Isola Tavolara and Capo Coda Cavallo Marine Reserve (aka ‘4 anchorages in one day’)

Cala Coda Cavallo from the northwest   

The wind had flipped through 180 degrees and was coming from the west to northwest when we woke up on Tuesday 27 June. We did a weather check and decided that, with the forecast increase in wind, Cala Coda Cavallo was not the place to stay. So after breakfast we left to sail to Porto Brandinchi, a short distance away on the other side of peninsula.

Testa di Moro rock   

It was only about 6nm, if that, but we felt that we really should sail. So, feeling bone idle about life, we left the mainsail cover on and just unrolled the genoa. A SunFast 44 was going the same way, using the same sailplan. SunFast? SunSlow! Once we’d overtaken him the French yacht carried on down the coast whilst we headed up to enter the large bay that is Porto Brandinchi. We tacked our way past the Testa di Moro (Moor’s head) rock in the entrance to the bay; close to the rock is a useful yellow marker stick, which is advertised as a cardinal mark on our charts but which isn’t! However, at least it was marked because it is a nasty isolated rock.

Northeast bay of Porto Brandinchi   

Given the wind direction, there was a surprisingly large southeasterly swell just outside Porto Brandinchi and we wondered whether there would be shelter from the swell at any of the anchorages in the bay. We elected to try the northeastern most cove as it has a line of rocks sheltering it from the open sea. We made our way in, anchored, set everything up to stay put, had a coffee and then swam. By the end of our swim, the wind was still far more westerly than forecast and also significantly stronger. Though the swell outside the bay did not penetrate, there was too much fetch for our anchorage to be settled; the wind-blown waves were becoming noticeably larger and steeper. We could see from the movement of other yachts in them, that the other coves in the bay were all suffering from swell so we decided to head back to towards Isola Tavolara to find a more settled anchorage.

Beating past Isola Tavolara   

On the plus side, moving back to the northwest provided us with a cracking good sail. Having undone all our hard work to set BV up for living at anchor, we got underway with 2 reefs in both the main and genoa and full staysail and set off. We had a couple of ‘easy’ miles to get going and then faced a brisk beat to the northwest between low-lying Isola Molara followed by the towering rock face of Isola Tavolara and ‘mainland’ Sardinia. Isola Tavolara is a truly impressive island. Its 564m (1833ft) peak climbs almost shear from sealevel and from the western end the island looks very much like Gibraltar.

Anchorage on the western side of Porto della Taverna   

And so after a fun sail, at 1340 we dropped our anchor in the 3^rd anchorage of the day, on the western side of Porto della Taverna. With the wind apparently settled in the west, we tucked ourselves in nicely under a small headland, close to a busy beach. Yet again, we settled in for the rest of the day. However, at about 1600 the wind suddenly swung round to come from the east and then picked up to about 12 knots. It seemed that the most likely cause of this was the sea breeze eventually overcoming the gradient wind so we decided to stay put; the wind would go back to the southwest before too long, surely? Most of the other yachts anchored on our side of Porto della Taverna gradually moved across to the eastern side though in time the wind did die down again….. but it also stayed in the east. Well, we could live with a light easterly breeze where we were, so we continued to stay put. But then the swell started to reach us………. We had dinner, in the hope that the wind would flip round and hold us stern to the swell but it didn’t and the swell, and our rolling, got worse. So, as soon as we had finished dinner, in the very last of the light, we up anchored and went and joined the rest of the yachts on the eastern side of the bay. At 2125, literally at civil twilight, we dug the anchor in and switched off the engine again. Four anchorages in one day!

Breakfast in 4^th anchorage on the southern side of Porto della Taverna   

Out of the swell and with virtually no wind we had a lovely calm night, albeit with a little overnight rain. We woke to a nearly glassy anchorage but not that far away there was lightning and some thunder too and we had spots of rain until mid-morning. The forecast was for about 20 knots from the southwest to west and where we had anchored the previous evening we would not be brilliantly positioned if that wind came in. However, all morning the wind stayed firmly in the southeast so we stayed put too. After the previous day’s experience, we decided to play it by ear and move as the wind required, given that it didn’t seem to want to conform to the forecast.

A couple of yachts left the anchored gaggle so we took the opportunity to reposition into the gap – a slightly more ‘friendly’ place for BV whatever the wind decided to throw at us. But all seemed good, the sun came out and the wind stayed in the southeast. Even an ice-cream van boat visited anchorage.

Nicky had just served up lunch when the wind backed from southeast to north and picked up from about 8 knots, if that, to 25 knots, and all in the space of about 5 minutes! We inhaled lunch, did a lightning dash around the boat to secure below decks and make ready for sea and bugged out – fast! Nicky suggested that we head across to anchor off the beach off Isola Tavolara but then we saw a couple of the other yachts that had been anchored with us heading east and, yet again, we thought of Porto Brandinchi. So, like the other yachts, we unrolled a little genoa and raced off downwind. But still the wind played around, going more westerly and dropping and then off Porto Brandinchi going right round to the east, before becoming westerly again inside the bay. To be honest, we should never have gone as far as Porto Brandinchi though. It should have been clear to us as we approached Capo Coda Cavallo that there was still plenty of swell and that Porto Brandinchi would be a non-starter for us. The other yachts continued across to one or other of the beaches but we could see white water on the shore and watched the swell work across the bay and we didn’t want to sit at anchor in that. So, once more, we hightailed it back to the west side of Porto Taverna where, now that the wind had gone westerly again, there was a lovely lee. We could have anchored off the same headland where we had been the day before but we decided to ring the changes and go a little further north where there is a small bay with a beach and a hotel and, more importantly, another hooked headland which should provide a little shelter if the wind went north again.

And there we found 3 of the other yachts that had bugged out of our previous anchorage, all settled in and looking like they had been there ages, as indeed they probably had! We should have known better……. So, Nicky contented herself with a swim (complete with trailing yellow drybag/float to try to warn off by mad, speeding RIB drivers) and I relaxed with a book and a beer and enjoyed the scenery. It had been a funny kind of wind that day.

Isola Tavolara and Capo Coda Cavallo marine reserve, Sardinia, Italy