Sardinia

As our bracing sail down from Corsica calmed down in five minutes to a flat calm we (I) were able to relax and have a look around at what was going on. We passed through the beautiful Madalena Islands or at least we were assured they were beautiful they were so shrouded in the usual haze we couldn't really see them and all photos were scrapped on inspection. One thing I have to say is that some parts of northern Sardinia actually look a little like peerie Shetland islands - low lying with no trees but alas no sheep or ald stane dykes so there the similarity ended.

We also spotted this boat on the way South, a very strange shape indeed.



The cliffs at Capo Figari were full of big caves and holes, we could come very close in as it was so deep.



We were headed for an anchorage at Isola di Porri in Golfo di Olbia to rendezvous with John and Shirlee on board Solstice. We had to keep an eye on the big ferries heading into Olbia they were fairly rumbling past but nothing more than usual. The girls like the ferries here as many of them in the Moby group have cartoon characters painted all over .



Corsica/Sardinia ferries with the moors head on the side.



A 'Moby' ferry with Sylvester, Daffy, Bugs, Tweety Pie, Wyle E Coyote and Taz on the side. You can see the attraction to the girls.

When we got into the anchorage the wind picked up again, we listened to the weather forecast and promptly just before dark put out the second anchor - again. It turned out to be lucky for us that we did as the wind increased in excess of 40 knots over night and well into the next morning, luckily from the North so we were well sheltered. Once it died down again Ali got out into the dinghy to put rubber strips over the stern anchor arrangement so that if we do ever bash anyones boat again it should be a bounce more than a scrape.....



Ali also hadn't realised how big his bald spot was either (spot?? more like head!)



During the windy morning we got some amusement in the form of this poor guy in the power boat trying to attach to the mooring buoy at the beach. Firstly he dropped his anchor and went around and around the buoy we presumed trying to use the anchor as a grapple on the buoy. The second attempt was to slowly approach the buoy then run out with his boat hook but it was so windy that by the time he was at the stern of the boat the buoy was miles away. His third idea after a few tries of method 2 was to try and get the buoy with the boat hook leaning out of the wheelhouse window which he did indeed manage but then had to drop the boat hook as he was nearly pulled through the window with it. Finally he went back to recover the hook and left, rather quickly we thought. I hope there aren't people like us around if I am ever hanging off the front of the boat on a windy day trying to catch a buoy, no mean feat even when someone else is at the helm!

With the wind and the sun we noticed our batteries had charged up to a level not seen since they were new! The solar panel and wind generator are definitely working and thank god as we need the fridge now for cool water if nothing else (beers, tonic etc...)

We hadn't expected Solstice to appear form the south in the strong northerlies and got a shock when she pulled into the bay!



Solstice looking for a good spot to anchor. We dinghied over when John and Shirlee had got all tied up and had a very welcome afternoon beer to catch up. The girls were a bit desperate to get to the beach so we had to go but invited John and Shilree over for the evening.



The dinghy with the girls little dinghy and the two yachts in the background.



Kaylee had packed herself full of sand so Ali chucked her into the sea naked so that she didn't fill the boat with it.



Alisha still didn't like the water and did some shore exploring instead.

The rest of the two days spent at Isola di Porri were spent at the beach during the day and then having a few drams with John and Shirlee at night. We had Corsican beer, goats cheese and pate. I had some Menorcan Gin Shirlee had taken over for me to taste, and of course some Scotch! John was interested to see what marmite was when the girls were having their supper of marmite on toast so he had a slice too, I don't suppose it was the culinary highlight of his trip.

Soon it was time for us to head south and Solstice to head east to Rome. We are hopeful of meeting them somewhere again as our cruising roots cross over a bit.

We headed down through the Isola Tavolara and Capo Coda Cavallo marine reserve which was very pretty as you thread your way in between some lovely islands and coast line.



Isola Taolara, and Isola Molara, and below a shipwreck in the channel, it was flat calm so hopefully there was no chance of us joining it!



We sailed around seventy miles that day down to the port of Arbatax and went into the marina, Solstice had just been there and although the prices had doubled since they were there with the change from May to June it was still cheap compared to many Italian marinas.



The girls found some feathered friends to feed some stale bread to. The marina is run by an English bloke called Alan at the weekends and it was nice not to have to face the language barrier for once. He gave us loads of info and told us how to get into Tortoli the next town as Arbatax doesn't have much in the way of food shops and we were low in just about everything.

We checked the weather and it seemed as if we didn't leave for Sicily the next morning we wouldn't be able to get there in increasing easterly winds until about a week later so it was off into town on the bus for a big supermarket run.

Tortoli turned out to be a nice enough town. It was Saturday afternoon and there was a wedding on which in Italy means a parade of cars going up and down the street honking their horns after the bridal party anyone can join in so the young cruisers do too, very noisy!

As we walked through the town we came across evidence of the wedding outside what we presumed was the registry office - lots of smashed crockery and flowers on the ground. Alisha didn't think people should smash 'pretty things.'



Tortoli also had lots of murals painted on walls around town which were quite pretty and brightened up a pretty run of the mill town.



We were walking up towards the supermarket and the pavements were covered in guano when we looked up we saw why lots of swallows nests tucked in under the eaves.



We left Sardinia the next morning and yes we are completely aware we didn't do the place justice at all, only actually going ashore at two places but that is the penalty for having a sailing schedule to stick to. I would love to come back and perhaps we will on the way back to Shetland next year.



On the way out of the harbour Ali spied some very dodgy concrete work on the harbour light, certainly no up to the same standards as the Northern Lighthouse Board!

We left Sardinia at about 10am Sunday morning set for Sicily 175 miles away. For Ali it was a very poor trip, we had to motor into very light head winds the whole way and he didn't catch any tuna even after getting tips from John who had caught two between Menorca ans Sardinia! For me and the girls it was great, lots of time to read stories and we saw our first Med whales, two sightings close to Sardinia of two groups of two pilot whales. Of course they only came up for a minute and certainly not long enough to grab the camera. We also saw dolphins a couple of times which is always a delight. We were looking forward to Sicily!

At the moment we have just rounded the heel of Italy and are in Otranto in the Adriatic, it is getting hotter and we basically have to shelter from the sun from 2 to 5 each day or swim to cool down. Not a bad complaint when we hear the weather reports from home! We are hoping to cross up to Croatia in the next week or so weather and spare parts permitting as we are waiting on a new spreader being shipped to Brindisi marina. That's all for now!

Corsica

The Corsican coastline South of Cap Corse.

We left Elba at 7am in a flat calm and headed fro Cap Corse as we had intended to go around the West side of Corsica. When we were still about thirty miles away the wind got up from the North and the sea got quite choppy. We had read the pilot book warnings about the weather around Cap Corse and just thought we couldn't be bothered to punch into the sea all day and then still have miles to go to a decent anchorage. We about turned and headed to Bastia on the East coast instead and at least we could sail there. Typically after we had gone about 15 miles South East in that direction the wind fell away again but we pressed on to Bastia.


Kaylee helping to raise the tricolour again when we thought we had gotten into French territory.

Both marinas there are graded a 5 in the pilots (very expensive) and we realised there wasn't anywhere to anchor so we said one night only and we will get the washing done and hoover (badly needing to do both after a week at anchor!) We called Port Toga and when I asked the price he said don't worry it's not expensive and strangely it turned out not to be, 20 odd Euros with free wifi, something we hadn't seen since Spain! We quickly decided we would stay 3 nights and explore Corsica a little from there. We got all our chores done the first day so that we were ready to go on a train trip the next.

The train we took went from Bastia across the island through the mountains to Ajjacio and the scenery was stunning. From plains to high mountains which were still snow capped, forests and rivers, just lovely. The smell of all the spring flowers wafting in through the windows was amazing too. The only bad bit was it was 4 hours each way and with two little kids that is a lot of time. They did behave very well though especially on the way back when we were better equipped with juice and food we had bought not having realised on the way there there would be no where to buy it on the train/at the station.

Some pictures of the Journey....





Ajaccio itself wasn't so amazing but we had lunch and wandered around there for a few hours before returning to the station.


Kaylee found a peerie pal.


There was a classic boat regatta an and this was one of the only ones not out sailing.


Alisha ate nearly a whole punnet of strawberries on the way home, greedy little pig!

The next day we added the Corsican regional flag to our tricolor courtesy flag. We haven't bought a regional one before but this one is a little more unique than the rest so we liked it. It has the picture of a 'moors head' on it rather than a mixture of stripes and shapes like most other flags.



On our last day in Bastia we went for a walk around the town centre and here are some of the sights we saw.





The other harbour right in town, not very sheltered and more expensive so we were glad we went to Bastia.



A walk through the gardens to the Old City



Alisha liked the handmade quilts and she thought Aunty Janet might like to see them too!



An old sundial.



A lot of the city is in great need of some TLC as you can see!

We met a Danish couple returning with their boat from Croatia to the Balearics and so invited them on board for a beer and info swap as they wanted to know some anchorages in the French riviera area where we had been. It was good to get some places to head for in Croatia as we really have no idea (not having read the pilot yet.....)



Leaving Bastia through the exceedingly narrow entrance! We sailed well actually motored the whole way to the South of Corsica the next day and it was one very long swelly bumpy day and night as we only got to an anchorage at around 12am. we did however see dolphins and pass through a French military firing range, I wasn't as convinced as Ali that it would be OK but it was! We had anchored in a small bay outside the Porto Vecchio harbour not wanting to go in there in the dark but by 5am we had rolled around enough and upped sticks to go into the bay.
When we got there we spied this yacht again, Concerto which had moored up next to us and Enjah in Marseille. Gordon the bloke who skippers it came over in the tender for a chat before they left for Sardinia. We had a very lazy day not even getting off the boat. Ali put his time to good use by making a wooden floor for the dinghy. There were three other British boats anchored too the most we had seen for a while. The anchorage at Porto Vecchio is almost entirely swell free as there is a huge dogleg in the voe which dissipates it and we really appreciated it after the night before.


'Concerto'

The next day we went up to Porto Vecchio old town to have a walk around. The old town is very pretty and full of the usual cafes, craft shops and artisanal food shops to try and prise the pennies out of your purse.

Some Pics.






This bell tower stated dinging away at 12pm and unfortunately we were sitting having a panini right under it. It didn't stop for ten minutes, even the waitress was upset by the time it stopped!





We got all stocked up and ready to leave for Sardinia the next day as we had a rendezvous planned with yacht Solstice we had met in Cartagena. We did leave but on seeing conditions outside of the voe I put a stop to that and we headed back into the anchorage, for the windiest night of anchoring ever which I described in a previous blog.



The club med yacht/cruise liner leaving harbour in 30 plus knots, bet they didn't put those sails up!

I also described the mayhem we caused in the harbour the next day when we went in for shelter and water so I wont go over it again!

Here is a pic of the little Italian boys and the girls watching a DVD together after all the adults had made friends! The girls were delighted as the boys could speak perfect English (at four and seven years old!) They played around all morning until a sad parting when both boats were going their separate ways. Us on a terror ride to Sardinia....





The headland at Porto Vecchio entrance.



The calm seas we encountered on leaving the voe which almost sent Alli into a deep despair until....



30 to 35 knot winds that propelled us at a speed of around 8 knots for four hours thankfully in the direction we wanted me hanging of the top rail most of that time.



As usual the girls weren't phased at all and fell asleep for a part of the journey. I know too that photos never make it look as bad as it felt at the time (or as bad as I felt at the time!)



The angle of the boat achieved with only the jib and a fully reefed main.... The seas coming out of the Bonifacio straits were fairly big and it was a long day. As usual the wind died down to nothing when we still had 20 miles to go and we went from flying along to plodding slowly to the anchorage at Isola di Porri near Olbia where we were meeting up with John and Shirlee, we were just glad to have gotten across the Bonifacio Straits and I don't really want to 'do them' ever again - although the islands in between are beautiful so maybe on the way out of the med next year.

Pisa, Elba and a few stunning sunsets.

The trip to Pisa

We set off after getting free from the marine police and the sky was bright blue, there was very little wind so we thought the predicted force sevens and thunderstorms were just another case of the forecast being entirely wrong. Not so. We had the sails up as a gesture really for the first hour or so and then the wind died entirely but by this time we could hear loud rumbling coming from the mountains which made us up the revs a bit. We have learned the hard way now that if the wind dies that is OK, if it dies then does a 180° then it is time to be prepared for anything. On this day Ali had gone ff below to bake a cake with the girls which of course was all over the place when the wind and rain hit.



I managed to convince Ali it was definitely not gennaker weather so we put that away and then I was thinking we maybe still had a little too much sail up and amazingly Ali agreed so we took the main right down and ran with only the jib. You will know how windy it was when we were going 7 knots steadily with our smallest sail, I was just glad it was coming off the land so the sea was OK. This was also good as our intended destination the river Arno is dangerous with onshore winds and the next stop would have been another few miles. I was designated as the watch ‘as there was no point in two of us getting wet. I am glad to say we got all the way there with no hiccups and the cake came out really well too.



Force Seven, What force Seven??



The entry to the river is quite challenging as there is a thee knot current and the sands at the entrance aren’t charted too well, nonetheless we edged up slowly and breathed a sigh of relief when it got deeper again in the river. We had made contact with the Lega Navale marina earlier and called them again to say we were here and where would we go. It was here I realised why the first phrase taught on my Italian CD is ‘non ay possibilay’ as it was all I heard for the next ten minutes as we were refused from each marina up the river. They all had loads of space too which was quite frustrating when all you want to do is get tied up after a very long windy sail. In the end we decided to just try and tie up somewhere where we met the first person who was willing to talk to us and help. He said we could anchor in the river which we hadn’t realised and use his club to get water after the regatta left the next day. It turned out that the river is the best, calmest anchorage we have ever been in and we were glad we hadn’t forked out for a marina where we weren’t really wanted! The wind died, the sun came out and this was the view by sunset. Stunning.



The next day we caught the bus to Pisa which stops just alongside the river and costs only one Euro. We met some English girls on a hen weekend who pointed us in the right direction for the ‘Torre Pendente’ and off we went. You have to walk across Pisa town to get to the tower and it is a very nice old town with lots more than just its famous tower to see.



An old Roman wash house on the way.



Our first view of the tower as we walked towards it it is so funny to see in real life.

The tower is actually only the 3rd oldest building in the Piazza Del Duomo and the whole setting is quite stunning.




And of course the obligatory photo......



One last photo to show the squinty angle.



One disappointment was that when we went to the ticket office we found out that kids under eight are not allowed up to the top. To say there were two disappointed little girls was an understatement. We decided that Ali would go and I would stay with the girls not having a head for heights I wasn't entirely worried (and the ticket price was 15 Euros!)

So here are pictures of what he saw....



I would imagine my face would have been a little like this!



The steps are all worn on the lower side, Ali said it was a really strange feeling like you were almost falling over all the time.



The view from the top.



Back in town here is a pic of the river Arno a bit further up than we anchored.



A traffic calming church.

The next day we left the river as early as we could manage to sail 50 miles to Porto Ferrario in Elba. It took us about half an hour to raise and clean the anchors as they had been very well stuck into the mud at the bottom of the river. The marina guy who was in the race had told us it would be all medium Northerly winds that day, perfect.

We took lots of pictures on the way out of the river of the old fishing huts and nets. It was kind of like stepping back in time. It seemed that each hut was owned by one little old man who just came down and lowered his nets once a day for a few fish. The big nets are all on pulley systems which they lower down and then raise up when they think they have caught something. We saw a few fish in the nets that raised as we passed and were quite surprised.





A net being raised as we passed.



When they raise the big net, they bang a smaller net up and down in the middle to catch the fish then pull it in towards the shore, very clever.




At the river entrance, the huts are all on a broken down breakwater and the people have to take little boats across.



This one looks like it may not last just too many more storms!

When we got out of the river mouth it was a flat clam and Ali couldn’t believe it and nearly went on strike until the breeze did pick up and we had one of the most pleasant sails ever a nice steady 6 knots most of the way.



Goosewinging with Elba just visible in the gap.



Kaylee relaxing at the bow.

We got into Porto Ferrario just in time for tea the anchorage there is nice and big the only minor fault being the wash from the ferries is quite extreme!



Sunset Porto Ferrario



Dinghy ride to Porto Ferrario.

The next day was exploration day we went into town in search of Napoleon’s residence when he exiled on the island. He lived a luxurious lifestyle for someone who was exiled.







What a contrast with this a bed identical to the one he used whilst away on a 'campaign'



After that we went for a look at the old lighthouse on the point.





Porto Ferrario harbour.

We went down along the foods of the world fair that was on along the pier. We bought some Italian bread and olives etc but weren’t really tempted by this offer. The ‘Best of British’ repacked cheddar at 5 Euros a chunk, no thanks! It didn’t seem to be selling too well, no wonder when the French stall was quite nearby. The other thing they were selling was sets of crockery and I couldn’t even bring myself to take a photo of the ‘Princess Diana’ set, I mean really is that what everyone else thinks we all have in our cupboards?!






We left Porto Ferrario after two nights and anchored in a little bay eight miles further West along the coast. It was a nice wee spot and sheltered from the easterly winds. We spent the afternoon at a little beach and Kaylee got in some swimming, Alisha thinks the water isn’t warm enough yet and so just paddled and played on the beach.



That’s all we saw of Elba but it seems a very nice place, a great place to spend a day or two with loads of walks, fortresses etc.



Dinner outside, this was the day Kaylee began to go around naked in the boat because of the heat, poor thing she has nothing left to take off when it really does get hot in a few weeks!



This was the sunset on our last night at Elba. It was very nice as the sun managed to set between the two rocks over the Island of Capraia in the distance. The next day we were set off for Corsica.