We are very excited to offer an EVENING SAIL on Andrea Jensen. We will sail from Alghero port at 17.00 and return around 19.00. On offer is a FREE glass of Akenta, (with additional glasses for sale at 4 euros). The Evening Sail tour is available from 19th April.
See our website for more details www.ajsailing .com
Yesterday we sailed back to Alghero from Bosa. We headed out of the marina at about 12.30pm, having just been put back into the water. The weather was just perfect. Slightly cloudy skies but the sun kept appearing through and that made it comfortably warm. The sea was exceptionally calm as there was little to no wind. Just perfect for spotting dolphins we thought and we were not wrong. As we approached Spiagga Poglina, with Alghero in our sights, Colin spotted them, slightly ahead of us, port side. I immediately grabbed the phone and went to the bow of the boat with the hope that the dolphins would join us for a play. They did exactly that, they headed straight for our boat to play in our bow wave. There were 4 and they were clearly having a great time, swimming together under the bow sprit net. I managed to get some great shots of them. Then to our surprise they chose to circle back behind us and began to jump and flip in and out of the water. Our own personal show that was clearly natural to them. To show off in front of a captive audience. Truly awesome for Colin and I.
Go to our Gallery for more fantastic photo’s from yesterday. You tube also has some fantastic videos to watch.
Go to https://youtu.be/w1RSReIT3MQ
Our hard work at Bosa is almost over. We should be putting Andrea back into the water on Monday morning and heading back to Alghero to start the 2019 season. The journey takes about 3.5 hours up the North West coast of Sardinia, following the awesome cliffs all the way back. We may see Griffin Vultures if we are lucky! This is their territory, they live on the cliffs above Bosa. We have seen them once before when we were driving back from Bosa on a cloudy day and a Griffin flew really low in front of us. They are amazingly majestic with their white head and huge beak stretched out in front.
Bosa is a lovely town (a lot smaller than Alghero and more intimate) and sits on the banks of the on the only navigable river in Sardinia, the Temo. The original old town is built on the side of a hill and is over looked by the remains of the ‘Castello’. The multi-coloured houses of the old town are famous and really make Bosa special. The friendly atmosphere is more ‘homely’ than Alghero and it is a real treat to sit out, sipping a glass of vino in one of the many riverside restaurants. So it goes without saying that we will be back visiting Bosa very soon!
Blog no.4
Rain stopped play today, so we have a days break from boat maintenance in Bosa. We decided to take a trip into Alghero to inquire at the Guardia Costiera as to whether they have approved this years license (4th visit to their office this month) and luck was on our side as we were able to collect our 2019 operating license this morning, signed by Alghero Guardia Costiera Capitaniera. So our 2019 season can officially begin! Its always a bit nerve racking going into the officials office to get approval each year. Our Italian is not great and of course we are trying to impress these important people, so we panic somewhat more than usual, when we are put on the spot and they ask us awkward questions, which they do each year. We always seem to get there eventually however. Its like we have to play their little games by their rules before we can get an official signature!
We have made great progress this past week in Bosa and are now at the painting stage. Wait until you see our new colour scheme! Colin has had a lot more hull re-caulking of the seems to do this year and he has been doing it the traditional way with tarred hemp and Black Pudding mix (no not the blood sausage). The hull paint work really needs stripping back completely but we are not doing that this year, maybe we will tackle it in 2 years time if we can muster up some extra helping hands! It will be a big job!
We think we have 1 more weeks work at Bosa then we will head back to Alghero. We have 2 Help Ex volunteers joining us for the summer season and they arrive on 14th April ready for Easter. We will be embarking on a weeks training before the season starts, so that they can start ‘learning the ropes’! It will soon be upon us, all hands on deck!
To catch up on our previous blogs, see below.
Well, we are more than a month into our annual boat maintenance program and finally we can cross a few jobs off the ‘to do’ list. We have painted the main sail and the stay sail this week, with specialist preservative, which will hopefully prolong their lives a few years. New sails are very expensive so the longer we can use the ones we have the better. We have painted the bits at the bow, metal work and bowsprit too, which has made a big difference. (We had some new strengthening metal work added to the bits at the bow before Christmas, as we were worried about old splits in the wooden bits which were clearly getting worse and these take all the strain from the bowsprit and bowsprit stays).
Colin tried twice this week to go up the mizzen mast to remove the blocks at the top, but he could not quite get to them, some repairs required to the ratlines and I wasn’t able to hoist him up by myself. We are going to need some help to get them down, any volunteers? We have started to remove the more accessible blocks to be serviced and re-varnished which is progress, only about 20 to go. Colin has nearly completed the rewiring down stairs too, after we finally got delivery of the new fuse box from the UK, the parcel seemed to get lost in Sardinia for a week before we got it! Everything gets here eventually, but you just cannot be sure how long you will have to wait!
On a slightly different note, today we started making inquiries about converting our UK driving licenses into Italian. This requires us to go to Sassari to the l’ufficcio di Motorizzazzione on Monday to apply. We are going with an English friend call Barbara who has lived in Sardinia for over 50 years and lives in Villanova. There is not much she does not know about the Italian bureaucracy and is a great help with the language barrier too! We also need to get our UK reg plates converted to Italian plates which will be the next challenge!
On a positive note, today we received our new registration ‘certificato’ from the Camera di Commercio di Sassari (Chamber of Commerce) which now correctly describes our boat charter business here. The previous certificate, which has been deemed acceptable for the last 3 years by the Guardia Costiera, was suddenly rejected last week as incorrect (we knew it was actually, long story), so our license to operate this year has not been signed yet. We are now officially ‘Trasporto Marittimo e Costiero di Passeggeri’. We are very happy about this as it brings us a step closer to being in the same category as the other tour boats in Alghero Port. Another trip is required next week however, to the Coast Guard’s office to hand this new document in for official approval. Hopefully then we will get our 2019 operating license approved. Something else crossed off the list, well nearly!
Next week we hope to head off to Bosa to get Andrea Jensen lifted out for anti-fouling etc, so lots more work coming up for us two. Can’t wait!
