The Burnetts have gotten in a little travel in between the many laundry loads that occur when a family of four goes offshore for 5 days and does not want to bother with it. Let’s just say that our little Splendide washer/dryer has already paid for itself; the launderette near our marina is 11 Euros a wash/dry load! We are also airing out our forepeaks. Even the tiniest hatch leak can soak a mattress in five days of upwind sailing!
Italy and Sardinia are great places to get more familiar with the metric system. We order pizza here by the half-meter and cheese by the 100 g units. So now the kids will know how many pizzas tall they are! (Allie is just shy of three pizzas; Tommy is slightly more.) We haven’t weighed them in a while, but it would be fun to find out how many wheels of pecorino they are!
The Sardinians have so far been the biggest smilers we have met. They also are painfully aware of their massive bureaucracy, apologizing with every Customs/Immigration/Coast Guard/Police form we have to fill out. There is excellent wine here, so our cheap Scotch we got in Gibraltar (at a third of the price in the US!) is gathering dust. Strangely, there are no mosquitoes here.
We toured Sardinia’s plants, prehistoric archaeological sites, and food with NaturAlghero, and it was fun being shown around Sardinia by two guys passionate about Sardinia, its history, and its wildlife. Enjoy the pics!
Greg fills up our fuel bladder with Gibraltar Gold.Too bad we’ve used it all up already.
Okay, Mel admits that from this angle Gibraltar is marginally more pillar-like.
Mario better not be in one of those boats…
A common sight. Greg fixing something at the end of the boom.
Our broken reefing sheave. Good thing we have extras!
Allie listens to audiobooks offshore
Land Ho! Alghero, Sardinia!
A shot of the historic city
We find yet another species of palm tree…and tower
Anchor caught in coral. Not Mel’s favorite statue.
We approach a tower in the historic city of Alghero
Cool hat!
When they turn NW into the Mistral wind, I bet the tourists get a good dose of horse rump smell
Many cultures
Mel bets the views from there are fabulous.
The Mediterranean aesthetic is soothing
We admire the seaviews from Alghero
Lots of sulfur here; you can always smell low tide
The only tree like this for miles
A catapult. Get ’em!
Fishing boats
Typical street scene
It is good to know the Italian word for lobster!
They can’t afford the laundrette either
Bell tower
The roof cleverly reflects the sunlight
Getting our legs back in shape
A street performer entertains the kids.
All kinds of plants abound
Some of the 3 million Sardinian sheep try to hide in the brush. Sheep are dumb.
Allie soaks in the views on our NaturAlghero tour
A Barbarian runs off with our children!
The kids are less afraid of heights than Mel
A little perspective
A wall that went up when Sardinian land was privatized in the 1800’s. That wasn’t handled so well…
Tommy takes in a Nuralgic ruin
Clever nature
This beautiful formation houses a surprise…
Find the Griffon vultures!
Mel’s zoom lens catches a little baby
Sardinian beach art
Beautiful sunset view
Our fellow tourists and a guide
Those big Italian smiles!
Our knowledgable guides, Francisco and Fabio
This is what a half-meter of pizza looks like. Would you like fries on that?
