Cala di Volpe

Cala di Volpe   

On Friday 30 June we left Liscia della Saline at the entrance to Olbia at 0740 to move the 15 miles up the coast to Cala di Volpe. There was little wind, and that which there was was from directly behind us, so we motored. We wanted to get to Cala di Volpe before the forecast strong northwest winds hit, not least because if there were no space for us we would have to find somewhere else to sit out the mistral. The skies continued to be overcast and grey and it felt quite a lot cooler than it had done for some time; we were forced to wear sweaters for the first time in ages! The main part of Cala di Volpe is an anchoring and buoyed area for superyachts, with some smaller buoys also available for boats of our size. In 2010/2011, the buoys were priced at €75 per 12 hours for a yacht our size (according to our pilot book, anyway) so we ignored them and tucked ourselves away in the more sheltered northern part of the cala. Our anchor dug in nicely on the sandy bottom and we decided that this would be a good place to sit out the mistral when it started blowing.

We rigged BV for a blow, folding away the bimini, replacing our 2-yard ensign for a storm-sized one and hoisting the riding sail. However, the mistral did not arrive as planned. Instead dark rain clouds rolled in. They made it so dark that all of the ‘bling lights’ on the posh villa’s jetty came. On the superyachts polishing and cleaning was halted so that staff could be diverted to hold umbrellas on the RIBs ferrying the owners backwards and forwards. And, having commented that the pink granite rocks just behind us looked just like the Brittany coastline, a small fleet of French yachts arrived with their crews decked out in Guy Cotton oilskins; it felt like we had suddenly been transported to the English Channel!

The skies stayed overcast but by evening the rain finally stopped. The sunlight even found a gap in the clouds to highlight the expensive looking villas behind us and, in the distance, make Isola Tavolara glow.

It made for some great skies above us and still with only light winds blowing we had a very quiet night at anchor.

The grey clouds might have gone but on 1 July the mistral did start to blow. Hidden away where we were, the anchorage provided good shelter and we only had 20-25 knot winds whilst further out in the bay we judged it to be blowing around 30 knots. With the sunshine and blue skies back, everything looked much nicer; not a bad place to sit it out! We used the time to tackle a few routine maintenance tasks, ran the generator and watermaker to top up the water tanks, and swam to give BV’s bottom a scrub. And, as if to end the day well, the mistral was very civilised and eased right off in the evening so that we could enjoy a curry dinner sitting in the cockpit.

It's only when we left the cala after lunch on 2 July that we realised just how good the shelter was in Cala di Volpe but then that's a subject for the next entry.

Cala di Volpe, Sardinia, Italy