We finally left Arbatax this morning after three nights. Although we had completed our run back to Cagliari for our mail, toured the surrounding countryside, and planned to move on yesterday, a weather system with big winds and rough seas was forecast, so we decided it would be prudent to stay put. Keeping us company at the dock was a Canadian boat, Whitestar, with Steve and Deirdre aboard.
I don't have a record of what I've already written about Arbatax, so please forgive me if I'm repeating myself. We went into the marina there just so that we could leave the boat and rent a car to drive back to Cagliari and pick up our mail, which arrived five minutes after we left the dock at Marina di Sant' Elmo. It was a bit lucky that it worked out this way because we wouldn't have met Steve and Deirdre or seen any of the interior of the island otherwise. The detour and weather have made us late for our meet-up with Islay Mist, though, so I hope they're waiting for us. I don't think they get email when they don't have Internet, but last I heard, they were in no hurry.
For those following in our wake, I highly recommend the marina at Arbatax. They let us tie up alongside because we only planned to spend one night. Then they didn't ask us to move when we lingered. As a result, Marzen got to go for walks on shore. They have a cafe right at the marina, and town is only a short walk away. A bus runs every hour to Tortoli, where there are bigger supermarkets and car rental companies. The marina also has Wi-Fi, but the weekend staff wasn't able to hook us up with it, and we didn't find out until we left that it was only slightly more expensive than the cafe in town. We only paid 14 euros a night for our 12.5 meter boat, so we were very pleased with the marina rates. They include electricity and water-- although you have to make special arrangements for potable water--restrooms and showers. Besides Wi-Fi, they have a very nice laundry room with multiple washers and dryers.
Renting a car for one day on a Saturday was a bit of a challenge. We started at Avis Tortoli because the bus driver knew where they were. There we would have had to keep the car for two days because they weren't open on Sunday. As we were confirming this and expressing our disappointment, I looked across the street and spotted another business that advertised cars for rent, so we went to check them out. We might speak more words of Italian than they do of English, but the people at Autonoleggio Fisichella S. were terrific. It's located in a boutique that sells beach clothes and fishing supplies. The woman we first spoke with speaks Italian, Sard, Spanish, and French. Somehow we communicated. The daily rate is a little higher than Avis, but they would come on Sunday so that we could return the car--just for us, she said. Not only that, the man who brought the car said he would drive us back to the marina on Sunday (I don't think the buses run then). All in all, it was a great experience that left us feeling very good about the people of Sardinia.
The weather we waited out yesterday was something new in our experience. The wind blew 30 knots for awhile, kicked up the waves so that our neighbors on the dock were checking our dock lines, and then died off. Awhile later it started up again. The cycle must have repeated four or more times before it was over. It made us very glad that we stayed put.
Where we're anchored now is a future marina. They've built the jetties, but there aren't any docks yet. The wind today was the opposite of the forecast (east-southeast rather than west-northwest, so we tucked in here rather than the anchorage we had planned. Tomorrow we'll get up early and go find Islay Mist. They should be less than 20 miles away now.
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