Only the early bird catches the (cold) worm...Begin of our 2018 cruise

Coast exposed to the Maestrale

Thursday 22nd March 2018

Pasquale fitting the water-maker

We have arrived in Alghero 5 days ago. It is the start of our detailed cruise around Corsica and Sardinia, which will inform our task of preparing the new edition of the Corsica and North Sardinia pilot book for the autumn.
It has been very cold and windy since we arrived, with northwesterly gales, blustery showers and a bitterly cold feel to the air. Somehow I wasn’t prepared for this, but I suppose that no-one back home expected the ‘Beast from the East’ to bring renewed snow storms to the UK either! When we left Luton it was snowing already. The weather chart shows the gale descending south from the Rhône Valley through the Golfe du Lion. It looks very impressive.

Easy Rider is getting a new water-maker, so everything inside the boat is dismantled, all the floorboards are up. Pasquale is piecing the puzzle together and is doing an excellent job. A water-maker will hopefully reduce the amount of plastic that we will carry on board!

It will probably take another few days until Easy Rider is ready to sail. We are waiting for the gale to ease to be able to put the sails back. But all in all we have found Easy Rider in a very good nick, much better than we thought. No musty damp smell inside, everything was well prepared, covered with dust sheets. The outside will need a lot of attention, but in a few days we will have dealt with a lot.

Alghero from our hotel

I doubt that we will leave before Easter. By then, the weather might have improved.