We spent 2 nights at Villasuimus before deciding to head to Poetto near Cagliari, we needed to get rid if some rubbish and restock on some provisions and here there is a small marina that the dinghy can be left at and a couple of small supermarkets a short walking distance away, we weren’t planning on being here long but as it turned out we were anchored here for over a week due to the weather, swell and wind in the wrong direction! it wasn’t such a bad place to be as we could go ashore when it wasn’t too windy and watch the local windsurfers, wing foiling boards and dinghy sailors. We went for a walk to a nearby view point, inland behind the anchorage you can see saltpans where there are flamingos who fly over the anchorage honking like geese in the evening - sadly I didn’t manage to get any pictures of them!

 

While anchored we met Hanneke on the largest of the James Wharram's design double canoe style catamarans Spirit of Gaia, Hanneke had been with James Wharrum since the late 1980’s and helped develope the design, she sailed on the smaller Wharrum design boat Tehini and was helped with the design and build of Spirit of Giai before she was launched in 1992, Spirit go Gaia was designed as a base yacht for studying dolphins in the wild -she is a simple design capable of staying at sea for long periods and sleeping up to 16 people in numerous small cabins in the hull and the cabins on top. Anyway Hanneke is the neighbour of our friends Lizzy and Denis so we popped over to say hello, unfortunately Hanneke was out at the time but she came over to say hello when she returned. We had a lovey chat, to be honest we knew very little about James Wharrum designs apart from that they are all very simple made from plywood, covered in fibreglass and the hulls are lashed to the superstructure! We have seen a few of the smaller ones but never been on board one or seen one as big as Spirit of Gaia. Hanneke invited us to visit the following day which we did, we met the 3 other people on board who are helping her move the boat to Portugal, had a tour of the boat and a great time - what a different and interesting boat - it's massive, there is a large central deck area with a fire pit on it for cooking and keeping warm when needed, on the deck there are 2 cabins fore and aft - one being the nav area and the others are used as cabins,  there are also a few small but ample cabins in the hulls as well, these are all cleverly designed to maximise space and storage, in one of the hulls also houses the galley and seating area - the galley is basic, has no running water and only a 2 burner cooker so it must be a challenge to cook for large numbers of people on board - the boat has a nice feel to it although I don’t think I would like to live as simply as that and would miss my home comforts. 

Spirit of Gaia on a rather grey and miserable looking day! 

Ananda joined us in the anchorage which was nice, they are heading the same way as us so our paths keep crossing and we managed to go onboard for the drink we were invited for back in Cefalu before the anchorage became too uncomfortable to visit them! Checking the weather forecast there was little consistency, there were forecasts that looked like we could head along the south coast and set off for Menorca, but different models had very different forecasts and all were inconsistent and changing with each update! Spirit of Gaia took what looked like it may be a weather window and did indeed get to Mallorca - maybe we should have left with them 🤔 but we want to go to Menorca to catch up with friends Jules and Tim who we haven’t seen since the Caribbean, on some predictions Menorca was predicted to have strong winds and bad weather so we decided to stay put!