8 – in Sardinia, part II

Week 9-10 – Sardinia part II

JL found us back after his trip to Switzerland in a rather desperate state to go for a swim. Frustrating to be all this time on the water, at extremely high temperatures, but not being able to refresh yourself in the sea – or rather, it is not very inviting and probably not recommended in the bay of Olbia…

We headed off south 10 miles, anchored and looked for a cargo sunk in 1974 to snorkel over in the next bay – absolutely thrilling experience. Luckily, we found it: it was indicated as a partially emerging wreck, but it must have collapsed within the last year, so it was hard to locate! Wonderful sealife – check out the boy’s articles.

The next great spot was 2 nights in the small harbour of Cala Gonone (there was an important swell, so glad the harbour had a place) and then at the famous Cala Luna. Fact: it is stunningly beautiful, (again) once the day trippers and motorboats have left! We had to experience that day, that it’s not easy to get back on the boat from the dingy when the waves are too high – while the dinghy bounces, the back of the boat bounces even more on the waves, but not at the same time… a little scary: the dinghy could get trapped under the hull of Illika! ! Finally there were 5 sailing boats anchored and we had a beautiful and calm wake up the next morning.

We had some beautiful sailing along the quite untouched East Coast, then we landed in the bay of Arbatax where we rented a car to go inland for a day. So many curves, very mountainous, cows and pigs on the road, more nuraghe and typical villages (more or less picturesque). Then we forced it a little with a very long sail down south with only one stop before arriving in Cagliari. What a great town! We were berthed in one of the private (cheaper) marinas with 1,5 km to walk to the centre. But the walks were worth it, and on Monday we had a last perfectly authentic Sardinian meal and a few glasses of Vermentino the evening before crossing to Tunisia. The weather window we had chosen turned out to be absolutely perfect for crossing!

By the way, did you know that we’ve changed our plans again and are not on the way to Greece? We’ll come back to that shortly!