The plan was to get up fairly early and make a start to Sardinia before
bad weather set in. But it did not
work out like that. We were woken
by a huge thunderstorm at 6:00am.
It lasted a long time and the rain was very heavy. The Straits of Bonifacio, the water
lying between Corsica and Sardinia are said to be the most treacherous waters
in Europe. So we were not keen on
crossing through them in thunderstorms.
We turned over and went back to sleep, but when we got up just after
8:00, it was still raining and there was thunder. So we decided to wait and see. In the meantime I had a big bag of laundry piling up, so we
decided to use the morning to do a couple of loads. That all finished just before noon, when the sky cleared and
the wind seemed to drop. So we
quickly made sandwiches for lunch under way and set off.
As we set off we did not know what to expect, but the weather forecast
was for a south-westerly wind of between force 4 and 5. Well, it was not that bad and the wind was in the
East. With such unreliable
forecasts, we don’t know what to do.
In the end we had a ripping sail.
Most of the time we were on a reach with a force 4-5 breeze and doing 7
knots. The wind got up to 20
knots, so we took a reef in near the end, but that didn’t slow us down. The sea was biggish with waves up to
one and a half metres, but they were on the beam and the boat took them well.
So we sailed to Maddalena Island.
It is part of an archipelago off the Sardinian mainland, which is also a
nature reserve. The marina is nice
and very reasonable. The town is
sweet and with plenty of shops where we can provision. We would leave tomorrow, if the weather
was OK, but it is predicted to rain heavily, so we may be here for a day or
two. Not a bad place to be stuck
in. To explore the islands we will
have to buy a special pass, but that will also be fine.
So, dodging showers we searched the town and then came back to the boat
for dinner.
No comments:
Post a Comment