Surprising Sardinia

We left Menorca before dawn in barely a breath of wind.  The water was dark and glassy and the coastline was still lit with the street lamps and other night lights.

The sky was overcast by the time it grew light and the air was hot and muggy – just the sort of weather you get before a big thunderstorm.  We were not overly concerned as there was no prediction for stormy weather, but we knew we would have overcast skies at least until the next day.

The winds were fickle and we had to motor-sail almost the whole way across the Sardinian Sea – the seas were rather choppy as there was a small swell coming from the southeast which was countered by a northwesterly wind but it was not uncomfortable on Bisou.

We passed the time as we usually do – reading, chatting, looking out for sealife (we did get a couple of pods of small dolphins who came to check us out but didn’t stay long, and a sea turtle which we saw floating on the surface but dived as soon as we approached), napping and eating.  It’s hard to believe that 30 hours can go by as quickly as it does, but the time does tick by.

I took the first watch of the night as I usually do – Tad is quick to fall asleep whereas I take longer and as I had just started a new book on my Kindle I was eager to spend some time reading.  With the radar on as well as the chart (on which you can see vessels which have their AIS turned on) I was able to see the two freighters which were the only ships that passed us during the crossing.  It was a dark night, overcast still, and the radar showed squalls all around.  Fortunately there were no strong winds or thunderstorm activity associated with the squalls and all we got was a little rain.

Shortly after 9am the next morning we sighted land  - this is always exciting as even though we were still some hours from our destination, we were looking forward to being in a new country!  It was rather surprising how few boats we saw along the south coast but being the end of September, we surmised that the season was over for most, and being a weekday, even the weekend sailors were at work.

We arrived at Porto Teulada, our chosen destination by about 1pm, however we decided that we would drop anchor in the beautiful bay just west of the marina as it was sheltered from that day’s wind and had a sandy bottom (our favourite for anchoring) and a lovely beach.  We took the dinghy around the point to the anchorage area listed in the cruising guide and found a spot that should the weather become inclement or the winds change dramatically, we could move to.  We also parked the dinghy at the marina hoping to get some information about the marina and the area but it was almost deserted.  It seems that the end of the ‘season’ in this area is 15^th September and although the lady in the marina office spoke excellent English and tried to be helpful, there was not much she could offer.  We enquired about the bus that supposedly went into the nearest town about 8km away but were informed that we would need to take a taxi as the bus finished on the 15^th.   By this time it was later in the afternoon and we decided to wait until the next day to make the trip into town to refill our campinggaz bottle and get an Italian SIM card.

There was a campground on the beach side of the point, and since we were already ashore we decided to take a look as apparently there was a small grocery store on the premises.  It was a large campground with lots of trees and although basic, it was nicely laid out.  The shop was remarkably well-stocked with an amazing variety of items including meats and cheeses, but as we had provisioned sufficiently in Mahon we really didn’t need anything.  We bought a couple of ice creams, returned to the dinghy and then went ashore on the beach. 

The Porto Tramatzu, as this beach is known, is exquisite – the sand is clean and soft and extends until well out into the bay.  The bay is somewhat protected from southerly swells by a large island at the entrance to the bay and we were the only boat anchored there.  At first we wondered if we were even allowed to be there as the area borders onto the military zone where they do target practice, but no one came along to tell us to leave so we stayed! 

We had a wonderful peaceful night with no swell, incredibly bright stars and no noise whatsoever – heaven!

The next morning Tad took me to the marina where the staff member kindly called me a taxi ; the female taxi driver spoke no English and my Italian is non-existent although I can make myself understood, but she saw my campinggaz container and knew where to take me.  The drive into Teulada was surprisingly green with oleander bushes planted alongside the road and green crops of some sort in the fields.

I had momentarily forgotten the speed with which Italians navigate the roads and Sards are not different – the 8km distance between the marina and the gas store was spanned within minutes!  As the road was fairly flat I judged that it would be a pleasant ride if we wanted to cycle into town another day.  Exchanging my empty campinggaz container for a full one took a matter of minutes and then we went in search of a SIM card seller.  The taxi driver, ever helpful, asked a number of people and off we drove down a number of alleys until we stopped outside a doorway. No signs, no indication that this doorway was not someone’s home, but we walked inside and in the gloom I saw that it was a little grocery store.  The taxi driver greeted the two ladies who were apparently the owners of this little neighbourhood shop and we continued walking straight through and out the other side – crossed a courtyard, up some steps and into another doorway and another darkened room.  Once my eyes adjusted to the lack of light, I saw that we were in a shop which sold electrical goods and also phone SIM cards.

Luckily they had a Vodaphone SIM although since my dongle has been unlocked I imagine that it would take any SIM (not sure about this though) – the rather ancient gentleman behind the counter took my passport (which I had fortunately remembered to bring – you need this everywhere you want to buy a SIM) and proceeded to single-finger type my details into his computer.  Did I mention that he had to turn it on first which took about 10 minutes while he and his colleague chatted with the taxi driver?

Yes, it all took awhile but in the end I had my 6Gb for Eur 25 (super-cheap compared with Spain which was 2Gb for Eur 20), and was ready to head back to the marina.  The whole trip which took about an hour and during which I was accompanied by the taxi driver cost a mere Eur 20!

Tad came to fetch me in the dinghy and we went back to the boat for lunch.  In the afternoon we decided to go ashore to the beach and have a walk then relax.  We went into the beach bar to have a look around and the proprietor, an older gentleman told us that we couldn’t park the dinghy where we had anchored it.  I sat on the beach while Tad moved the dinghy and met one of the young men working in the beach bar area.  It turned out that he and his brother managed the beach bar, the lounge chairs for rent and also RIB rentals.  The season was pretty much over and they would be packing everything up at the end of the week.  Tad was able to have a good chat with Alessandro as he spoke good English and we arranged to have a drink with him and his parents (who ran the beach bar) after work at 6:30pm.

It turned out that the parents spoke excellent French while Alessandro and his brother Roberto spoke English, so while Tad spoke to the younger generation (aged 38 and 32) I conversed with the parents “Gigi” and “SiSi” (short for Luigi and Sylvia).  We had a couple of beers and agreed to meet the next morning for a quick breakfast as we had planned to move on to another bay the next day.

We had another peaceful night and headed ashore to catch up with our newfound friends the next morning.  SiSi had kindly brought some lovely sweets from the local bakery and served us tea.  We chatted about sailing (they had a Fountaine Pajot Lavezzi, 7 years old, on which they had sailed to the Balearics, Tunisia, and Malta during the winters when their beach bar closes down), Sardinia, travelling and much more during the brief time we were there and wished we were staying longer!

By this time, although we had been in Sardinia only a couple of days, we had seen that the next weather window to Tunisia would be sooner than expected.  If we didn’t leave by Friday (two days away) we would have to wait another week and in the meantime the weather in Sardinia was forecast to be blowy from the east and overcast.  We therefore decided to leave, in spite of the fact that we had not stayed long and wanted to see so much more!

Our next anchorage was a mere 5 nm away so we sailed and had a look around the beaches of Malfatano.  We found a good anchorage and were surprised to see several other boats, including another catamaran join us over the course of the afternoon.  By sunset there were about 8 of us in the bay but as it was large there was plenty of room. The flags were French, German, Sard and ourselves.

We awoke the next morning to the rumbles of thunder (although we thought they might be from the firing range) and as I looked out our bedroom window I could see very black clouds coming from the west and forked lightning.

The portable instruments went back into the oven, and we ran around closing all the hatches in anticipation of some rain.  We were completely unprepared for the surprise that came next …

As the storm neared us, the lightning flashed and the wind began to increase – within minutes we were surrounded by wind, rain and metre-high waves and could barely see to the end of our boat.  A short time later, boats started floating past us as their anchors dragged and we feared for ours although it appeared to be holding.  Tad ran up to our helm station (which is completely enclosed, thank heavens) and started the engines as he felt sure our anchor would not hold.  Although we did not have our instruments turned on, we believe that the winds were in excess of 50 knots with 100 knot gusts.  Tad had both engines on full with Bisou’s nose into the wind to try and hold us in place.  There was little I could do but look around and check to see that we didn’t have any boats crashing into us and that we were clear of any rocks. The lightning continued to flash and the thunder roared as the storm passed over us.

The whole ordeal probably lasted less than an hour, although it seemed like an eternity!  The storm moved on, and the sun came out and started to shine.  Although we had moved from our anchored location, we were well clear of rocks and had not moved far.  Many of the boats had been blown out to sea and one unfortunate yacht had ended up on the rocks in the neighbouring bay.  We had been lucky that our anchor had held as well as it did and that Tad knew what to do with the engines as far as holding us steady.

We raised the anchor, motored back to our original spot and dropped it again, and only then did we feel we could breathe easily! Time for breakfast!  The rest of the day was sunny and warm and we went out in the dinghy to see how the ‘wrecked’ yacht was faring – they were Italian and had called the coast guard who had tried to pull them off the rocks without success.  The coast guard had then called a salvage diver who was able to refloat the boat with balloons and then the coast guard towed them back to Cagliari about 50 nm away.  We felt so relieved that we had gotten off so lightly.

That night we headed to bed early as our plan was to leave for Tunisia the next morning, once again before dawn.

We would have liked to have visited Nora, a historic site not far from where we were in Malfatano as well as Villasimius but those places will have to wait for the next trip!

                                          Bisou at anchor in Porto Tramatzu, Sardinia

The watchtower at Porto Teulada, Sardinia

The beach at Porto Tramatzu

Alessandro at the beach bar with Robin and Tad