopus, lava rock and lots of sulfur bubbles, and dead fish on the bottom. but the sunset was worth it:

day 5 - aug 9th - my birthday!

we spent the day in port, while vince cleaned the boat and worked on the engine and barbie and i toured the town. i bought them a nice red runner rug for downstairs, and some clear goggles for me (which are fantastic - wish i could find this brand here!). i did my post card duties, and we had my birthday dinner at the marina restaurant, with only ok dessert pastries from a local shop.

my first real look at a pretty italian town:


the road begins (and ends?!) here:

my view at dinner.

[in medias res] in sardegna!

flew in tuesday morning where b & v piced me up at the airport. spent the day napping on the boat while they grocerey shopped, then out to good sushi dinner and the night in the cagliari port. weds sailed out and anchored in a beautiful bay by a port with fancy houses on shore and good swimming. thursday up the coast to a pretty little beach where we anchored for the night. friday sailed again, no wind, motored up the coast to and ended up in arbatax for fri and sat night. tomorrow we're off north again. having lots of fun, here are some pics! sorry if they're sideways.

my bag at the newark airport.



the boat.

my berth - very comnfy bed.

sunset from the water.

day 4 - aug 8th

today we sailed up to arbatax, a nice little port, after doing a LONG tack out to sea and back. while out there we found dolphins (or they found us, rather) twice! no pics cause they swim too fast. here's barbie checking out the sailor's guide/map:
we didn't do much motoring because vince tried to make an ad hoc oil cooler, and the gauges said we then lost all oil pressure. we got in late at night, but there were nice dock people to guide us in. and they had showers!

and here's arbatax, with its very distinctive mountain ridge


and the town itself.

day 3 - aug 7th

we continued up the coast, motoring mostly since there was no wind, and passed some super cool rock formations.
we also got far enough out that we could see the layers of mountains on shore, which was neat:

we anchored again in a pretty little cove where people drove down to the beach for the day. got to swim twice today, morning & night! it was a great swim all across this bay. i used b's blue blue goggles instead of the facemask, which i was much happier with, except i couldn't see any of the amazing colors underwater.

not bad:

day 2 - august 6th

we headed out of cagliari and up the east coast, sailing/motoring. we anchored for the night at cala carbonara and went for a swim before dinner - i saw a stingray! i got seasick from the wakes of the boats in & out of the port nearby, but after the ear patch and dramamine and the wristbands and skipping dinner, i was fine for the rest of the trip. it was pretty:

can you imagine living in that house?

day 1 - august 5th

i'm going to put up a day-by-day with pictures here. day 1 right now. i left on a crazy day: got back from sociology conference in boston sunday night, got up monday and packed, finished grading (barely!), ran to a meeting and then to class where i on-the-spot graded some presentations and assigned final grades, and handed off my 2nd class to a sub. missed seeing nichole off, but she kindly procured a plug adaptor for me. helen drove me to the airport with all my belongings:
i weighed the bag when leaving italy at 5.8 kg (12.8 lbs)! go me! in retrospect i did an awesome job packing - i used everything, only wanted 1 or 2 things, which i bought as souvenirs.

the alitalia flight was ... fine. my seat had lost its cushioning, so i filled the hole with my pillow. all the italians got up and stood around chatting the whole flight (!); all the americans slept. i had an amazing vegetarian meal that was 2 or 3 kinds of indian curries. did you know the alitalia flight attendants are all men, and they all wear these kelly green jackets, and they mostly have very 70s retro sideburns? i was exhausted & slept most of the flight, which is just as well because the plane was so old it didn't have tvs so no inflight entertainment at all.

i didn't get my passport stamped in rome, but did get to board the next flight through the rear which was cool. short hop to cagliari, a small little airport where barbie & vince picked me up.

we went to the square for lunch, and then they dropped me off at the boat for a nap while they went to the store. here's the boat:
and restocking the necessary supplies:

we stayed in port that night; here's my first day on the boat: