Goodbye Sardinia: 28th July

Sailed west from Malfatano to Porto Pinno a beautiful large bay with sandy beaches and even sand dunes.

Sardinia has limited develpoment to within 500 metres of the coast so it is unspoilt compared with Turkey, Greece and Italy.

Porto Pinno

Today we begin our voyage across to the Balearics as good winds are forecast.

Sardinia: 12th-28th July 2011

Passage to Sardinia:

The passage across was slow as there was little wind; our average speed was 3-4 knots so we took 2 nights and 3 days to reach  Carbonara Bay on the south coast of Sardinia. Ashore were lovely sandy beaches with outcrops of big granite boulders. We enjoyed swimming in the crystal clear water and catching up on some sleep.

Makoko anchored in Carbonara Bay across the isthmus

Sadly it was time for Jan and Cathy to leave us so we sailed along the coast to Cagliari the capital of Sardinia. We spent 3 days in a pretty rickety old marina that was 60 euros a night! Cagliari has had a very interesting history which is reflected in the interesting architecture, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Moors, Spanish, and Italian all occupied the island. Narrow medieval cobbled streets and alleyways climb up a hill from the port to the cathedral. It was a great place to shop so the wallet suffered a bit.

Cagliari

We rented a car for 2 days  so we could explore the island. The first day we headed inland up into the mountains.  In 12,000 BC the Nuraghe people inhabited this area. They built sophisticated round stone structures enclosed by 4 towers. I particularly liked their little bronze statues which were used as burial icons; they were naïve and IPicasso like in their simplicity. The mountain flora was so lush compared to the coast and there were even pockets of broadleaf forest. We stopped for lunch in one of the mountain villages. Impatient to explore I went off to take some photos and was befriended by some locals who invited me to join them in their wine cellar for a drink.

Enjoying a vino with the locals

The mistral was blowing and there was Aussie style surf rolling in, looked as if there was a very strong current so we didn’t brave the surf.

Surfers at Buggeru

Buggeru situated in a spectacular setting on the coast was very interesting; it was an old mining town where they mined alum, silver and tin from the cliffs and then poured the ore into chutes for processing before loading by hand into ships; backbreaking work to say the least!

The local market at San Archittu beckoned us to stop; a short stroll to the coast revealed an unusual sight; fishing boats and small leisure craft moored in a small calm lagoon protected by a reef while outside the mistral was blowing at force 7

Harbour at San Archittu 

Tony and Claire from SY Hai Mei Gui with Dave enjoying the scenery at San Archittu

We enjoyed a great lunch at a local taverna in the little town of Magomados  I had the local speciality, Spaghetti Battarda which is fish roe fried with breadcrumbs ,garlic and herbs. We also visited the local winery where we stocked up with wine and Mirto, a liquer made from myrtille berries. We continued north stopping at  Bosa Marina to admire the old port and lovely sandy beach protected from the westerly gales by a huge sea wall. The old town 3 kms inland was a colourful of 3 storey narrow buildings all painted different colours

  The town of Alghero once a Catalan colony is an impressive sight sitting on a small promontory surrounded by a high rock wall with medieval fortifications and towers Although very touristy the town has a great atmosphere and we enjoyed wandering the old cobbled streets that felt more like Spain than Italy. Our visit to the Cathedral was made even more inspiring by an organ recital

Sea wall and fortifications at Alghero

Dave avoiding the shops!

It was a long 3 hour car trip back to Cagliari. We cut across to the motorway and  for 60 kms enjoyed the interesting scenery rolling hills, little villages olive and cork tree orchards.

 The mistral had blown itself out so we left Cagliari and sailed south amongst the yachts racing in the Audi Cup.

Racing machines; Audi Cup

We spent a very uncomfortable night rolling around in a swell in a bay near Pula and the ancient ruins of Nora. So the next day we moved on to Malfatano and anchored in a little bay near a lovely sandy beach with crystal clear water; during the day the beach was full of people parading around and relaxing under their colourful beach umbrellas. We stayed there for 4 nights with a lot of other yachts sheltering from the mistral which at one stage blew 46 knots.

THE AEOLIAN ISLANDS: 4th - 7th July 2011

After leaving Milazzo we sailed across to the Aeolian Islands. We spent 2 nights at Isola Volcano and climbed the still bubbling volcano admiring the view of Makoko moored in the bay below. The brilliant yellow sulphurous rocks on the rim were quite spectacular.

We explored the islands of Lipari and Filicudi before heading back to Cefalu on the Sicilian coast. The town has a spectacular setting nestling below a cliff on a headland with a long sandy beach stretching west. The cobbled streets led up to the cathedral which glowed like gold in the late afternoon sun.

   The remote island, Isola Ustica was our jumping of point for our passage to Sardinia. We moored up to the ferry jetty which was very rolly when ships went past. Dave got up in the middle of the night when the fender on the  boat beside us knocked the lid of our barbie. As he was going ashore to adjust the ropes, a swell rocked the boat and he overbalanced on the gang plank and despite all his exercising could not hang onto the back shroud and fell into the water dropping an expensive coil of rope which sunk to the bottom Luckily, with a successful dive for the rope the next day there no damage other than pride and small lacerations on his hand.

With strong north westerly’s forecast later in the week we decided to set sail for Sardinia. Unfortunately no wind meant motor sailing the first 50nm then when the wind freshened to 8 knots from the stern we put up the sails and used the unique Amel pole system to hold out the headsail. We plodded along at 3 & 4 knots; the slow speed was made worthwhile when the fishing line suddenly went buzz; we all thought it was just a piece of plastic as we could not see any fish jumping out of the water! But a silver glistening shape proved us wrong and Jan managed to land a 12 kilo yellow fin tuna. Being the fisher woman I had the job of cleaning up the bloody mess on the deck and preparing the fish for eating. As an experiment I marinated some flesh in lemon juice, garlic and ginger which was quite delicious.