To get on the bus you need a ticket. They don’t sell tickets on the bus. You get them from the local tobacconist shops. The shops shut between 1pm and 5pm. The bus was at 3.35pm. We didn’t have a ticket. It just doesn’t happen in the UK.
The bus in question was not going anywhere in particular – just the other side of the island. I think there are about 3 a day. So we thought we would blag it! Got on the bus. The driver asked for the tickets (I think- but not knowing any Italian he could have been asking if we had seen any woolly mammoths). I said we hadn’t got any (or even seen any). He said go to the tobacconists. I said they were shut. He laughed and said get on! Now there was no danger of setting a precedent here. There was only one other person on the bus, an old lady who got off after a mile up the hill. We were then the only ones on the ride over to the other “town” and then back again. Buses can’t be a big thing in Carloforte! I tried to give him 5 Euros for a beer when we got off but he wouldn’t take it. Our first impressions of the Italians are very good! Everyone seems so friendly.
The threatened Mistral blew up today with 25knts most of the time with gusts over 30knts bouncing the boat around on the pontoon. The med mooring is working well though with little to worry about. We had a good look around town – but not a lot to see. Martin hiked to the other side of the island while we did our bus tour. The local supermarket is not too far away and we filled up with diesel from a garage over the road – 3 trips with the Jerry cans – we needed 110 litres to make up for all the fuel used on the sail (motor) over.
We found a book shop that sold charts and managed to acquire the ones we didn’t have. (I got a row off Pam for that – we were missing all the paper charts for Sardinia and Sicily – and Pam must have her paper charts. To quote Tony (China Blue), P’s not speaking me for one hour.
The marina turned out to be 37 Euros a night but in August it goes up to 78 Euros. It’s much cheaper in April – around 18 Euros. Good facilities except the free wifi is going incredibly slowly. Barely fast enough to check the footy results – only to find Utd won the league, so I turned it off. That means I won’t be posting any pictures of the place! I’ll give this place a 6/10 on the basis the town is a bit boring and not much to do.
Plan then is to leave tomorrow (Sunday) and head east-ish. The winds look light (after this wind today dies down) for the next 5-6 days so we plan to try and anchor for a couple of nights and then try and get over to Sicily (a 180 mile passage) on Wednesday or Thursday. Probably do a couple of 30 mile sails over the next few days. I wonder if we will get a better internet connection at the next stop.
Trevor and Lesley on Kishorn are leaving Menorca tonight for the top end of Sardinia so we will not be seeing them for a while. Maybe we will catch up with them in Sicily.
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