After spending a day and night in Viulasimius we pondered our situation. With the weather getting worst over the next 3 to 4 days our prospects were slim and a 3 day stay in Vilasinius seemed likely. No one seemed particulary happy about this prospect, one becasue nearly everything is closed in the winter season, two, theres nothing to do and three, anything open is extremely expensive.

Waking up on the morning of the of the 21st I made a decision, if everyone agreed, that Massimo and I would sail back to Cagliari in a Force 7-8 and Alex, Marta and Arba, would take the bus back to Caliari some 65 kms.

And so it was decied and after breakfast, Massimo and I readied Aria for a short, but windy hoope to Sant Elmo marina and Cagliari.

We slipped lines at 1010 and motored out of the marina and immediatly put out our genoa. The wind was more or less behind us 42 kts ( thats a Force 9 ). At times we were pulling 12 kts on the surf. A cracking and auxhilarating sail. Some of the wave must have been 4 to 5 metres. It was great fun and Massimo reveled in the fact that he had been out in such strong wind and that is was manageable.

We arrived at 1302. Thats 2 hours and 52 minutes, covering 20.2 nms, an average speed of 7.04 kts. We entered Sant Elmo to very suprised marina staff who helped to take our lines and we were safely in.

Literally 2 minutes later we were greeted by Alex, Marta and Arba, who had just arrived. We had beaten them and the bus.

A wonderful sail and a fantastic climax to a great 363 nm trip to the Egadi islands and Sicily.