Tuesday 24 September 2019

Tricia’s Birthday!

Time for us to move on, and undertake one of the larger steps south down Sardinia.  We set off with a strong cross wind still blowing us in the marina, which made the exit rather difficult.  We were being pinned against a tourist boat, which had much higher sides than us, and its fenders were set to hold off other boats of the same size.  They were a menace to us.

Once clear, we had a nice wind, coming from behind us most of the way, and we ate up the miles.  

Our plan was to stop for the night in a bay about half way to Arbatax. The wind was forecast to be from the west to north west and die away during the night.  We anchored for lunch and settled to what we hoped would be a peaceful stopover. Unfortunately, the wind did not do what the forecast had predicted, continuing to blow from the south east, straight into the bay.  It also caused an unpleasant chop to the water and showed no sign of abating.  So by 16:00 we had decided that we were not happy to stay and telephoned the nearest point of refuge, Gonone, which was about 12 miles away. They had a place for us, and so we set off as quickly as we could, arriving by 6:30. 

We were not keen on Gonone.  There are some sort of caves nearby and the place is full of day trip boats, and the largest collection of ribs for charter that I have ever seen.  The facilities in the marina were not great, and the marinaros were more than assertive in their instructions of where and how we should moor.  We duly got into a reasonable space between other yachts and a large day trip boat, when another yacht came, and the marinaros told them to nose into the gap between us and the pleasure boat, forcing the gap open.  It worked, but we were not happy about it.  The German couple on the incoming boat also didn’t look best pleased, but seemed to appreciate our efforts to open the gap and fend them off as they came in.

I don’t think we will be staying long.

Distance covered today	34.0	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	292.0	nautical miles
Distance covered 2019	1345.0	nautical miles

Steve (and Tricia)