Tuesday 17 September 2019

Our Pass for the National Park has now expired, so we decided to leave rather than either renewing it or risking being caught. We slipped away from our mooring buoy at mid morning, slightly relieved that the yacht that had been moored to the nearest had already left.  We had been very close together overnight when I had checked, sufficient that I had shortened our mooring lines to prevent us from actually touching.  The things that you end up doing in the middle of the night.

Initially the wind was barley enough to sail, but we persevered and were rewarded by the breeze filling in and the speed increasing as a result.

We came past Porto Cuevo and the Costa Smerelda, the playground of the super-rich, but decided that we would not go into the port, even just to look around.  The pages of sailing social media are full of tales of mere mortals being turned away.   In nearby bays there were yachts of all shapes and sizes moored. One, reasonably size ship was playing music that we could hear from 2 miles away. We have also read that the bays near the big ports are just as busy as the ports themselves, with ribs and jet skis rushing about to entertain or deliver the guests.

We were treated to the sight of a large beautiful sailing yacht passing close to us.  There seemed to be only 2 or 3 people visible on deck, of what must have been a 50 metre yacht.

Eventually we have arrived at Golfo di Marinelli, a gloriously deserted bay, back on the mainland of Sardinia.  The Maddalenas National park is behind us, and we will now be heading south down the eastern side of the island.

Distance covered today	20.0	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	220.0	nautical miles
Distance covered 2019	1273.0	nautical miles

Steve (and Tricia)