Bavaria Cruiser 46

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Our sailing around Sardinia took 3 weeks in July as planned, although the Mistral made adjustments to our anchorage plans. In the southwestern part of Sardinia, yachting is poorly developed - in 5 days I encountered 3 yachts, there are not enough marinas, some are so shallow that with my 2.3m draft I couldn't dock there, and due to the condition of the yacht (more on that later) I didn't risk anchoring in fresh winds. Therefore, we had to make long passages. The situation is better in the north, west, and southwest, where shorter passages are possible.
Overall, the region is wonderful, I recommend it.
Our trip could have been much better if it weren't for the condition of the boat and the useless technical support from the charter company.
The Cagliari Sailing base at Marina dell'Isola is not the best place for a charter fleet. The marina itself is located in a very beautiful place, but it is completely unsuitable for chartering:
1) Taxis drop you off 300m from the pier, and you have to drag your suitcases and bags through the sand, as there is no solid road surface.
2) The showers and toilets are located in such a way that access to them is only possible through the sand. There are too few for the number of charter boats that gather in the marina.
3) The charter office is also separated from the pier by sand. As a result, all this sand is dragged first to the pier and then onto the yacht.
4) The entrance to the marina is closed by a gate that locks with a key. If you forget the key on the yacht when you go to the store, restaurant, or taxi - you have to walk back 300m. No one will open the gate for you.
5) There is practically nothing near the marina. The store is 500m away, and two restaurants are even further. On the plus side - a nice beach, and that's all.
6) It's better to take a business card from the taxi driver for the return trip, as the transfer that the marina can order is 1.5 times more expensive.
At the reception, there were no special questions, what was missing was brought (a gangway (!), two fenders (!), funnels, lines, something else minor). The stern fender was missing as a class, which caused the entire transom to be damaged at the corners up to through holes. After inspecting the sail, I realized that in fresh winds it was better not to tempt fate, and that's fine, my crew is not racing.
Problems (as always) arose later.
On the first day, we moved to Santa Teresa di Gallura, then Bonifacio was planned, but due to the Mistral, we stayed in the marina for 3 nights. When we were finally able to leave the marina, we discovered a strong smell of sewage that followed us. After a while, it became clear that there was an overflow from the bow sewage tank. It turned out to be full. We couldn't fill it during this time, as we were using shore facilities. I tried to open the drain valve, which took me a while because the valve was corroded, but the miracle did not happen, the tank did not empty. To jump ahead - this problem stayed with us until the end of the trip. I pumped out as much as I could from the tank with makeshift means. But we couldn't use the forward head, leaving two cabins without a toilet. The comfort of the boat immediately decreased by half. Castelsardo couldn't accept us, as people still didn't dare to go out to sea, the marina was full, and we had to go to Porto Torres. Here, during the passage, the second main problem emerged - the engine panel began to periodically signal a charging problem. I was still hoping that this was a temporary issue.
We stayed in Porto Torres, went to Sassari, and headed to Asinara (buoys at Asinara can be paid for in Porto Torres). On the way, the charging problem reappeared. But at Asinara, no one could help me, so I postponed calling the charter until tomorrow.
We left Asinara for Alghero, a long passage, and every 5 minutes the charging alarm went off. It was really annoying! I opened the booklet provided by the charter and was amazed at how beautifully everything was written! Here are the technical support phone numbers, here are the base managers' phone numbers, and everything is described about what to do in which cases. In the end, it didn't help me at all, but it looked nice, creating a false sense of care. I contacted technical support, described the situation, and where I was going, and they promised to help. I planned to stay in Alghero for 2 nights. On Saturday, a technician was supposed to come and help us with the tank and charging. I waited all day for the technician, and closer to the evening, I wrote an angry message to technical support that no one had come. The problem was also that it was the eve of my wife's birthday, and I wanted to find her flowers to make a surprise, but I had to stay on the yacht. Late in the evening, we found some technician who was not from our technical support (the other one had disappeared), the technician came, couldn't confirm the charging problem, the tank was not his profile, and in general, he did nothing.
The next day, the boat wouldn't start. We couldn't leave. I wrote to technical support, and they replied, "Well, a person came yesterday, contact him," but I didn't know who that person was. We managed to find him, and he thought that a charging block was needed, but the Volvo service doesn't work on Sundays, and he said he would fix everything in the morning. We stayed another night. In the morning, another technician came, found the problem in a burnt fuse in the starter block, replaced it, but didn't fix the charging issue, we started and left.
Next was Bosa, then a long passage to Carloforte, where neither there nor there could technical support organize help for me, and the problems remained the same. In Carloforte, we stayed for 3 nights waiting out the wind, and then we rushed to Cagliari.
I thought that Cagliari Sailing at their base in Cagliari would be able to solve all the problems. But the base manager told me that he could accept me either before 6 PM on Friday or on Monday, as they had no space for me. The distance from Carloforte to Cagliari is practically 11 hours, and I couldn't make it by 6 PM. I tried to book a spot in nearby marinas, but there were no spaces, so I had to dock in the center of Cagliari. At "such a distance," they couldn't help me. Waiting until Monday in Cagliari completely did not align with my plans, so I gave up on the boat's problems and spent the last week under the constant beeping of the alarm and without one toilet; we somehow adapted to it.
Other problems:
1) The showers leaked; it turned out that instead of a gasket, there was old dried sealant. I had to update it. The problem was solved.
2) The anchor chain was old, rusty, and without markings. It did not inspire confidence. I dropped it twice, getting the whole bow muddy while pulling it out. I didn't dare to use it for overnight anchoring in fresh winds.
3) The shower pumps: one was switched to manual control, one activated at the slightest noise, and another didn't work until you clicked it. A fun variety.
4) One set of bed linen, for which 20 euros was paid, was torn, and the towels were dirty.
There were no apologies, regrets, or compensations from the charter. The only thing they paid for was an extra day of stay in the marina in Alghero.
The sails performed better than expected; I set them whenever possible.
Advice: have the contacts of the marinas where you plan to dock handy and book spots in advance. I observed several times that boats without reservations were not accepted into the marina.

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GlobeSailor helped us a lot in finding a good boat at a good price. They were very patient and offered us several options within our budget.

The boat itself was quite good, it is a spacious and relatively new boat.