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Monday 17 May 2010

Cagliari

We are stuck in Marine del Sole by incessant gale force winds, and it looks like we'll be here for a week while we prepare for Tunisia

Sardinia

It had started to rain shortly after we arrived in Calasetta, and our first impressions were that it had little to offer us except a pizzeria that wasn't serving pizza. But we turned out to be wrong: our first foray had been during the siesta and, as we were to discover, the people everywhere were warm and friendly. The local policeman gave the impression of stern authority in his uniform, but the frostiness melted away at the sight of our little blonde girls and he blew them a kiss as he drove past. In fact their blondness in this town drew a lot of attention and the occasional affectionate caress from the elder ladies. After finally warming up to speaking Spanish, it's frustrating to barely have a single Italian word between us, but the staff and customers in the laundrette didn't mind and so commenced a group discussion of our laundry requirements! They embraced us as their own, and couldn't have been friendlier. Maybe if we had siestas in Britain we'd be a much friendlier place too.

After replenishing some supplies, the sails finally saw the light of day, and reaching 7.1 knots at one point, we sailed to Carloforte on Isola St Pietro (distance 4 Nm). We found ourselves in the company of some rather large catamarans and ships, and it was a nice place to relax for an evening. Being saturday night, the local population were out and about enjoying the warm dry evening. The atmosphere was lively and it was good for us to stretch our legs after the long journey followed by a day of rain. I later read in the guidebook that Carloforte is famous for its tuna (apparently they have tuna massacres at this time of year, which attract the more curious tourists) but we dined on their finest pizza instead.

Carloforte

The next day we set forth south only to find ourselves battling into a Force 6/7 wind and rough sea, so our plans were quickly altered to the nearest sheltered bay. This gave us a much more pleasant afternoon on the beach and by evening the wind had died to nothing and the sea was glassy smooth again.

A well-earned swim

Trip to the beach

The next morning we set off after breakfast so as not to give the wind a chance to pick up, and travelled 22 miles south along the coast to Porto Pino. This is apparently a popular day trip destination during the summer, but the day we were there it was almost deserted - deserted apart from Pepe the (presumed) homeless puppy who decided to spend the day with us, including sitting with us at lunch and then again on the beach. At first his presence wasn't welcomed by the girls, especially Maggie, but slowly Isla became fond of him, and was sorry to leave him when we returned to the boat. We could hear his pained cries across the water, sound travels too well. Excitingly the dunes here yielded the girls' first pirate treasure, some suitably aged Lira!

Colin finds a way of entertaining both the girls simultaneously, and exercise for himself

Ciao Pepe, a sad goodbye for both parties

Our course and the sea the next day gave the boat an uncomfortable motion, and as we travelled round the coast towards Cagliari the grandparents and youngest crewmember succumbed to its cruel effects. We all felt the relief as we finally anchored in Malfotano, a beautiful sheltered bay. With a policeman and diver in attendance we mistook an archaeological dig for a crime scene! We didn't manage to find out if they had discovered anything significant, such is the hinderance of our pitiful Italian. Once everyone was feeling better we climbed up to an old watch tower built high on the cliff, and were rewarded with fabulous picture postcard views. Then it was back to the beach for the girls to get well and truly sandy. Our pirate booty at this beach was an unfortunate tourist's camera, which we tried to find the owners of so far without success but we have some leads...

Tranquil Malfotano

The walk up to the watchtower



Grandpa builds the girls a magnificent sandcastle...

...which Maggie contemplates whether she should stand on (she didn't!)

We moved on again the next morning on calmer waters to Nora, which was the largest Roman city in Sardinia. This is where Grandparents Sing left us for the safety of a stationary hotel room and (hopefully) an easy bus journey to Cagliari airport.

Blooming Nora

Roman ruins


Maggie runs down a Very Old Road (complete with Roman sewer)

Nothing tastes as good as pocket money ice creams

All gone, and sticky hands to prove it


The onward journey from Nora saw us picking our way through some of the giants of the sea, a crowd of oil tankers anchored off Sarroch awaiting refill, to reach Cagliari. We are safely tied up in Marina del Sole, Calgliari, having seen nothing of our surroundings so far due to a day of constant heavy rain spent watching films on the laptop. We even had to dig the heater back out of storage again, when is summer really going to begin??! We happened to spot a flock of flamingos flying overhead which gives an enticing glimpse into what we may discover when the weather clears.

Friday 7 May 2010

Adios Menorca, Buon Giorno Sardinia!

Just a quick entry to say that we have arrived in Sardinia safe and sound.

We left Mahon at 0430 Thursday and arrived Calasetta, on Isola di Sant Antioco, at 1243 Friday. The crossing was pretty rough at times - the weather was worse than forecast, and there were some waves which we couldn't see out of. Thankfully all this improved for the overnight shifts which were surprisingly pleasant, with a sky full of a billion stars and the wake full of dancing phosphorescence.

Unfortunately Isla fared the worst, suffering sea sickness intermittently throughout the journey. Conversely Maggie was almost endlessly sunny and bright.

217 nautical miles and 32 hours later we're tied up in a glassy smooth harbour, with Grandparents Sing on board, looking forward to some well earned sleep.

Tuesday 4 May 2010

What is this?


Does anyone know, or can find out, what this is? It was floating through the shallow water at Formentor, Mallorca, amongst the jellyfish, and bits of it appeared to be breaking off.

Wild and stormy in Mahon

Just had our stormiest night yet on the boat, a humbling experience which really brought home the power of mother nature, and which we thankfully experienced in the safety of a harbour.

We knew there was a storm brewing and so postponed our departure for Sardinia. We'd prepared ourselves for the expected 30 knot winds by bringing down the bimini, which we'd almost lost last time there was a storm in Pollensa, and Colin moved the boat from alongside to bow to and well off the pontoon.

We were woken up at 4am with the wind howling, rain lashing and lightning flashes, with the bow and stern lines jerking us forward and aft. The noise was incredible. Colin was up for 2 hours keeping watch. The wind instrument reading peaked at 53 knots, with sustained periods around 50 knots (Force 10!). The town blacked out with a power cut for a while and it was generally pretty fierce.

We were lucky to suffer only minimal damage, a snapped (and lost) flagpole and a burnt out wind generator. Some others in the harbour were not so lucky. One boat was holed by repeatedly bashing against the concrete harbour wall, and the neighbouring boat to us which was on a mooring buoy rather than the pontoon slipped its mooring and travelled half the length of the harbour til it hit an island further out. Wandering through the marina today there were obviously a lot of boats which had taken a beating too. Tonight the water is flat calm, and the wind instrument reads 0.0. Hopefully we'll sleep a bit better tonight. (By the way, the girls slept through the entire storm!).

Monday 3 May 2010

View of Mahon from pontoon

19 April - 3 May, Mallorca and Menorca

The 5 days following our last entry were spent in Puerto Pollensa relaxing and getting stocked up for our trip to Menorca. There were a couple of wet and windy days, one particularly wet day when there wasn't much to do except take shelter in the nearest cafe and consume, consume, consume! Fortunately we were so familiar to the waiters, having been regularly since we arrived, that the free biscuits for the girls were flowing once more.

The weather got wilder still, and we spent the night listening to the wind tear at the bimini. Fortunately it more or less stayed in place with a little fixing by Colin, and the anchor held firm. The next morning, as the wind instrument reading hit 49 knots and promptly stopped working, we moved into the marina.

With Jenny/Granny, (Uncle) Robin and Luke finally on board, we spent another night at anchor in Formentor before setting off in flat calm waters to Menorca which has been an absolute pleasure and the ideal place to relax for a week.


Formentor jellyfish

Ciutadella was our first port of call, located on the West Coast. This is the island's second main town which was the capital until 1722, when the British moved it to Mahon on the east coast. The harbour has a narrow entrance and uses a traffic light system to allow boats to come and go around the ferry timetable. This was policed by a port official who clearly enjoyed his job, razzing around in a rib. We opted to anchor in the first bay at the entrance to the harbour.

View from Ciutadella anchorage

A 15 minute walk, making the most of Maggie's new wheels, found us in Ciutadella's historic centre, where we met Colin, Jenny and Isla who had arrived more stylishly by tender. The central square, the Placa des Born, is impressive and elegant, with the town hall and 19th Century palaces, theatre and other buildings, making it a great spot for ice creams and lunch. The network of surrounding streets were pleasant to wander around.

Placa des Born, Ciutadella
Later the same day, while some of us slept off our 3-course lunch, we moved round to the south of the island and the delightful Calas Macarella and Macarelleta. With our shallow draft we opted to anchor in the smaller cove. The natural beauty of this spot is absolutely idyllic: shallow, turquoise waters, golden sands and pine trees, the rocky coastline providing privacy and shelter from the rest of the world. How pleased we were with our good fortune at finding no one else anchored here and with bow and stern anchors secured, set about the important task of relaxing. The guide book states that 'many people consider this one of the most perfect spots on the Menorcan coast', and I think we'd all agree. In fact, Colin and I would go further to add the whole of the Balearics. And judging by what happened the next day, film crews would agree too...

A walk around to Macarella allowed us to take in the beauty of our surroundings. On our return to Macarelleta we discovered that we had in fact anchored on a nudist beach, and our presence was probably a bit disappointing to the sole nudie who had taken up a discreet position towards the back of the beach. Planning to spend the day here (clothed!), Robin dug a deep paddling pool in the sand and Colin swam back to Skyran for supplies. However it wasn't to last: a rib arrived with a polite crew onboard who explained that they were intending to use the beach to film a commercial for Estrella beer (keep an eye for it Eck), and would we mind moving ourselves and our boat? It seemed churlish not to move, and the free chilled beers went down well. We were then replaced in the bay by a beautiful classic sailing yacht with an equally beautiful crew going ashore to stage a beach party and could pretty much understand why they wanted us out of their shot!

Macarelleta before the film crew arrived

Isla makes a natural bow sprit

We made a couple of excurions in the dinghy to the next bay, Cala Galdana, for ice creams, supplies and for the children to play in the parks. This is tourist central, with a huge hotel at its centre visible from 10km away. It's a shame that it has become so overdeveloped, it overwhelms what was obviously once a spectacular bay. But then that's tourism - to quote our guidebook there were 6,000 visitors in the 1950s and 1.1 million in 1990, and they all need somewhere to stay.

Onwards from Macarella we anchored in another bay, Calascoves. This is famous for having prehistoric burial chambers cut into the rocks. This was a tight spot for anchoring, and required a line to hold us on the rocks as well as our anchor.

Calascoves

Mini crew

After another peaceful night (this was a spell of calm settled weather) we took a wander about the cove then headed to Mahon, stopping en route on the Isla de L'Aire, famous for its black lizards, which are unique to this small island. Luke couldn't believe his luck for spotting so many 'dinosaurs' and spent a lot of time feeding them foliage. A LOT of time, as there are so many and they don't seem to mind people. Still we managed to coax him up to the lighthouse for a good photo opportunity.

I. del Aire lizard

Our arrival in Mahon exceeded any expectations we previously had. The natural harbour is impressive. It has a heavily fortified entrance, reflecting the turbulent history it has seen, having been ruled by Spain, France and Britain since the 18th Century. Further on there are small bays, with holiday homes, and finally on reaching the city, the buildings cling to the cliffs.

We dropped anchor in the shade of the old British hospital on a small island in the harbour, only to be joined by Alain from Ocibar, informing us that we would most likely be moved on by the port authorities and that he could offer us a reasonably priced berth on the floating pontoons at S'Altra Banda. At first sceptical, we couldn't help but be charmed by his courteous approach and on further inspection accepted the invitation. Besides, none of us was thrilled at anchoring in 15 metres depth in a busy shipping harbour, regardless of what the chart said about it being a safe anchorage. This turned out to be a very good move. We are staying in the company of the most helpful people. Not only have they been delivering us regular weather forecasts but they even offered to take our laundry home with them to do as the launderettes were closed over the May Day holiday weekend. We've enjoyed clear views over the old town and the journey across the harbour to town in the dinghy is short and painless.

Mahon has something for everyone in our crew, whether it's the lovely shops to wander amongst for some light retail relief, to the squares with pigeons for the children to chase, and the delicious bakeries with enormous pastries (does that make us easy to please?!).

Nemo the mermaid

The final day with Jenny, Robin and Luke was spent in a hire car exploring the island. It's good to have a change of scene and explore inland. And what a lot there is to see too, for such a small island (only 53km from east to west). We managed to squeeze in the Fornells watch tower, an impressive Bronze age burial chamber known as the Naveta des Tudons, and the highest viewpoint on the island, Monte Toro (though in the mist of cloud we could see very little), before we dropped Jenny, Rob and Luke at the airport for their connecting flight to Palma. After saying our sad goodbyes, we still had a bit of time left with the car to visit the Talayotic settlement of Trepuco and Fort Marlborough, part of the network of British defenses from the 18th Century.


Naveta des Tudons Bronze Age burial chamber

Trepuco

Fornells watch tower
The children were given free books about the various produce on the island issued by the tourist council. These proved popular and in one case unintentionally entertaining for Colin and I - the Menorcan meat book contains a phrase probably not often found in children's books "It looks like a party... look it's a slaughtering"!

And so now it's time for us to leave the Balearics and head east south east to Sardinia, to meet with Grandma and Grandpa Sing who are already there. Our first intended departure has been delayed due to forecasts for gales. Hopefully we'll be there by the end of the week.

Sunday 2 May 2010

We love Menorca

Very quick entry this time to say we've had a great week with some of Colin's family, discovering the gem that is Menorca. We found the most beautiful anchorage which we congratulated ourselves on and had hoped to keep to ourselves until a film crew turned up to film a beer commercial there! We've spent a few days in Mahon, and are about to head east once again, destination Sardinia...


Stunning Cala Macarelleta