Escape from Alghero...07.04.2018

It has been over two weeks now since we last posted news from Easy Rider. Bear with us, this one will be a bit longer than usual.

Not only did we have bad weather at first. Many small things needed to be looked at at the beginning of the season: our wind indicator in our brand new B&G navigation system decided not to work any more. Our engine, when we wanted to test it, would not start, and when Stephan pulled al

leaving Alghero

l the batteries together and the engine started, it would not switch off! It took Stephan some ingenuity to make it stop in the end. I must say that all the engineers that Fabricio rounded up (when they finally came) were really excellent, swift to diagnose and efficient to put the problem right. They shrugged their shoulders and said: queste barche, sempre quall’cosa (always something wrong with these boats)!

Palm Sunday in Alghero

Then Easter came. The only procession that we saw was that of Palm Sunday. We left just before Good Friday to go to Hamburg to spend Stephan’s brother Michael’s 80th birthday with the family. It was lovely to see and celebrate with all 3 generations. April in Hamburg started with temperatures of 3-4ºC (-2ºC at night) and snow showers. It certainly had to be better in Alghero!

When we returned, we were told that there had been another storm, a sort of tornado that hit Alghero while we were away. Easy Rider’s mooring line (fortunately not ours but the harbour’s) broke and our boat hit our neighbour’s boat, damaging only our toe rail. Apparently it blew 58kn (F11) in the harbour!

rounding Capo Caccia

We finally escaped Alghero on the 5th of April, late afternoon to a gorgeous anchorage in Porto Conte, well sheltered from the northwesterly wind.  Cala del Bollo (40º34’.7N 08º 10’E) is tucked just behind the prominent Capo Caccia that rises 200m perpendicularly from the sea. Even in calm weather the swell still managed to enter the anchorage but it (almost) didn’t matter. The important thing for us is that we were positively underway.

Just as we were ready to leave our anchorage we were stopped by the Guardia Finanza on their fast RIB for a thorough check: passports, original boat registration, vessel and personal indemnity insurance, certificate of competence etc. After ~30 plus minutes a very nice smiling officer returned our folder commenting on the content as being ‘tutto benissimo’ and wished us a nice onward travel.

seas in the Fornelli Passage

We had chosen the first really calm day to sail 37M to Stintino. With very little wind from the north, we managed to stay very close to the cliffs and explore every little anchorage along this very inhospitable stretch of coast, where the sea becomes very wild during any strong Maestrale (NW) or Libeccio (SW) winds.

Cala Porticciolo, beautiful, tiny, unsafe anchorage

In the afternoon we sailed through the Fornelli Passage, a narrow and shallow stretch of water separating the Isola Asinara and the mainland. Here as well, you need calm weather to pass. The water was so intensely turquoise in places that it seemed unreal!

We arrived at Stintino (Porto Mannu) (40º 56’.26N 08º 13’.75E) late afternoon. There was no reply on the VHF and no one answered the phone numbers that we had, so we took the only free space that we saw. Being so early in the season, there is very little activity in the harbour and most resident or foreign overwintering vessels were occupying the visitors moorings.

The weather forecast has changed dramatically since we arrived. Today there is a gale F7 from the NE (Grecale)which is supposed to last a couple of days.

entrance to Stintino

As we have a lovely safe spot in the harbour, the sun is shining and we have a lot to do, we are happy to stay in this very pretty and friendly harbour.