Castelsardo

On 27 May we got up early, left Cala des Bollos and set sail. There was a good northwesterly wind and so, after heading west towards Menorca for an hour, we were able to tack and lay Isola Asinara which is a rather bleak island off the northwest extremity of Sardinia, very reminiscent of some Scottish islands. There is a shortcut to the south of the island called Passaggio di Fornelli which would have saved us over 20 miles but it is only 3 metres deep (BV draws 2m, so there would only be a metre clearance under the keel on a calm day). We had a regular swell of 2½-3 metres and so we decided it was prudent to avoid going aground in the shortcut by going the long way around.

Once past Pta della Scorno at the most northerly tip of the island we bore away and headed southeast for 25 miles to Castelsardo. The castle used to be the principal defence along the north coast of Sardinia for the Genoese; the same Doria family who had founded Alghero. It certainly stood out clearly as we made our approach, with the orange roofs of the fishing village cascading down the hill in tiers below the castle walls adding to the vista. We, however, needed to concentrate on the harbour entrance. A strong north to northwesterly swell can make the entrance dangerous and we had to decide if we would be safe to enter the harbour.

We decided that it was safe to enter and were soon tied up in the very sheltered harbour. The 77 mile passage had been a fantastic sail and we calculated that we had averaged 7 knots which we thought was excellent, especially as the last 25 mile leg was downwind which is a little slower.

The following morning we climbed up the hill to the castle, enjoying the views back down over the town as we went.

The belfry of the cathedral of San Antonio Abate had the same colourful tiles on its dome as we had seen in Alghero and inside the castle is a small museum explaining about the basket weaving for which the town is famed. We saw a variety of lobster, fish and eel traps as well as baskets and sieves for making bread. There were even some examples of the reed punts, similar to those used in ancient Egypt, for fishing on the nearby river and lakes.

The castle was €2 to visit, well worth it just for the view from the tower. Touristy bit done, we headed off to the shops to get a few essentials.

We have found the bread in Sardinia to be very good but here we also spotted Biscotto di San Lorenzo, which is a little like a cross between Melba toast and toasted pittas. We had it with shavings of salty Italian Pecorino cheese, olives and some spicy homemade houmus which, with some Sardinian wine, made a very good end to the day.