Porto Conte

Porto Conte with Cala des Bollos on the left and Alghero in the distance on the right

We spent a total of 3 nights at anchor in Porto Conte bay, specifically in the western side of that bay in the very pretty Cala des Bollos, close to the old defensive tower. Initially we had expected to just spend one night in Cala des Bollos before moving into Alghero but we got distracted reading and snorkelling so we stayed for a second. We checked all was well with BV’s propeller and also cleaned her bottom again so it wasn’t all lazing about; just mostly lazing about!

After visiting Alghero town we returned for a third night on 26 May so that we could go ashore and visit Neptune’s Grotto on the other side of the peninsula.

We rowed ashore to the small jetty and beach, which is also a dropping off point for the tripper boats. There is a café there and the proprietor tried his hardest to entice us in but for us the path lead upwards to the top of the cliffs.

Once at the top we found the start of the Escala del Cabirol (Mountain-goat’s Staircase), which leads back down to sea level on the western side of the peninsula. We passed some quite ‘emotional’ people climbing back up as we trotted, mountain-goat-like, down the alleged 625 steps.

Mind you, looking back up we knew it would be a warm end to the afternoon when the time came to climb back up.

Back down at sea level we stood in the entrance to the grotto and saw the advantage of the tripper boats; they come right into the entrance and drop their passengers onto a rocky plateau thus avoiding the climb. However, after our excursions we felt we had properly earned the view of the limestone caverns........

......and, once we were back at the top (less mountain-goat-like), the views down towards our anchorage.

After all of the climbing we were both rather hot and so once we were back on board BV we spent the rest of the afternoon snorkelling around the cala.

Rinsing our wetsuits afterwards we did make one important discovery and solved a mystery. Whilst we had been anchored in Addaya we were puzzled by the sudden appearance of about 2 litres of water in the bilge. Clearly we had some sort of leak and so this prompted a check on all skin fittings, the engine cooling system, fridge drain, water tanks, stern glands, shower pumps and toilets to see if we could find the leak but to no avail. It was a bit of a mystery as BV normally has a very dry bilge and we just couldn’t see where the water was coming from.

The revelation when rinsing our wetsuits was noticing that the drain in one of the lazarette hatch scuppers was blocked and was full of water. It had rained whilst we were in Addaya and we suddenly realised that this blocked drain would overflow into the lazarette itself if the lid were not clamped down tight shut. Conditions had been benign so we hadn’t tightened the lid down. Any water getting into the lazarette eventually works its way down into the bilge; the mystery as to where the water had come from was solved and was also very easily resolved by unblocking the drain.

We also found time for coffee and some passage planning in and around our visit ashore and snorkelling. Now that we are in Italy our coffee is accompanied by lovely little Amaretti biscuits and these helped to take the edge off our conclusion that we would need to get up very early the folllowing morning for our 77nm passage around the north-western tip of Sardinia. The Grib forecast was for a 15-20 knot westerly wind, perhaps north-westerly at times, which was likely to be strong around headlands, so we were set for a fast and potentially boisterous sail towards Castelsardo.