7 – from Corsica to Sardinia

Weeks 7-8 from Corsica to Sardinia

We took our time coming down the west coast, with stops at the Sanguinaires, a wild beach with great waves for bodyboarding (rolly night though) next to Porto Pollo and a few others. Then, three nights moored with a view up to the old town of Bonifacio, in a little bay with a sandy beach at the far end – what a spot, just what sailors dream of. That is, once we managed to attach ourselves to the wall and the line… it took us over 1 hour!

The cliffs and views are extraordinary in that area and with our dinghy we could go quite far to see great creeks, caves (access to the most famous one was unfortunately forbidden), and beaches. And more jelly fish…

We didn’t see much of the inland but will catch up on that another time. We consider Corsica is close enough to come back to “any time”.

Before crossing to Sardinia, we had a last stop at the Lavezzi Islands. We arrived late afternoon, after the day trippers had left. Stunningly beautiful – stupidly though we forgot all kinds of cameras, phones when we went on shore. And no jelly fish so swimming was wonderful! The next morning after school, we set off on a hike and when we returned, we were in a hurry to leave by lunchtime: the island was an ant heap of day tourists that had arrived by excursion boat. Motorboats and yachts had squeezed themselves like sardines into the bay we were anchored. Well, I suppose nice spots you’ll never have to yourself.

Crossing our first border at sail was thrilling. Alexander flew the Italian flag on our way to the Maddalena archipelago off the northeast coast of Sardinia. We had a few nice anchorages, snorkelling and strolls on shore along the way to Olbia, where JL left by plane for a few days for work last Saturday, leaving us anchored in the bay in front of the inner harbour of Olbia. So then I had to learn to drive the dinghy and put on the engine myself – although, not really needed as the boys are extremely good at it! An excursion by public transport to one of the Nuraghe sites, sightseeing in Olbia and an archaeological museum, as well as shopping, boat schooling, pizza, tidying the boat, laundry and walking have been our programme in the meantime. We also started daily Italian lessons!

A presto!