Sardinia (or Sardegna, as the locals would have it) is enjoying a typical January. Well, I assume it is typical. The temperature, although nice for January, is brought down whenever we are brave enough to stick our heads above the parapet, by the strong winds. We spent one night getting a severe bashing from a wind that was not coming from the right direction. I mean that it was forecast to be East, and came stomping in from the North, there was a two mile “fetch”, so the waves had time to get to an uncomfortable size. We did drag anchor (not the first time), but managed to get a decent bite after letting more chain out. I guess that the problem with winter, is that you have to spend it somewhere and given that we did not want to go back to the Caribbean, the choice was limited.
We moved a few miles back to the West, and have tucked ourselves just as far into a bay as we dare, so much so that there is barely room to swing round on the anchor chain. We did touch the bottom last night, but after we hauled a bit more anchor chain back in, we were missing whatever it was, rock by the sound of it!
Writing this, I realise how much of our current lifestyle is governed by that lump of metal called an anchor, and the stuff attached to it. In simple terms for those that don’t know, the boat holds itself on the anchor, and can swing a full circle, with the anchor at the centre, depending on which direction the wind blows from. To get a safe hold, you pay out chain until you have five times the depth of water. Finally, because all but the extremely alert are nearly asleep, you “snub” the anchor by attaching a hook on a rope to the chain and then using that to take the strain, believe me, when it is blowing twenty knots, there is a strain. The rope stretches, where chain will not, and that helps to avoid pulling the anchor from its spot on the bottom.
When we were in Falmouth, the Harbourmaster approached us in his small boat, just as we were climbing into the dinghy. It was blowing twenty knots, and had the potential to be “lively”.
“Are you going ashore, Sir?”
“Yes”
“In this?”
“Yes”
“And all you’ve got it anchor, chain and warp?”
“Yes”
“I hope you’re insured!”
More worrying was the fact that at that time, we weren’t. I was nervous about the boat all day, returning to the quay two or three times to make sure we weren’t dragging. Just to make sure that we were paying attention, we spent the last eight days of January stuck on Lusty Wench with two anchors out, each with over fifty metres of rode. We held, but couldn’t get ashore, gusts were over forty knots, which is enough in most circumstances!!
So we find ourselves stuck on the boat in a bay called Liscia, waiting for the wind to drop a bit, so we can get ashore to take a walk. The bigger plan is to head back to Palau, from where we could rent a car, or catch a bus so that we can see a bit more of the island. We would like to see some of the archaeological sites, of which we believe there are quite a few. Besides, being boatbound for anything over twenty four hours makes the space that we normally find quite adequate, much smaller!
Sardegna is the second largest island in the Med, and we also hope to make it to the largest. From here we will probably head for Corsica, mainland Italy, and then Sicily. Not too sure about the timescale for that.
The photos in this post are mainly from Barcelona, we'll add some sardegna photos to the next post.
The Roman Bridge in Torres, they clearly didn't want the surface wearing out too quickly! Nearby, on the side of the road (admittedly fenced off) there were the remains of the Roman baths. Mosaic all over the option! More modern were the iron smelters. I thinks they would have stolen the stone from the bridge, but it has clearly been in use until relatively recently - much of it is still tarmaced.
