We had the owners for another five days in late July. They flew in and out from Cagliari so we toured around the south of Sardinia again revisiting favourite places like Malfatone Beach and Cala Zaferano. Cala Zaferano is a military area on the SW coast – trust the military to pick the most beautiful Caribbean style beach on the island and keep it for themselves. Still during July and August you were allowed to anchor off its silky white shores although the military atmosphere never truly left – particularly when we witnessed the arrest and I presume subsequent detention of some illegal African immigrants apparently hiding ashore.
Late one afternoon with the wind from a slightly different direction we decided to anchor over the other side of the bay. We had never seen anyone anchoring their before but we had read nothing about it being off limits and it offered better protection from the waves. We dropped the anchor twice – both times dragging it a long distance along the bottom as there was a thin layer of weed in this area of the bay. I was about to drop the anchor a third time when the skipper motioned me quickly back to the cockpit and handed me the binoculars. “Check out the white shapes on shore – what do you think they are?” “Bloody hell – they’re unexploded missiles!” I exclaimed thinking immediately… shit that’s what I saw on the bottom as well – I thought it was just a furrow in the sand from somebody else’s anchor. Turns out the whole bay is littered with exploded and unexploded ammunition and we had just dragged our anchor all over the bay… Marietta nearly got blown to smithereens!!!
The owner and friends left on Saturday – their short trip having gone well. The Marietta crew found themselves back in Cagliari. A few drinks and a meal at our favourite restaurant that night and then a full day back at Poetto the next day in an attempt to relax. Meanwhile the skipper had been scoping out the nightlife and purchased us tickets for an English Jazz band called Incognito which was holding an outdoor concert that night. Neither Anita or I had heard of them but Dudi assured us they were awesome and he was definitely right. We bopped the night away under the stars listening to the smooth tones of the singers accompanied by a very cute horn section!!
The next day just as we were settling in to a few more days in Cagliari we received a call from the owner to advise that contrary to previous information he wasn’t intending to come to Sardinia in August due to the overcrowding and we had a week or so spare. An impulse decision was made to return to Riva di Triano and within a few hours we were packed up, shopped up and throwing off lines before sailing north again towards Rome. It took us three days to sail back to Riva which was really very relaxing as we had little to no wind and with the sun out and the seas calm we lounged around in bikinis reading and listening to music. We interrupted the second day with a visit to Sardinia’s famous blue grotto which was a spectacular cave system on the eastern coast which we toured first by dinghy and then joined the guides on foot.
We arrived in Riva di Triano late on Wednesday evening and refueled. It felt good to be back in familiar surroundings although all the boats with our friends had since left for the season and only one crew we knew was left. The best thing about being back at Riva was that unexpectedly we had a few days off and making the most of the opportunity Anita and I decided to embark on a train trip around the North of Italy for my 24th birthday… where better to spend a birthday but in VENICE?
