The last time we saw Seahike, she had a very dirty bum. When we went to the boatyard to check her out then splash her, she looked like a new boat! She’d been polished (sides and top), her bum’s nicks had been repaired and she had new antifouling paint. In addition, her engines had received some TLC, she had new sacrificial anodes, and her saildrive had received some attention.

Regarding the last thing, our starboard engine had been shaking a bit for some time. Michael asked the mechanic to check the saildrive while Seahike was on the hard. The mechanic discovered that the propeller shaft was slightly warped. We provided the requested parts and he replaced them. The problem with having the boat on the hard is that you can’t run the engine to see if the “fix” actually fixed the problem. (Spoiler alert: it didn’t.)

The downside to being on the hard is that two of Seahike’s front windows cracked. One by the portlight on the port side and one on the portlight on the starboard side. Dang. The one on the starboard side is big. The one on the port side is about three inches tops.

Here’s our “new” girl:

Since she had new paint, the guys at the yard put plastic on her sides where the straps would lift her. The guys were all very nice!

We took Seahike back to Monastir Cap Marina for the night, got ready to go the next morning and checked out of Tunisia. The process took over an hour as we went back and forth between offices, but the officials were all very kind. They couldn’t figure out why we were leaving this beautiful country. We told them we’d enjoyed our time here but it was time to go.

The trip to Sardinia was about 250 nm and took about 50 hours. I got my first decent look at Sardinia at the end of my night watch on the second day.

It was quite breezy. We selected an anchorage – Tuerredda Est – that protected us from the wind, but it had a pretty big swell. We spent the night and left the next day. I should also mention that our port engine had started smoking on March 6, our first day of travel to Sardinia. We discovered that it was low on coolant, so we added some on the 7th. (There was obviously a bubble left from when the mechanic changed the coolant, so it appeared to be full but wasn’t by a long shot.)

We went to Capo Malfatano Est anchorage the next morning (March 9). Now this was a beautiful anchorage! It was easy to find sand (i.e., avoid the seagrass), the water was crystal clear, it was calm with no swell, well protected from the wind, and had a nice hiking path on shore.

I will also mention that the port engine started smoking again so we had to turn it off. There was clearly something going on beyond the coolant (which was now full).

We decided to go to another anchorage the same day. We were able to sail for a bit and made six knots without a lot of wind.

Our next anchorage was Porto Pinetto. It was nice and calm. We stayed on the boat because it was getting later in the day and there didn’t appear to be any good hiking anyway.

We had planned to spend the night at this anchorage, but the wind decided we should leave. I went to bed and Michael motored overnight to our next destination. He woke me up at about 1:30 a.m. – this was March 10th now – to help anchor. (He has most certainly anchored and pulled up the anchor himself while I have been asleep, but he usually wakes me up.)

Our new anchorage was Cala di Guidi, on San Pietro Island, Sardinia. We slept until about 10:00 a.m. and had a lazy start to the day. As I mentioned before, we went here to find a safe place to anchor and it was also on the way to our new/next destination: Marina Mamma Mahon, Carloforte. We were heading there because we’d arranged for a mechanic to look at the engine. For some reason I didn’t take any pictures at Cala di Guidi and I can’t remember what it was like. I trust it was fine.

Anywoo, we got to the marina in Carloforte on March 11. Carloforte is a charming little town with a nice marina and friendly people.

I took a hike one day and enjoyed the countryside and a nearby beach (the terminus of my roundtrip hike).

Believe it or not, we still have not gotten used to the idea of eating dinner at 7:00 p.m. or later. We stopped at a small bar/restaurant to see if they were serving food (it was about 6:00 p.m.). They weren’t, but we each had a drink and the small plate they served us while doing our best to chat with the lovely couple who worked there. They didn’t speak much English and we don’t speak any Italian. We did quite well, though! My favorite translation challenge was when we asked why the establishment was called 1738. The woman struggled a bit and told us it was when it was born. Born. I love that!

As for Ms. Port Engine, she needed a new O-ring for her seawater strainer. This is as good a time as any to admit that this is something we would/could/should have checked ourselves had we been better diesel engine mechanics. We keep learning stuff, though, so it works out in the end. I am sure we will be experts in two or three more years. 😉

It was time to leave Sardinia. If you are wondering why we left this beautiful island so quickly without seeing much at all, it is because we were primarily waiting for a weather window to sail to the Balearics. I think I might regret not having visited more of Sardinia one day . . .

We will share our visit to the first two Balearic islands in our next post!