Sardegna

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.

Barcelona Photos

Sam got up close and personal with a well balanced street artist. We took Pam up a steep hill to Parc Guell, but from the photo, she seemed to manage the climb quite well!

We went to various Gaudi exhibits/locations - are we quite sure he wasn't nuts?

We also bumped into an exhibition of Rodin's work, although I couldn't bring myself to photograph the "Thinker" - doesn't seem natural.

....phew, Barcelona - just!!

We made it!!

Didn't enjoy the bout of wind! Made it to Barcelona though, and met with Jill and John. Pam flies in today (23 Dec)so off to the airport now.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All.


Email addresses below:

tim dot whitehouse at yahoo dot co dot uk (spelled so that the nasty "bots" can't get me loads of junk mail)

sam dot pollard at yahoo dot co dot uk

Gibraltar

Gibraltar….and its straits. Overnight sail from Cadiz which was well timed but we still found ourselves in, what can only be described as a ‘washing machine’. The straits are very deep but the Med tries to leave twice a day through them! In other words we found some interesting currents….underwear wasn’t needed or was very wet for this passage!

On the rock itself we decided to climb to the top via the Mediterranean Steps which took between 3 – 4 hours and was quite onerous. On the way up we were overtaken by Elvis and some groupies who were doing the climb everyday for 12 days for charity uh huh. At the summit were the famous apes who were sooooo cute and photogenic

Gib is more British than Britain although they do drive on the wrong side of the road. Shop hours are just like home, no siestas and lots of fish and chip shops. It is hard to imagine fitting more bars and pubs into a small space – what a shame Tim has given up alcohol for a week (tee hee)

Cadiz

Cadiz, now you’re talking….we likened it to Venice (minus the gondolas and waterways) as it was a maze of narrow cobbled streets and tall buildings, many of which were merchant houses and as seen in some of the photos. The layout of a typical merchant house was ground floor for entry and courtyard, first floor mezzanine with lower ceilings for work and higher floors above were for living and finally the tower on the top to watch ‘your’ ships coming home. Cadiz had 160 towers at one point and a restriction was placed on building new ones! (only 126 remain).

The Cathedral took from 1722 to 1853 to complete, so any building delays you might have suffered are minor in comparison. Buildings around the cathedral were demolished so as not to detract from the impression of size and space. Near the Cathedral we discovered a Roman Theatre which was equally impressive in a different way.

The market was in a temporary building, but its content was superb. We shopped there as often as we could, the only drawback being the 25 min walk back to Lusty Wench.

Chipiona

Chipiona was quite a delightful seaside town and we stayed here about 4 nights which were spent on a marina as there wasn’t an alternative….also enjoyed the luxury of constant hot water, everlasting electricity and stepping off the boat rather than boarding Bernard…..bliss

Ayamonte

>Having reluctantly left the towns of Alcoutim and Sanlucar 18 miles up the river Guadiana we stopped off in Ayamonte at the mouth of the river. We spent about 10 days here and did the old exploring thing when we were lucky enough to be able to moor our dinghy (Bernard).

We found the marina didn’t really want us landing there so we tried the public steps opposite and came back one time just soon enough to prevent a thief pinching Bernard…..Tim was soooo manly and had a colourful command of Anglo-Saxon….need we say more?