Sardinia
Alan's Log:
Joan's Log:
May 2008
Route from Bonifacio, Corsica to Cagliari, Sardinia
Not to be used for navigation.
We have been on a pretty good buzz since we left Barcelona. Beautiful scenery, some cool cities, interesting small villages, a few great anchorages, some fun road trips, new foods to sample and cook and great, small, cheap bistros and trattorias. An email from a friend pointed out that life seemed to be just one long vacation.....
All vacations come to an end. Behind the scenes things were not so jolly. It had to happen eventually. The weather went from bad to worse, Joan went through a bout of homesickness while I found a new unwanted project - trying to make the head (toilet) work again. It was like the movie Groundhog day. We would get up, it would be raining. I would spend a few hours working on the toilet, put it all back together again only to find it still doesn't work, then start all over again the next day!
Scenery just got in the way and if the weather was going to be miserable, well so could we, and this perhaps in part explains how we finally found a place that completely failed to live up to my expectations. I had visited Sardinia as a teenager and in my mind it had remained unchanged for 35 years! Reality of course was something different!
Sardinia is beautiful, but as we sailed down the East coast we found that it was far less approachable than Corsica had been. We were not able to find small interesting towns along the coast to tie-up to and use as a base for exploring. The anchorages in the NE corner of Sardinia are wonderful and remote and during the summer are perfect for anchoring off spectacular beaches. But those same anchorages are far away from the heart and mood of the country.
As we moved south the coastline became more hostile and anchorages disappeared. The marinas and harbors along the coast are functional but uninteresting. The marinas are far from towns, or are over-priced accessories to expensive tourist developments. Yes we were spoiled by the south coast of France and Corsica, and Sardinia did its part to bring us back down to earth.
N.E Sardinia
We started in the North East corner of Sardinia where the Maddalena Islands form part of a large nature reserve that is reminiscent of the more barren of the Virgin Islands. The small town of Maddalena was nice and the islands themselves are really best toured in the summer when the small anchorages with beaches can be enjoyed to the fullest. We skipped these islands due to the weather which was cool and promising rain and found several good anchorages on the mainland in Cala di Volpe
, and in Golfo de Arzachena.
The problem in this undeniably beautiful and rugged area - no trace of Sardinia or its people! The hills were sprinkled with lovely summer houses, mostly deserted in May and there is really no infrastructure to support life outside of the tourist season. No one seems to live here year round.
The East Coast
We stopped in Olbia . A
grimy
town looking to upgrade its image. The sun came out for a few hours on the evening of a serious
religious procession with priests, nuns and traditional dress on display which lived things
up a little.
Unfortunately the bad weather was still with us so we did not explore inland from here. If this is the real Sardinia we will just move on further south. One bright note, we ran into a cruising couple from s'Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, Wil & Jeanine, on WINDSWEPT who we had seen briefly in Calvi & Bonifacio. We enjoyed their company, had a fun dinner together and decided to sail together for a while down the coast.
We stopped in a succession of purpose-built marinas strung along the coast that offer the only refuge on this coast. They are all more-or-less out in the country, away from towns and offer little or nothing more than a safe place to stop for the night. These were; La Caletta
, Arbatax
and Porto Corallo
.We were fast running out of Sardinia without having felt that we had seen the real Sardinia so in Arbatax we decided to rent a car for a couple of days and do some inland exploring. Wil & Jeanine came along for one day and we drove a couple of hundred kilometers through spectacularly rugged mountainous countryside to the meadows and valleys of the interior.
The roads are fantastic despite the challenging geography. We came across probably hundreds of motorcycles, touring in groups large and small and a group riding antique lambretta scooters. One was identical to my Grandfather's and reminded me of a time he took me for a ride when I was a kid! There were some cyclists in the mountains but not many. This island is big and the mountain roads are long and steep. It is the second largest island in the Med and to cover its territory an engine of some sort is required!
Serra Orios
We walked through one of the largest Nuraghic villages yet found. It consisted of thirty or so circular stone dwellings, most linked together in pre-historic sub-divisions (housing estates for our UK followers) as well as two temples and a large meeting area.
It dates from 3,000 - 2,000 BC and was built in a high flat area notable for its fresh springs and for large flat rocks that were used in the dwellings and temples as well as for stepping-stones across the boggy springs.
On the walk back to the car our progress was halted by a snake on the path. That has happened to us a few times , and once a snake actually slid up Joan's leg when we were hiking in Virgin Gorda BVI, but this snake seemed to have two heads! We had stumbled upon two snakes out on a date, with heavy petting involved (no hands!). Fortunately they were way too distracted to notice us and we had an interesting view of the horizontal tango, reptile style.
Click here to watch the snake video
Orgosolo
We also stopped in the infamous town of Orgosolo. A reputed base for the highland bandits of centuries past and present; a movie made about them cemented it's place in history. More recently (since the 1960's) it has become even more well-known for its political expression using beautifully executed murals which cover many of the buildings and a range of subjects, mainly oppression of various types. I was particularly intrigued by the scope of these murals in a small town in the interior of Sardinia. They deal with events as far ranging as the Baader Meinhof gang; the 9/11 attacks on the USA; the Vietnam war; the Iraq war and WWII, as well as world hunger and local politics.I could have spent the whole day here in this town, the mural art was fascinating, we only saw part of it, there are about 150 in all and evidently there are some done by well-known artists, although I'm not familiar with them...Pasquale Buesca and Vincenze Floris. The passion and emotion the Sardinians feel for their ideals and their homeland came shining through.
After a long drive we were more than ready for lunch, the previous town that we stopped in had no open restaurants and it seemed that Orgosolo also was not ready for us! It was Sunday lunchtime but every restaurant that we could find was closed. There were dozens of bar/cafes full of local men, but in this town the cafes were all strictly drinking establishments with no food of any sort being served. I saw a hand-painted sign that promised Porcetto Arrosto (roast suckling pig), it led us down a long blind alley but not to the ambush I was half-expecting in this renegade town. Just as we were about to give up we saw one more sign that promised Pizza pointing up yet another hill. We walked a few hundred yards up the hill, encouraged by the increasing sound of many people. Finally, a restaurant that was not only open but full of laughing, chatting villagers!
We asked for a table. After a theatrical look around his establishment the owner/chef said "no, perdone, not possible!" It was completely full. We asked again, more plaintively this time. The answer was still "no" but by now we had attracted some attention and the owner's wife appeared. I offered to wait till a table was available.... "not possible too late". I made an offer to eat outside on the porch where there was a nice picnic bench. "Not possible" said the owner...but his wife took pity and said we could eat outside. We sat down quickly before she could be overruled and she reappeared with a large roll of paper tablecloth which she unrolled on the table, and out jumped a HUGE beetle (I maintain that it was a beetle and not a cockroach, Joan is still not convinced). Anyway the food was good. Not pizza but Sunday lunch Sardinian-style. Homemade gnocchi and steak in juniper-berry sauce and other goodies. The owner's brother came over to chat with us and phrase-book in hand I got a chance to demonstrate my feeble Italian.
I don't want to come across as sounding naive but I noticed an interesting aspect of Sardinian village life that I had never seen before in my travels and that is Sardinian widows take their widowhood very seriously! They dress from head to toe in solid black everyday for the rest of their lives. Because of the distinctive way they dress, I noticed them everywhere, there seemed to be an abundance; Crossing the streets; Sitting outside their houses; Hanging laundry out the upstairs windows; Sometimes there would be small groups of them chatting together. I expect I will see more of that way of life as we travel to Sicily, southern Italy and Greece, but I guess it is the cultural differences we encounter that fascinate me so. Also I love to watch how the old men of the villages like to spend the afternoons sitting together outside in groups, they are so cute in their trilbies and corduroy pants, they have to be so close, having spent their entire lives together in the same village.
Blockade-Running!
We were able to find a wifi connection on the way back to Arbatax and call the children on skype and then we returned to the Marina. Our goal now was to get down the coast to Cagliari on the south coast in as few hops as possible. It is over 150 miles.The Arbatax marina manager is a lad of my decade from the North Country (of England). It was great to be able to communicate easily in English for once, but what he had to say was hard to bear.
"Did you know the Italian Navy are conducting exercises along the coast south of here till May 31st and all boat traffic is confined to port until June 1st?"
This was a serious problem. We had hoped to visit Sicily after Sardinia before heading back up the Amalfi coast of Italy where we will meet my parents on June 13th; We were also keen to avoid the draconian Sardinia boat tax (€500 - €1,000 depending on who one spoke to) which would come into effect on all yachts over 14m in Sardinia on June 1st! We had to escape Arbatax before May 31st, but how?
Alan, the marina manager, helped us hatch a plan. We would sneak out past the moored Navy patrol boats under cover of darkness just before dawn. We would hug the coast staying along the 30m line and try to make Port Corallo the next port. We would not be able to get there before the curfew began at 09:00 but we would be much closer to Port Corallo than to Arbatax by 09:00, and if we ran into trouble I hoped we would be sent onward and not turned back. We did not want to try this alone so we sought reinforcements. Wil & Jeanine on WINDSWEPT (Jenneau 40) signed up as did a German-Swiss group on BLUE FLAME (Hallberg-Rassy 42). It was already dark, but we stowed the pasarelle and hoisted the dinghy into the arch and doubled up our lines. In the morning we would only have to release our lines to set off.
Three small yachts headed out in convoy early the next morning trying to get close to the next port before the exercises commenced at 09:00 hrs.
All went well for a few hours as we proceeded at full speed along the coast, but at 08:45 hrs we spotted a high-speed patrol boat. It headed straight for us and circled us closely for a few minutes before initiating radio contact;
"Moonstruck stand-by, you are in firing range!"
(Ed: The patrol boat had no fixed guns and we later realized he meant we were in 'a' firing range!)
We were treated courteously but firmly. We were asked our maximum speed and were given permission to continue southward at maximum possible speed! The patrol boat then raced off to meet and greet BLUE FLAME and WINDSWEPT a mile or so behind us.
We had assumed that the naval exercise was ship-based. But as we proceeded further along the coast we saw several shore-based radar emplacements and a large steel-faced cavern that we assume is a modern gun emplacement on shore, surrounded by sophisticated electronics. We started to feel better once we passed this but just as we were beginning to relax a buzzing noise grew and before we could identify the source we were strafed by a low-flying spotter plane just above mast height. He banked over the other two yachts a mile or so behind us and returned to base. Half an hour later he repeated the procedure. Meanwhile another patrol boat zoomed up to make sure we were still following instructions. We docked, as instructed, in Port Corallo, the next port along the coast closely followed by WINDSWEPT and BLUE FLAME. We had only made 25 miles along the coast and we were required to radio the navy to confirm our arrival and remain in port.
At least the day's adventure had put us within striking distance of Cagliari. The next morning we repeated the exercise, but we got up a little earlier and made the far side of the curfew zone and the turn towards Cagliari just as the clock struck 09:00.
What wind, what seas!
Heading south to safety at the end of the curfew zone was very bumpy. We had the wind on the nose and Moonstruck was climbing over steeper and steeper seas with waves reaching 20'. The wind started to veer as we closed the turning point for Cagliari and by the time we made our turn we had the wind at our back and were surfing down these huge waves. The wind rose and rose, reaching 46.2knots (just over 50mph) and our boatspeed hit 12.2kts as we surfed down the waves - a new record for Moonstruck but a little too exciting and I spilled my coffee, so we furled up the main and under reduced sail we and the appropriately named WINDSWEPT raced downhill into Cagliari a few hundred feet apart. Occasionally the wind would ease to about 15kts and Windswept would draw level with us, but each time this happened the wind started up again and Moonstruck pulled back ahead.
Click here to watch Moonstruck on video
We moored in Marina del Sole
, a small
family-run marina in Cagliari in 30+kt winds. It was a challenge to bring
Moonstruck in and we were unable to moor stern-first despite several attempts; the wind
simply would not allow us to keep the boat straight enough in reverse, even using
the bow-thruster. So we came in bow-first and tied up with a lot of
help from the friendly marina staff and the nervous owners of the
adjacent boat! WINDSWEPT was directed to a nearby berth but BLUE FLAME was nowhere in sight.
They had fallen behind and when they arrived we learned that their steering cable had failed
en-route. They were helped to a temporary berth for repairs.I think we have come a long way since our first panic-stricken med-mooring experience in Lisbon almost a year ago; We came into the marina in the most atrocious conditions ever, 35 kts of gusting wind on the beam and a narrow space to squeeze into. A year ago I think I would have just said, "Forget it, there is no way" and freaked out! but we both pretty much knew what to do and what to expect. That doesn't mean my heart wasn't pounding like a jack-hammer!
Tax Avoidance
The marina proved to be a cruiser haven. The first we have come across since leaving Barcelona. There were boats from the UK, Holland, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, USA etc. A chat with one cruiser about the Sardinian boat tax revealed what we had begun to suspect. The imposition of the tax on visiting boats in 2006 had been a fiscal disaster for Sardinia, boats deserted Sardinia in droves in the summer months. In 2007 some boats were charged and others were not. This year we learned that the tax has been suspended, or perhaps is just not going to be enforced. Bizarrely there has been no attempt by the Sardinian authorities to alert the sailing community that Sardinia is now open again for summer business! Most of the boats in Barcelona over the winter were planning to avoid Sardinia completely and others, like us, planned to visit early and leave before June 1st.(Ed: Sardinia imposed a tax on visiting boats in 2006 that applies during the summer months and is scaled by vessel size. We would have to pay €500-1,000 and larger boats up to a reported €20,000 just for the privilege of being in Sardinian waters.)
Sardinian food
Of course the strong culinary influence here is Italian, but with a hearty, more rustic edge. Favorite foods;
Roast suckling pig - to die for!
Wild boar casserole,
Prosciutto ham. Even the plain sliced cooked ham is worlds better than our domestic U.S. product. The dried hams are of course legendary.
Pecorino Cheese. We discovered the joys of the matured Pecorino cheese. Pecorino is made from sheeps milk and is Sardinia's main export product. It comes in fresh, half mature, and mature versions. We strongly preferred the mature version which combines the flavours of both Parmesan and Cheddar and a texture half-way between the two. It is a new favorite for us.
Pane Carasatu Guttiau (shown above). A wafer-thin crispy bread something like the Indian Popadom. It is eaten alone as a bread substitute. We enjoyed serving it on board with shavings of Pecorino cheese drizzled with olive oil and fresh ground pepper. We also had it in a restaurant softened in stock flavored with pecorino and tomato sauce and served triumphantly with a poached egg wrapped inside it.
Juniper berries. These are used to make delicious slightly tart sauces for red meats.
Sebada or Seadas. Joan's favorite dessert. It is a soft cheese encased in pastry, fried then drizzled with local honey.
Next....We make passage to Sicily and the active volcano islands of Stromboli and Vulcano en route to the Amalfi coast.