La Cavetta, La Maddalena, Porto Palma

AL likes the wind knarled pine tree in front of Garibaldi's House

The weather forecast on Sunday 22 July is again uncompromisingly bad with gale force winds predicted from the north and AL due to depart the boat the next day.  It is imperative that we are placed so that she can disembark safely and be guaranteed transport to get to her flight in Olbia.  It is impossible to book in advance at La Cavetta so we turn up early ie 1030H and get ourselves a good spot right on the town wall in La Maddalena town.

The rest of the day is ours to spend how we see fit and AL is on a mission to pack it in until the last minute.  The local buses leave from near where we are berthed and there is a bus which will take us over to La Caprera Island to Casa e Museo de Garibaldi.  We are a bit unsure of just who Guiseppe Garibaldi was, but leave his residence in no doubt that he was a General and a great hero, loved by the people of Italy as a man of the people. He must have got on the wrong side of some people in powerful places because he was exiled from Italy at least twice in his lifetime.   A walk around his home and the grounds is a really interesting experience, but about three hours later we are back on the boat wondering what to do next.

AL has it on her agenda to visit Porto Cervo, playground of the rich and famous, where they park their toys and charge artificially inflated prices for just about everything.

It would cost us Euro 180 to pick up a buoy in the harbour and Euro 295 to berth the boat here overnight.  On top of this is an additional charge for electricity and water!  Needless to say we did not take SY Matelot there.

It is strangely quiet and deserted and the marina appears to have plenty of vacant spaces considering this is peak season.

We walk around the perimeter, past manicured gardens and ostentatious houses which are built on the slopes rising up from the harbour.

It is clean, well organised and very pleasant to be there though.

The church up on the hill overlooking the harbour is lovely.

It is a thirsty walk and soon we decide on some refreshments served out on the patio, just for the record.

Back in Palau our taxi driver kindly takes us up to the lookout so that we can have one last photo shoot of the surroundings before boarding the ferry back across to Maddalena Island.

On our return to the boat, there appears to be some fresh water in the bilge.  We will have to check that one out.

But for now we are still enjoying AL's company and enjoy pizza's for dinner just across from the boat.  Delicious. 

 It is Sunday and obviously a festival day because later that night the fireworks go off and the Saint is paraded past us and on to the ferry for a trip across to Palau.

Time flies and soon AL is hopping on to the ferry and off she goes to LA via Olbia.


Now for that fresh water.... oh dear.  Two leaks, one major, one minor.  Our hot water boiler is dripping water out through the electrical wiring.  Good thing we did not connect to shore power or there would have been a big bang.  We must repair it because it is connected to the cooling system on the engine.  It appears to be badly corroded inside from the lime and mineral rich water we are constantly taking on board in the Med.  Fortunately the element is okay and two days later we leave La Cavetta, Euro 400 lighter for the repairs to the boiler and Euro 225 poorer for the marina fees... ouch. 

We are grateful to the engineer who repaired it for us in double quick time.

Heartly tired of the marina life we head SY Matelot out to the lovely anchorage of Porto Palma, in the south of Caprera Island.  We have just two days left on our park permit and enjoy this lovely anchorage hugely.  There is a sailing school in the bay and we are entertained all day by young people racing small yachts all around us.

On the second evening we are approached by a tender with 3 people on board.  From a NZ registered motor yacht called 'Tara Tara' we have seen in Porto Cervo, they are very friendly Kiwis who live in Milan and run a business trading on line in high end wine.   They leave us with a gift of a bottle of NZ Pinot Noir - a huge treat and how nice.

Northern Sardinia, Maddalena Islands and Corsica

We now have Ann Louise on the boat with us and the weather is not co-operating.  The mistrale arrives during the night and we wake up to our first morning with her on board and howling wind.  Stuck in Palau for a couple of nights, which is a lovely town, is not what we planned.

AL amuses herself despite the mistrale!

Richard and AL take the ferry across to La Maddalena Island one day.  It is a short ride across the gap.

We try to make our escape one day but conditions are so unfriendly we turn back and grab the buoy in the harbour again.   

So it is a relief to have a lull in the wind and be able to get out to this amazing anchorage at Budelli Island and pick up a mooring buoy big enough to hold a boat 3 times our size.  There is more wind coming.  Bonifacio is just 11 NM away across the straights and we kind of get the feeling that AL is itching to get there too.  This area with its remote beauty is one of our most favourite places. 

We spend quite a few nights on this anchorage, mostly because of the mistral gale which howls around us so that we are unable to move far.   The good thing about it is the clear skies which it brings with it.  The light and colours around us are all intensified.  Fortunately the buoy is included in the fee we have paid to be able to visit this exceptional place. 

It is crowded the day we arrive, but soon we have it to ourselves with a few other boats.  We initially pick up a buoy with 'Riservato' marked clearly on it, but we don't see it until after we have tied to it.  We get thrown off by a large tour boat, but soon are able to go on to another one.  Its all in the learning curve!

Oops!

This is awful!

 We go on some truly lovely if a little short.. walks to pass the time.

Watch that ferry Capn Buck...

Now... on to Bonifacio.  Finally we get the break and off we go.  The sail across the straights is just perfect and entry into the incredibly narrow entrance to the harbour quite an experience with many other craft of all shapes and sizes coming and going at the same time.

Tying up in the small Cala off to the left inside the entrance is an interesting experience.  The lazy lines are attached to the cliff face so you have to get into the water or dinghy and go and get the line.

Fortunately we are assisted by a French boat so don't have to work it all out for ourselves.  Its worth it though as is E20 for the night rather than E75 around the corner and in the marina.  We find it easy to jump in the dinghy and motor around the corner into the small village built around the harbour.  There are plenty of red ladders which we can tie up to and leave the dinghy.

From here on Bonifacio rolls out her photo opportunities. A stunning place to visit and walk around, we make the most of our time here.  The marina empties out during the day, but its fun to sit in a bar and watch the boats arriving as the evening approaches and everyone comes in for their party time.  Some massive boats manage to squeeze their way in.


Too soon it is time to leave.

We sail on to Porto Vecchio, stopping on the way to anchor in Golfo Santa Manza, and a beautiful sandy bay just outside P Vecchio. Porto Vecchio town is lovely in many ways but it is a whistle stop tour now and we fly through it in a morning.

AL is back in her spot on the boat again as we have yet another beautiful night on board.  Port de Rondinara makes a gorgeous anchorage for our last night in Corsica.

Good thing as we have a very boisterous sail the next day back to northern Sardinia and into a safe anchorage on the mainland.  Tomorrow we will have to go into La Maddalena Marina so that we can get AL on to the Ferry.  The inclement wind is threatening from the north this time and bringing cloudy skies and rain with it.

Passage to Sardinia from Ponza Island

Wednesday 4 July.  Wow where do we start? 

Maybe with the ending... here we are sitting in Porto Brandinghi just south of Isla Tavolara - SARDINIA!!!  Long and Lat:  40°50.10N 009°41.40E.

Yes yes, we have made the crossing and arrived yesterday morning after weathering the most almighty gale on the way over (all night), which we do not see on the grib files (or Lamma) at all and 3 ships which we are on a collision course with which requires us to take drastic action.  The forecast is for mid 20 knots but turns out to be mid 40s with ginormous sea state. 

An early departure means no wind so we motor out and its not until midday that we are able to start sailing.  We attempt to send emails with our trip report to family members, but get a message from MailASail that our account has been cancelled as we have not paid our subscription to their site.  The emails are not delivered.  We manage to get a grib file weather forecast for one day only.  Fair enough, but it’s a bad time to find this out.  We have not used the Sat Phone much as it was mainly to be for our cancelled Tunisia passage at the beginning of the season.

Our first indication that something is ‘happening’ up ahead is the arrival of long thin bands of cloud punctuating the clear skies above us with the sun getting lower in the sky in the background.  We sail on in a gentle breeze aft of the beam, making 6 knots easily.  Richard takes a rest down below for a couple of hours.  He is still not feeling 100% since the virus which laid him low.  There is a white sort of haze on the horizon.  Later on we read somewhere that this is a clear warning sign of a pending mistral. 

Suddenly the wind falls away and for a little while we are without much breeze, but soon the sea state starts to change from fairly flat, to small swells, increasing fairly rapidly in size.  As darkness falls, the wind fills in steadily from the north west and freshens considerably over ten to twenty minutes.  We reef down once, then soon after again, until we are sailing on the wind with three reefs in the main and a scrap of headsail.  Richard has been able to eat a hasty dinner, but Pippy snacks on fruit, is not hungry and is suffering from a small nervous knot in the pit of her stomach. (Intuition perhaps?)  The sea state continues to worsen.  We are now sailing into massive waves.

Ships in the night: 

Probably ships are not expecting to see any sail boats out there in such conditions. We are able to tack away from a massive oil tanker early on, which is not so bad as it is not yet dark when we encounter this first ship.  We figure that will be it for the night as averages go.  As darkness falls, the full moon bathes us in a ghostly light.  The sky is clear and starry and the wind screams in fury.

Richard does not feel well, does not look well, and is soon throwing up in the gunnels, clipped on to the binnacle.  This is really bad.  One crew member down and conditions worsening.  The knot in Pippy's stomach is now a football!  It is now not safe for us to tack over.  The sea state is enormous.  We have breaking waves on our starboard bow, crashing over the top of the boat.  Miraculously we are dry behind the dodger and under the bimini, but standing in the companionway is terrifying watching the waves rise up then tumble towards the flimsy canvas along the top of the deck.  We must be almost invisible to a ship in these conditions. 

The boat is sailing well on autohelm and Pippy is able to stay on watch and keep an eye on the AIS.  However, the autohelm is chewing up the batteries and so the fridge and the chartplotter is turned off and the computer with AIS and Open CPN charts on the screen left with the lid closed on standby.  The AIS is new to us but has paid for itself over and over, warning of approaching ships more than 1 hour away and plotting their course in relation to ours.  We are receiving, but not transmitting our position to them.  The screen gives us all the information we need ie Ship Name, MMSI number, course and speed plus other relevant information.
 

It is fully dark when we see lights approaching on our starboard side and our AIS shows we are close to a collision course.  We have been watching this ship, the Norwegian Star, close on us, beginning when they are 30 minutes away with .5 of a NM CPA (closest point of approach) but as they get within 15 minutes this changes to .1 - too close.  Pippy calls up the bridge on Channel 16 VHF.  Our first question "Can you see us?" followed by "We are unable to get out of your way".  It is comforting to talk in good English to this ship and they are really co-operative, changing course to avoid us.  There is no way we could have safely tacked over.

Our third incident comes hours later.  Cannot recall what time but Pippy is very concerned about Richard who is still vomiting and unable to keep even sips of water down.  He is tucked up under the dodger and keeping watch while Pippy searches for our Simrad user manual with instructions on making a DSC call to emergency services over the VHF.  She searches frantically for it but it is missing from its usual place. 

Back on deck and Richard reports lights off to our port side.   It takes a minute to fire up the AIS which then shows us .01 of a NM CPA (closest point of arrival) with the ship (another cruise liner) less than 11 minutes away.  Another call to the bridge, very difficult communication as no English, but they report they will change course, which they do.  It is truly terrifying to watch the AIS figures then change from .01 to .00 - collision course.  We switch on every light outside the boat in an effort to make ourselves as visible as possible… and pray.  We call them again but they do not answer.  We can now see the bow heading straight for us - very close. 

We are on deck together when we realise they are swinging the ship from passing in front of us to passing well behind us.  When we see their port light we know we are safe.  Once they are clear away we call them up again and say thank you.  They tell us we will have these conditions until the morning… just have to hang on until daylight.

The boat is fantastic.  Best of all…Richard’s addition of a 3rd reefing point which we move into fairly early on, autohelm, which works very hard set to sailing on wind angle, uses up 50% of our four domestic batteries but is a godsend.  SY Matelot ploughs through everything including massive waves over the top, a first for us.  We are totally okay and mostly dry with bimini and spray dodger up.  The boat slams down hard off waves frequently but comes through it all with a totally dry bilge and not a drop of water inside.

Quite annoying is the alarm on the AIS which is probably an Open CPN Setting..  Once the alarm bell starts to ring it is impossible to turn it off.  Playing around with the settings does not help.  At one point Pippy is trying to talk to the bridge of a ship, with the alarm ringing as she transmits information from our AIS.  The only way to stop it is to mute the sound on the computer which is not ideal either.

As for the Simrad user manual.  It was right where it was supposed to be but squashed sideways under some other stuff.  Thank goodness we did not need it.

The dawn finds us around 40 miles off the coast with 35 knots constant and we find it better not to look at the huge sea still coming at us.  Richard is a little less sick and on the helm again.   Closer to land, the sea state flattens out.  Pippy crashes on the teak in the cockpit and sleeps - no pillow. 

Porto Brandingi, Sardinia, 40°50.10N 009°41.40E

We make it to Brandhingi around 1300H and are surprised (chart says nature reserve, absolutely no anchoring) to find quite a few anchored boats here so drop the pick ourselves carefully in a sandy patch, do a quick tidy up, swim, food, then instantly to sleep for the remainder of the day. Wow what a beautiful place - calm water, crystal clear and turquoise.  Hard won but really lovely!!!

Ponza Island

Cala Inferno is our choice of anchorages

Ponza Island 40°53.76N 012°57.67 E

Its Saturday 30 June and having finally extracted ourselves from Gaeta, we are heading for Anzio under motor at 1100H when the wind fills in and we spot the islands of Zannone and Ponzo part of the Pontine Group off to our port side. 

The game of chance is on and we are soon sailing on a gorgeous breeze, not to Anzio but straight out to Ponza. 

There is a constant stream of motor boats heading out here too from the mainland so we are expecting crowded anchorages. We think Cala Inferno might be right for us on the south eastern side, but lets wait and see. 

The Rib Tents can go in close to the shore and are very luxuriously appointed for sleeping over.

 We drop anchor in the northern part of Cala Inferno - a simply beautiful bay, on sand, in crystal clear turquoise water and very interesting cliffs in front of us. The bay is also occupied by a huge cathedral shaped rock with a hole through it.. Its been a slow trip due to our indirect passage and also our very dirty bottom, made worse probably by ten days anchored in the one spot. 

Summer Style

We are sharing the bay with as usual, wall to wall day trippers in small runabouts, who mostly go home as the sun goes down. We move anchor further in to our choice of places for the night, just in time as the overnighters start to arrive. Before long we are surrounded by anchored cruising yachts, with some exceptions, namely the rib boats with tents on which are very popular here for sleeping over on.

Richard is still recovering and his chest is congested, so no diving for him, but Pippy gets over the side with a set of wooden salad servers (they have a nice straight edge on one side) and begins the hull clean up. The wooden edge is gentle but great for scraping large areas of weed and barnacles off in one sweep. The fish crowd around and gobble up the bits as they float free from the hull.

Its so restful and beautiful here, we spend a couple of days lolling about before making our plans to move on. We have no internet signal so motor up to the port and do a couple of circles around to download some weather reports, then plan to make our passage to Sardinia the next day.