This time last week we were in Alghero with my cousins, Bryan and Linda. It was a long weekend of planned boat jobs plus a few we hadn’t! Having got up at the crack of dawn, we caught the early flight as usual but were lucky that, as we had reserved seats, we got out of the terminal quickly and managed to catch an earlier bus than usual. By 10.30am local time we were having breakfast at our favourite cafe. Only Liz managed a beer that early! This meant that the food shopping was all done by midday so Thursday afternoon was spent going round a local winery, Cantina Santa Maria De Palma followed by a few tastings. We were fortunate to be there when the harvested grapes were being delivered.

Then onto Sella & Mosca, another winery but no free tasting there. The evening was spent at one of the best restaurants in town, Al Tuguri. A lovely meal and fine wine ate inside as there was a brisk breeze despite the temperature of 27 degrees earlier.

The next day, Liz and I got on with jobs (like the gas regulator suddenly not working) and our guests went off on a boat trip to Neptune’s Grotto – except the boat turned round at the headland as the swell was too much to get close to the cave entrance. We ate chicken tagine on board and sat in the cockpit until midnight. It had been another gloriously sunny day.

The following day we decided to hire a car and do some sightseeing. We had tried to find the Neollithic village of Appui on the road to Bosa last year but had failed so we were very pleased to find it this time. Fascinating site with a lovely little cafe and ticket office.

Then it was of to Bosa itself where we climbed the steps to the castle but didn’t bother going inside as it was pretty much a shell. The town itself is quite pretty with the castle on the hill behind. After a lunch of dubious quality, we drove back towards Alghero in the late afternoon and made our way up to Capo Caccia to catch the sunset. It was truly beautiful. Back to the boat for an on board BBQ and more wine tasting from our vineyard tour.

Sunday saw Liz being hoisted up the mast by yours truly, ably supported by Bryan to replace the anchor light with a LED dusk to dawn light that will use a tenth of the power of conventional bulbs and only be on during the night time. Liz also replaced some of the melted caulking (the black rubber stuff between the teak strips) which turned out to be a long and messy job!

As this was one of our last night’s in Sardinia, we had cocktails before trying a new restaurant, Restaurant O, on the ramparts. Great meal and not pricey despite being run by a master chef.

Before we knew it, it was Monday morning and time to get to the airport. It had been a lovely few days in gorgeous, sunny weather. Next time will truly be our last time as we will be moving Nimrod to the Bay of Naples.