We set sail from Porto Liscia to the little town of Santa Teresa, on the northwest coast of Sardinia.
The marina was a pleasant place to be, at the end of the inlet. The little town is built on the top of a
steep hill with wonderful views and a cooling sea breeze. It too has its
Genoese watch towers which guarded against corsairs in the old days, at the
entrance to the inlet.
Isola Rossa, our anchorage for a night proved to be quite a
challenge. After a very still afternoon,
which enabled us to swim, snorkel, go to shore for a meal and a wander, the
wind came up, bringing a large swell
rolling into the bay. It became quite a challenge to get into the dinghy and
attach lines to lift it. It proved an
uncomfortable night with athe beam swell determined to keep us awake!
The walled town of
Castelsardo
is a wonderful sight from the sea. It is a medieval town built on a steep hill,
with the houses piled one on top of the other, tumbling down the cliff. There is a cathedral with a belfry and a
castle at the top of the hill. A Genoese watchtower dominates the entrance to
the port. We made some friends in the marina and had a lovely evening eating
and playing music on one of the boats as our guest “jammed” with our new
friends,. The sun setting over this
beautiful Medieval setting afforded us an opportunity for some lovely pictures.
We took a route between the Sardinian mainland and Isola
Asinara, a marine national park, through
the narrow and very shallow Passaggio Del Fornelli. The water was beautiful aquamarine in the
channel. From here we could see the high
security prison on the island where many characters involved in Italian
organized crime were incarcerated. A sailing vessel had run aground here but
fortunately managed to get itself back into deeper water.
Through the passage we went on began our journey down the west
coast of Sardinia. It is very steep with majestic cliffs, wonderful
rock formations and numerous caves. Grotta Di Nettuno is a very popular
destination for daytripper boats. We sailed past at sunset, just before
entering Porto Conte, a large bay where we anchored for the next two
nights. This bay is one of the few along
the west coast of Sardinia which offers safe
shelter., though a southerly did come through here one night and we dragged our
anchor 1nm. before we realized it!
Fortunately there are no dangers in the bay and plenty of space but we
did have to re-anchor at 1a.m. in the morning. The only down-side to this
idyllic back is the disco bar on the shore which blasts very loud music across
the bay till 4a.m. In fact, we were beset with loud music at many of the
Sardinian spots which appeared very peaceful during the day.
Alghero is a bustling town on the
north
west coast of
Sardinia. It too has a walled Medieval old town and
here we began to see tourists. Friends
arrived by air to spend two weeks with us and we had some good Sardinian food
and wine at a restaurant in the old town.
At our marina we met Federico, typical of the friendliness we have found
on our travels. He was happy to give us
a lift to the supermarket, collect guests from the airport and take us to Coast
Guard and Customs to do our necessary
paperwork.
Our next stop turned out to be a disappointment. We went into the Golfo Di Oristano and
anchored off the small
village
of Torre Grande, named
after their large Genoese tower in the centre of the village. Although the bay
appeared to be very peaceful, we were once again blasted by disco music until
3am. As a result we decided to give the
Roman ruins on the shore a miss and move on to a quieter place.
We made for the small island
of San Pietro, off the southwest coast
of Sardinia.
The main town, Carloforte was a delight, with its tree-lined waterfront,
small 17th century laneways and delicious food. We took a bus to a beach on the west coast of
the island. It was, as are most beaches in Europe,
very typical, with it’s beach chairs,, umbrellas and beach bars. The
countryside we rode through is typical of Sardinia,
being fairly dry with many lovely Oleanders and Bougainvilleas on the way.
Carloforte was our jump-off point to make for Sicily, 234nm away. We
had headwinds all the way and took quite a bit of water over the front deck. We
arrived at San Vito Lo Capo late in the evening of the second day and anchored
out for the night. A friendly lighthouse
on the Cape kept us company for the night. The
houses in San Vito Lo Capo are white and look very Moorish. We noticed that the flavor of the food had
also changed, being more spicy than we had found in Sardinia.
Castellammare Del Golfo, was our next stop. The entrance to
the harbour is dominated by a large ancient castle. The Medieval town is built high on the hill
and it is quite a challenge to climb up to the town. There is a cool breeze up
at the top, making it a very pleasant time in summer. We decided to take a bus to
Segesta to see the Doric temple and ancient
village on the top of a steep hill with a wonderful intact Roman theatre. From
here, one can see for miles over green undulating valleys, all the way to the
sea. Our bus back to Castellammare Del
Golfo was due at 12.30p.m. By 1p.m. it
had not arrived and the next bus was only at 6p.m. At 1.05p.m. the bus arrived and the driver
told us that another bus had had a problem and he had had to incorporate the
second route into his. We were happy
that he arrived though and were even happier when he dropped us at a delightful
stone village for a lovely Sicilian lunch under the grape vines.
We dropped our guests off in Palmero and from there visited
the small town of
Cefalu,
on our way to the Isole Eoli. Cefalu has an ancient temple to Diana on the very
top of a steep hill and below a walled Medieval citadel. Tourists have
discovered this quaint village and as a result, it has many upmarket shops and
restaurants. It is very pleasant to wander through the little cobbled streets
and alleyways. The yacht harbour is
also a walk around the headland from town so the night was wonderfully quiet
and we sat under the stars for a nightcap before bed.
Lipari, the island in the middle of the
Eolian Islands
has the largest population of this
volcanic group.. We sailed past the
island
of Vulcano and could see
the steam which continuously belches out of the caldera. Vulcano has three
volcanos on it. Only Gran Cratere is
still active. The little town of
Vulcano nestles right
under it! From our marina in Lipari, we
had a view of this crater. It is a pity we cannot harness this power for our
energy needs. The next day we sailed to
Stromboli,
the island which has an active but “safe” volcano on it. We anchored on the
“safe” side of the island and the evening was spent watching filming of an
Italian movie on a nearby sailing Superyacht. At midnight we lifted our anchor
and motored round to the west coast to see the eruptions. The volcano releases
its pressure bit by bit so does not pose a very great danger. It erupts every
five minutes or so. It sprays lava up into the air in a spectacular fireworks
display, and from the crater there is a river of lava, the sciara
del fuoco, flowing into the sea.
Stromboli
was used by Ulysses to guide him to the
Straits of Messina and it is known as the oldest lighthouse in the
world.
The Straits of Messina, another of the destinations of
Ulysses, with Charybdis the whirlpool and Skilla, the monster with twelve feet
and six long necks with terrible heads which plucked sailors off their boats,
was our next destination. Although the
whirlpools, of which there are three today, no longer pose a great problem to
sailors since the 1783 earthquake which changed the undersea topography, this
is still a place to beware of. The
Tyrrhenian and Ionian seas which meet here have different heights and salinity
and there is a current which runs through the mouth of the Strait at 4kn. at times. There is a bore just after the change of tide
four times a day as well. In addition
there are strong katabatic winds off the mountains (Skilla) and it is not a
place to be in a small boat with strong wind against tide. We had an uneventful
ride through the strait. We did skirt
around a whirlpool and went over a small bore which caused us to slew sideways
but fortunately we had very light wind, that is, until just before we entered
the harbour at Reggio de Calabria, when
it suddenly started blowing 20kn. We were in the industrial port area, but met
a local character, Saverio, who is the “Mr. Fixit” of the marina.
We will arrange supplies, assistance, runs a “Mini Moke” taxi, and he supplied
us with cheese, salami, croissants and a taxi ride to a pleasant trattoria. He
has been doing this for over 20 years, and knows everyone!
We sadly said farewell to Italy
at Reggio de Calabria and set sail for Greece in a brisk 15kn. wind.
.JPG)
