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Sardinia, crossroads of the western Mediterranean Cagliari is at an important junction; it was of strategic importance in the trade route between Italy and North Africa, and later a key safe harbour in the east-west Route des Isles  trade: From Barcelona in ancient Aragon, it is a 340 NM sail to Cagliari, here in southern Sardinia. A further 340 NM trip eastwards, gets you to the ancient eastern Sicilian cities of Messina or Syracusa in the Ionian Sea. And then onto Greece an

I learned to sail before the introduction of electronic charts and chart plotters. In fact, I learned to sail before GPS was widely used on boats. As a student, many of my instructors might have been quite sniffy about the emerging technologies; what if you lose power and can’t run the systems? What if the Americans turn of the GPS or reduce its accuracy? Some instructors still are sniffy. We were all taught the good old-fashioned way; with paper charts, pencil, rubber and Po

Those of a nervous disposition may want to stop reading now. Back in May, we visited dear friends for an overnight stay and BBQ. The friends shall remain anonymous, but Jane ( oops, sorry ) asked me about our planning for this trip, and asked me had I given any thought to how many pairs of knickers I would take. Richard raised an eyebrow. It wouldn’t occur to him to consider this in advance, let alone on the day of packing, and therefore why would I? His mouth dropped open wh

Alix's school is the one at the bottom, not the top. I didn’t really do geography at school. I went to a large comprehensive called Olchfa, one of the biggest schools in Wales at the time, if not the UK. It was a showcase school for facilities: extensive playing fields, swimming pool, gym, science labs galore, language labs, sewing and cooking rooms for girls, woodwork and metal work rooms for boys (sigh) and so on. But in 1974, the roof collapsed on the swimming pool at the

Stink Pot or Gin Palace? After a second night on anchor in Stagno Torto, (and a much calmer night, may I add), we decided to take advantage of the better weather, and head around the top of Sardinia, and sail a little way down the east coast to the Porto Cervo area. Now, if like me, you’ve never heard of Porto Cervo before, let me set the scene. Porto Cervo is on the Costa Smerelda, which seems to exist solely to provide a holiday playground for the sailing jet set. It’s not