We got back down to Zaffina a week ago and were delighted to discover that the sun was still shining in Sardinia! We picked our Azimut up from the boatyard where she had had her bottom beautifully scrubbed and made the short hop across to Olbia marina for the first night, then set out a deux to enjoy a couple of days of wandering.
Taverna is a very short trip from Olbia but it is a different world. The bay is surrounded by gentle slopes dotted with elegant villas and near the entrance there are amazing rocks which more like modern sculptures than anything created by nature. After a relaxing afternoon, we decided to nose close in once the day boats had gone and enjoyed dinner in the cockpit as dusk fell.
As it was such a beautiful evening, we couldn't bear the thought of going down to our cabin and instead gathered a load of bedding and set it out on the flybridge cushions, then settled to a night under the stars. There were a lot of them!
At 2am we were wakened by a repeated shuddering, enough to rouse Frank from our nest and a few minutes later he called me down to join him. During the night, Zaffina had swung around into shallower water and the ladder was tapping ominously against a rock just below the surface! We debated whether we could pull her forward on the anchor out of harms way but in the end decided that our only option was to up anchor and find a new position - not the easiest thing to do in the small hours when many of the yachts surrounding us hadn't bothered to put on a mast light. Still, we negotiated them all successfully and returned to our bed under the stars feeling relieved that we'd left the bathing ladder down for the night!
The following day passed in a blur of eating, drinking, swimming and sunbathing (as all the best days do) and finished with another night under the stars, this time without incident although we did wake up with a bit of a dew on us!
We had decided to treat ourselves to a meal at Pitrizza, reputed to be the most expensive hotel in Sardinia (where we'd already paid the princely sum of 26 euros for 2 glasses of orange juice) so we made the journey up to Liscia di Vacca under a rather gloomy sky - still warm, but loads of dark cloud around.
As we came into the bay, two motor boats were following behind us, but on seeing that there was only really one decent space available, one of them put on a spurt of speed and rudely pushed past us to take it. We were both livid and made some internationally recognisable signs in their direction.
Last time we were here, we found it to be a delightful anchorage but this time the afternoon was somewhat bumpy with loads of wake being washed into the bay and it was with relief that we finally took ourselves over to the hotel for an excellent dinner. After our meal we wandered into the jewellers (strategically placed to attract guests feeling mellow and impressionable after a good dinner) where I tried on an elegant pair of earrings with a price tag of 140,000 euros. Frank wasn't feeling that mellow or that impressionable, so I didn't bother too much with the 1.2 million euro yellow diamond ring!
After the discomfort of the previous afternoon, we were quite surprised to awake to a beautifully calm sea which prompted an immediate swim before we set off down to Olbia, where Em and her friend Rosie joined us in the afternoon. Once they were on board, we set off again, back up to Cannigione where we spent the night on a bouy just outside the marina.
In the morning, we crossed the Bonifacio Straits again and motored up the coast of Corsica as far as San Ciprianu where we had a peaceful afternoon at anchor, disturbed only by the multitude of jetskiers who consider boats at anchor to provide the perfect obstacle course for them to negotiate. By evening we had moved to Porto Vecchio, where we again moored outside the marina and took ourselves into the harbour by dinghy and after the arduous climb up to the hilltop town, we enjoyed an excellent belated birthday meal for Em. The trip back to Zaffina at 1am was over the most beautifully flat calm sea, illuminated by an almost full moon.
Yesterday we moved from Porto Vecchio down to Rondinara, one of our favourite places, and managed to get a great spot right in the middle of the bay, from where we could watch other boats and yachts getting in a tangle with anchor chains and narrowly avoiding the one rock which sits in the middle of the bay. It was quite blowy again and when Frank checked the forecast, he decided that we couldn't, after all, stay in Corsica for another couple of days as we had planned, and had to head back to Sardinia. The wind was due to come up still further and for the next few days the Bonifacio Straits were likely to be too lumpy to cross, so we couldn't wait too long. We battened down the hatches, expecting a rought trip, and turned Zaffina's nose south again, but actually, it wasn't bad at all, and in just over an hour we were back in Cannigione and the barbeque was warming up nicely!
Tuesday, 24 August 2010
Sunday, 1 August 2010
Sunday 1st August 2010
We're getting to know this little stretch of Sardinia quite well now, and it is amusing to see how close the mega yachts all stay to Porto Cervo; as soon as you venture a short distance away, they are all left behind, congregating around the most expensive hotels and crowding just a short bite of the Costa Smerelda!
Our search for a peaceful anchorage took us back northwards and we spent the day anchored off Taverna but our frequent checks of the forecast told us that we'd need somewhere more sheltered for the night if we wanted peace, and so we ended up back in a familiar spot, Cannigione - a small town and marina set deep into a winding inlet north of Porto Cervo. Although we'd anchored near the marina in the past, this time we opted to pick up a buoy, much to the disgust of a small and noisy seabird which had made it his perch and shrieked at us to go away! He eventually conceded that we were bigger and flew off in disgust as the marineros helped us to tie up and warned us that we were in for a blow over the next couple of days. We had hoped to go out to the Madalenas the next day but sure enough, the wind was rising and instead we just moved into the nearby port where we had managed to book a berth for two nights. With no hope of going out to sea, instead we hired a car and saw a bit of Sardinia from the road, driving back to the north coast one day and down to Porto Cervo - home of the really big boats - the next. And boy were they big! Dilbar is even more impressive up close than she was when we passed her on the water, and there were several other super super yachts alongside her.
When eventually we managed to find beaches - they seem to be accessed from roads and tracks without signposts! - it invariably clouded over five minutes after our arrival and we even had a downpour of rain on Friday afternoon, our first proper rainfall for six weeks! Fortunately it passed quickly and by the time the skies cleared, the wind had also blown itself out and things were set fair for a final full day on the water with Bob and Janet.
Again, we hoped to get over to Madalena and again the wind prevented us from doing so, but the anchorage we found, south of Olbia, more than made up for any disappointment. We were tucked into a sheltered bay divided into several coves, very close to Puntadias, and had a glorious, lazy, sunny afternoon. In the evening we all hopped on the dinghy and went over to the port for a very good dinner (Gianfranco Zola was at the next table), followed by a moonlit trip back to Zaffina over an oily calm sea.
It was still calm at ghastly o'clock this morning when we had to get up as we wanted to get back to Olbia in good time for Bob and Janet to get the ferry back to Italy, and we were one of the few boats out and about at that time. As we approached the town, a solitary dolphin slowly turned through the water but, alone at the helm, I was the only one to see it.
We dropped out guests off after a fabulous, laughter filled week together, and headed back to Tavolara (the island which looks like Gibraltar) but after an hour or so there, we were so fed up with the amount of wake being generated by day trip boats and small craft that we moved back to the anchorage we were in last night and were relieved to find it almost empty.
We've had another brilliant day but now there's a bit of wind come up from the southeast which is coming straight in here so we're off again, and when we find somewhere suitably sheltered we'll drop anchor for our last night at sea for a while; tomorrow is cleaning, washing and packing day and then on Tuesday we're heading home for a couple of weeks.
Our search for a peaceful anchorage took us back northwards and we spent the day anchored off Taverna but our frequent checks of the forecast told us that we'd need somewhere more sheltered for the night if we wanted peace, and so we ended up back in a familiar spot, Cannigione - a small town and marina set deep into a winding inlet north of Porto Cervo. Although we'd anchored near the marina in the past, this time we opted to pick up a buoy, much to the disgust of a small and noisy seabird which had made it his perch and shrieked at us to go away! He eventually conceded that we were bigger and flew off in disgust as the marineros helped us to tie up and warned us that we were in for a blow over the next couple of days. We had hoped to go out to the Madalenas the next day but sure enough, the wind was rising and instead we just moved into the nearby port where we had managed to book a berth for two nights. With no hope of going out to sea, instead we hired a car and saw a bit of Sardinia from the road, driving back to the north coast one day and down to Porto Cervo - home of the really big boats - the next. And boy were they big! Dilbar is even more impressive up close than she was when we passed her on the water, and there were several other super super yachts alongside her.
When eventually we managed to find beaches - they seem to be accessed from roads and tracks without signposts! - it invariably clouded over five minutes after our arrival and we even had a downpour of rain on Friday afternoon, our first proper rainfall for six weeks! Fortunately it passed quickly and by the time the skies cleared, the wind had also blown itself out and things were set fair for a final full day on the water with Bob and Janet.
Again, we hoped to get over to Madalena and again the wind prevented us from doing so, but the anchorage we found, south of Olbia, more than made up for any disappointment. We were tucked into a sheltered bay divided into several coves, very close to Puntadias, and had a glorious, lazy, sunny afternoon. In the evening we all hopped on the dinghy and went over to the port for a very good dinner (Gianfranco Zola was at the next table), followed by a moonlit trip back to Zaffina over an oily calm sea.
It was still calm at ghastly o'clock this morning when we had to get up as we wanted to get back to Olbia in good time for Bob and Janet to get the ferry back to Italy, and we were one of the few boats out and about at that time. As we approached the town, a solitary dolphin slowly turned through the water but, alone at the helm, I was the only one to see it.
We dropped out guests off after a fabulous, laughter filled week together, and headed back to Tavolara (the island which looks like Gibraltar) but after an hour or so there, we were so fed up with the amount of wake being generated by day trip boats and small craft that we moved back to the anchorage we were in last night and were relieved to find it almost empty.
We've had another brilliant day but now there's a bit of wind come up from the southeast which is coming straight in here so we're off again, and when we find somewhere suitably sheltered we'll drop anchor for our last night at sea for a while; tomorrow is cleaning, washing and packing day and then on Tuesday we're heading home for a couple of weeks.
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