Day 4 of 8: Tuesday 28th June 2011

After a restless night with an upset stomach (probably due to eating too much), I had a light breakfast before we headed down to the harbour to get our boat. We stopped off at the local newsvendor's kiosk and a Tabac (newsagent and tobacconist) to find that the only UK paper available was Saturday's Independent.

We arrived in plenty of time at the harbour and met up with the others who would be joining us on the trip: a middle aged couple of americans who live in London, a young couple from Newcastle way and another young couple from County Offally in Ireland. Nomally there are 12 guests on the trip but this time a family of 4 had dropped out leaving more room on deck for the 8 of us.

The day out on the Andrea Jensen was great fun and very relaxing. On the way out Sonia thought she saw a dolphin fin but it was probably a tuna as we could not find any others. The Andrea Jensen is owned by a couple from the UK with a hungarian crewman to help. Most of us had a go at sitting in the netting under the bowsprit to look down at the sea.



We were served soft drinks on the way out to the cove where we dropped anchor. The cove was somewhere north of Capo Caccia, close to Isola Piana. A trunk on deck contained snorkels, goggles and flippers for those who wanted to swim. Sonia was very brave and climbed down the ladder into the sea wearing a life jacket. It's the first time she has ever swum anywhere she could not touch the bottom.

I put in my contact lenses and used my own swimming goggles along with one of the boat's snorkels. After a while I had a go at using the flippers which was great as I could keep up with some of the smaller fish.

We all got out of the water to sit under the canopies that had been put up to protect us from the midday sun while we ate our lunch of mozzarella & tomatoes, olives, local cheese, and ham. They had prepared a cheese free option for Sonia. This buffet was followed by penne pasta in pesto with a green salad, and again a separate pasta dish had been prepared for Sonia. Desert was melon and strawberries. I was shocked to find that I liked the melon! The food was all washed down with a choice of red, white or rose wine, beer or soft drinks.

After lunch, most of us went in for another snorkelling session before we weighed anchor for the journey back to Alghero. The guests were invited to help raise the sails for the return leg so we had a gentle journey with just the sound of the boat and the sea. At one point the lighter was pulled up alongside so we could go for a ride and take pictures of the boat in sail.




We made it back to harbour at 1800, after working together to drop the sails on the approach. After thanking the crew for a wonderful experience, Sonia and I headed straight to the gelato by the Porta Mare to buy a granite limone - crushed ice with lemon syrup squirted in - to refresh ourselves. We then headed back to the hotel for a shower and a rest before going out for the evening.


I woke up to find my back was very sunburnt so I just had a sandwich, a coffee and a glass of wine while Sonia had a toasted sandwich and a tea before we went back to the hotel at 2100 for an early night after such an enjoyable day.