Where are you, Mediterranean Spring...?

14.04.2018

Approaching castelsardo

After 2 days of NE 28-32kn we were able to leave Stintino, Portu Mannu,  just during a lull in the strong wind. We had a great sail to Castelsardo averaging around 7kn (quite a lot for ER). When we arrived in Castelsardo there was too much wind to moor on the visitors’ pontoon, so we were instructed to moor ‘a l’Inglese' at the T-end of a quay.

medieval passage

Castelsardo is a very attractive town with an important and imposing medieval castle and surrounding settlements dating back to 1022 and the influential Genovese Doria family. The castle was the Castel Genovese to start with, became the Castel Arragonese when the Spanish conquered it, and finished as Castelsardo when it became Italian.

After 2days of walking and letting yet another unhelpful adverse strong wind pass, we made it to the Isola Rossa Marina on our intended way towards Santa Teresa Di Gallura and La Maddalena Archipelago. Isola Rossa bears it’s name after the striking pink granite that can be seen from afar.

Marina di Isola Rossa

We were very fortunate that at the time of mooring the wind had completely dropped and we managed an elegant mooring manoeuvre by leaning against an already moored boat while sorting out the dead bodies (‘corp mort’, lazy lines) at the bow and  tied up stern-to to the pontoon. I don’t know whether we mentioned that the skipper insisted to have a passerelle to get off the boat in this way. It proved very important indeed. But more about the need for it later.

quiet evening Isola Rossa

Marineda anchorage

The next day we explored the surrounding bay and imagined being anchored amongst the stunning pink granite rock formations and turquoise water in the summer…(the air temperature hasn’t exceeded 17ºC yet) The walk was particularly interesting by coming close to some of the indigenous flora. As so often, beautiful landscapes are ‘adorned’ by holiday developments. It has to be said that these houses did fit into the area by mirroring the reddish colour of the the rocks and were only in bungalow height. 

Mimosa tree

Isola Rossa and most of the surrounding developments are really holiday homes…everything was literally closed, supermarket to open end of April with some restaurants open now and waiting for their first customers.

the new passerelle

We hope we will be able to leave on Monday (16.4.2018). Today and tomorrow we are expecting another gale from the NE with gusts up to 40 knots. After arranging the mooring lines to prevent the stern hitting the stone pier, we really needed the passerelle to get off the boat (the skipper is (mostly) right :-)).