Passage to Sardinia
23 October 2017 | Sardinia
Carole Young
At 13.30 on Sunday 27 August 2017 we sailed out of Fornells bay bound for Alghero, just below the north western tip of Sardinia, some 200 miles away. There wasn’t any significant wind forecasted but we chose this as a trade-off; apparently any decent wind for sailing this crossing would bring considerable swell; there is often a strong mistral which blows down from the Golfe du Lion between Menorca and Sardinia. Windyty (our weather app) had promised us some strongish winds half way across but it was not to be! We had some light breeze, on the nose as usual, so we kept the main up, close hauled. We’ve never before had such a smooth sea, it was like sliding along glass; consequently we had the engine on the whole time but we figured this was better than the opposite extreme which some of our sailing buddies had experienced.
Luckily I had ‘cooked for the five thousand’ as I find eating a good way of keeping myself awake on passages lasting 44 hours, which this one was to be. Although the lack of wind made this a monotonous journey we were pretty excited to be on our way to yet another beautiful destination and enjoyed the sights that our wonderful solar system has to offer.
Losing sight of Menorca on that first afternoon with no land ahead of us all I could see was a giant semi-circular horizon; it seemed as though we were heading for the edge of the earth, into the abyss. I really admire discoverers, such as Magellan and Columbus, who ventured across the open seas not knowing what to expect, having only basic navigational instruments, very crude charts and relying heavily on the stars to guide them- note to self: learn how to use a sextant and study our solar system. This trip has really made me feel closer to the elements and that we should not take for granted how our planet functions in relation to the sun, the moon, the whole universe!
Late afternoon Paul caused some excitement by catching a very large dolphin fish (mahi-mahi); this fish is beautiful- blue and green with deeper blue spots. It tasted pretty good too! The only downside for me was that the whole performance of catching and killing it caused blood to be splattered all over the cockpit and over me too! ( Luckily I’d finished eating my tuna pasta ). This delightful creature took up so much room in the fridge so Paul decided to reel in his rod.
That evening we saw no other vessels; we seemed to be the only boat on the ocean with just the man in the moon for company. The radio was fairly quiet too, just an occasional French conversation, which we figured we were picking up from Corsica. Paul did the first night watch and I surfaced at 0230 to see the half -moon shining down behind us; the Milky Way was so bright and I was lucky enough to see two shooting stars. At one point I mistook a star for a ship’s light; I could not see the horizon, the sea had merged into the night sky. The stars and moon began to gradually disappear and at 0530, heading East, we were approaching daybreak. At 0600 the sunrise began and the sea was full of orange and pink ripples; at 0700 the burning bright orange ball appeared- I never tire of seeing this! As it was such an uneventful evening I really had to pinch myself to stay awake so at 0830 I was back down in the cabin pushing up zeds for a few hours.
Monday brought us pretty much the same smooth sea, which resembled a giant swimming pool, and very light winds so we plodded on with the iron sail; we were heading slightly north of our destination as we hoped the predicted northerlies would push us back down later- no such luck! Paul went for an afternoon nap and I caught up with Eastenders on the I-Pad to relieve the boredom! At 1600 we finally had some company- I saw two cargo ships cross each other ahead of us; then Sega made radio contact, they had left a few hours after us and were now not far behind . At 1700 Paul raised our pristine Italian flag. The sun was shining a pathway behind us and would soon be setting, the sea was like a mill pond! Paul gutted his fish and chopped it up into steaks ready for the barbecue when we get there; he decided to cast his rod one more time. Conditions were so calm that we were able to have deck showers, with no spectators for a change! Then we were engulfed with sea mist from the heat haze, it was eerie, all we could see were the beautifully coloured ripples on the sea surface which were a reflection of the pink and blue sky, the half-moon was already visible, the whole scene was just like a water colour painting. At 2015 I was just about to dish up dinner when a massive fish took Paul’s lure- the one that got away.
At 0700 the next morning a stunning sunrise welcomed us towards Sardinia; we were shattered but elated that we would finally be stepping off onto Italy, a new country for us to explore. We could hear the locals on the radio, such a beautiful language. We came around the imposing Cape Caccia and into a stunning bay; we were a little apprehensive, not knowing what to expect and not being familiar with the language- we had read that Alghero is run by the Ormeggiatori which conjured up Mafiosa images in our heads, turns out we had no need to worry; there seemed to be a lot of competition and intimidation between the various marina owners ( we had eight options to choose from) but the customers were blissfully oblivious to it and obviously it meant there were deals to be had! One of the marina owners, in his dinghy, met us at the harbour entrance and tried to entice us in but once we told him that we’d already booked the town quay online he left us alone. The Ormeggiatori helped us tie up and gave us a fantastic welcome- we think we’re going to like Sardinia!