It's been a few years since I have added to the blog. Although lots has happened in the past few years, the COVID pandemic seems to have managed to suppress my writing urge as well. The time has come to 'get back on the bike' and get writing again. 

To pick up the story, Nathalie and I left our home in Tasmania in early June and headed back to Normandy, France for the first time since 2019. Since arriving in France, Nathalie has been totally devoted to looking after her aging parents while I headed off to the Med to earn some money skippering bareboat charters. The plan was to meet on Sardinia in late July and spend 10 days together sailing with a friend Anders aboard his X46 yacht. Things weren't looking very promising though as Nathalie's father was admitted to hospital throwing doubt on whether she would come at all. To top things off, I caught COVID from a guest onboard the charter I did in Mallorca the previous week. I tested positive the day I flew into Cagliari and then had to isolate from the rest of the crew until I returned a negative RAT test. Our reunion wasn't quite what we had hoped or expected!
I eventually returned a negative test and joined the "Lady Jane" as we sailed north from Cagliari up along the east coast of Sardinia. Despite no longer being contagious, I have to admit I wasn't feeling terrific as we hopped along the coast. A dry cough, sore throat and general fatigue was with me each day. Since arriving in the Med from Normandy, I've been onboard yachts and the heat has been unrelenting day and night. It does wear you down after awhile, particularly trying to find a comfortable place to sleep, either down below (like an oven) or up on deck (folding up like origami trying to get a comfortable position). The bottom line is while the coast and sailing was magnificent, being onboard a 46 yacht with 4 other people in oppressive heat is no place to try and recover from COVID.
With that, after 5 days on the Lady Jane, Nathalie and I left the boat for the refuge of a comfortable, air conditioned hotel in the little seaside town of Cala Gonone. Ah bliss! Nathalie also needed some downtime after the stresses of the previous months so we both just collapsed into comfort of our nice cool room. The beach is 200m away and the hotel pool is a little sanctuary from the heat if we can't be bothered going that far! Just what the doctor ordered for both us. :-)

I've added some photos from life around Cagliari plus images from the boat as we sailed north.