Sailing up the east coast of Sardinia (Part 1)

Beginning on Sunday 25 June for the next couple of days, the wind was forecast to start off in the east but quite light, increasing to about 15-20kts by lunchtime, staying at that strength for the afternoon and before going around to the southeast or south at about 10kts as evening began. So, forecast great sailing northwards up the east coast of Sardinia then. In practice, not so! We set off from Porto Giunco shortly after breakfast, motoring as expected. And we continued motoring until 1515, when we had 10kts from the southeast for 15mins of sailing! And then there was virtually no wind again so, once more, we were back to motoring.

But the scenery was very impressive, if a little hazy at times and there were clouds as well for the first time in ages!

Tuna for lunch   

The day’s highlight was lunch: the remains of the previous night’s tuna steak, sliced thinly and served cold with potato salad and chopped vine tomatos with fresh basil. Delicious!

Arbatax bay ahead   

When we were the best part of 50nm north of Porto Giunco, Arbatax loomed ahead. The scenery was still stunning, and even more so here with the high ground to the north of Arbatax dominating the skyline.

Arbatax   

Arbatax is a commercial harbour, servicing the pulp and plywood mills in the local area. There is a marina there but there is also another marina, Santa Maria Navarrese, a couple of miles to the north which seems to be in more pleasant surroundings and which was our back-up option.

Isola dell’Ogliastra   

Our primary plan, however, was to anchor close northwest of Isola dell’Ogliastra, a lone rocky outcrop in the middle of Arbatax bay. Here we hoped we would be protected from any overnight swell, whilst being able to enjoy the peace and quiet (and, perhaps, solitude) of a wild anchorage. When we arrived at 1800, though, our planned anchorage area was still filled with small boats out for the day. Most of the water around the island is deep and, it turned out, that which isn’t too deep for comfortable anchoring does not mostly have a nice sandy bottom. Rather instead it is mostly rocky and rubbly and not conducive to a good night’s sleep. However, as we shilly-shallied around the anchorage area, looking for somewhere suitable to drop the hook, several of the boats disappeared back off to Santa Maria Navarrese marina and we gratefully filled one of the spaces they vacated.

View to the north of our anchorage off Isola dell’Ogliastra   

The scenery was stunning, though it doesn’t stand out clearly in the photos above because of the evening light. More to the point, after a long hot 55.5nm passage, we were desperately in need of a swim!! It was whilst we were snorkelling that we found out how horribly rocky the seabed is close in around the island; we had dropped anchor in one of the few areas of sand.

Pelagia anchored by Isola dell’Ogliastra   

As dusk fell we were joined by another British yacht, Pelagia of London. We waved and said hello as they passed us. Interestingly, once they were settled they put up a mosquito net that covered the whole of their cockpit; we’ve not seen that before. Even with our citronella candles and anti-bug burning coil we were inundated with small biting insects during our cockpit dinner, so we were very jealous of their net. [Ed: our cabin was OK though as we have nets to cover all the hatches. It’s just that eating down below is very hot at this time of year. We probably need to resign ourselves to covering up to keep the insects at bay.]. Apart from the 2 of us there was just one other boat off Isola dell’Ogliastra overnight – a small catamaran which you can just see to the right of the right-hand rocky lump in the picture above.

Sunset over the nearby Santa Maria Navarrese marina   

Isla dell’Ogliastra