At last we've set off! After some very useful feedback from the manufacturer of our battery charger when we contacted them to see why it might be buzzing ("can't determine the noise but if it's bad it will stop working"), we managed to get some replacement batteries delivered in record time - especially by Sardinian standards. After satisfying ourselves as far as possible that this had solved the problem, we departed Cagliari to begin our trip around the island. Unfortunately slightly later than intended since the batteries had to be charged and, more importantly, we had to make one last visit to our favourite gelato shop. But at 3pm we slipped our lines and started the journey east to Villasimius (a town on Capo Carbonara) - about 20nm away. We were sailing very nicely for 2 hours doing a pretty decent 6 knots; the scenery was amazing, the sea was like bath water, there were hardly any other boats around… Unfortunately all good things come to an end and the wind dropped to nothing so we had to motor the rest of the way (almost halfway in fact as the maths whizzes amongst you may already have deduced). Not the end of the world since we topped up the diesel before setting off but it does disturb the peace a bit to have the constant brrmrrrmrrmmrmmrmrmmmm in the background. The main thing was that we made it before sunset, didn't really fancy negotiating a rocky shoreline in the dark. And we didn't have to wait as long for a celebratory first-leg gin & tonic :)

There's a marina in Villasimius but it's pricey (according to Rod Heikell - the guru of Mediterranean sailing) so given the hefty expenditure on all the repairs/replacements over the last week, we decided to rough it and anchor for the night. Which is actually one of my favourite things about sailing - you're lying away from the land so it's dark and quiet and there are SO many stars! Big change from London life.

We also decided to capture a bit of our day's sailing on the GoPro that my lovely bridesmaids very kindly gave us as a wedding present. I'm so excited about having video of our trip as well as photos! I'm going to upload a few of the videos but I'd like to caveat that I'm still getting the hang of using the camera (apparently it's better if I hold it straight?) so hopefully future attempts will be a bit more polished.

In other news, after taking close to an hour to hoist Gerard about 5m up the mast a couple of days ago, I was the lucky one that got to go all the way to the top (15.8m) to see why our wind sensor hasn't been working. Armed with a camera (to report back) and some silicone spray (not sure, potentially for effect), and attached to about 5 back-up safety lines, Gerard pulled me all the way up to the top. I was fine up to Gerard's previous record of 5m but beyond that it was very much a case of mind over matter, especially when my clever tactic of not looking down failed because Gerard couldn't hear my vital feedback (largely "not too fast!" and possibly one rude word) if I didn't. The verdict on the wind sensor was not satisfying…it looks to be rusty but also suspiciously plasticky which doesn't really fit. Suggestions welcome!

Gerard has requested I include the following here:

NOTE FOR SAFETY BOB: GERARD IS TOO HEAVY AND LAURA WAS QUADRUPLE SECURED ON EACH LINE WITH A BACKUP LINE ALSO QUADRUPLE SECURED!

He kindly left out the bit that I have literally no upper body strength and that even if he'd been half the size I would have struggled

That's it for now, just wanted to add a quick note to say thanks to everyone who's left messages and comments, we've been enjoying reading them but selfishly not managing to respond to any - we'll try to do better, please forgive our rudeness in the meantime!

[Photo: The view of Cagliari as we were sailing away from it]