The Voyages of Disco Volante: Sardinia

---

We loved our time in Sardinia. The has an interesting mix of both Italian and Catalan influenced food. And of course tons of seafood. Italy has been having lovely weather in October, so despite our concerns that Anna & Tom’s stay might be a cooler & rainy. (Basically what they had left behind in England…) luckily the weather gods were on our side and temperatures still between 24-31 degrees, with hardly any overcast days. The sea temperature is holding nicely too at a steady 26 degrees. So we have been swimming all through October.

We realised early on, that Italy is just not good for the waistband. Cakes, ice-cream, bread, cheese, pizza, pasta. You just can’t fight it! Normally most people go on holiday for a week or two and then eat salads when they get back, we’re going to be in Italy for almost two months – hopefully you will recognise us when we are back in December, pre-Thailand.

We are currently in Sicily (Yes I am a bit behind with the blogging again), and culturally Sardinia and Sicily couldn’t be more different. Sardinians are much more laid back, chatty, they speak excellent English on the whole. Men are much more pervy in Sicily! Sardinia also feels cleaner and more affluent.

Been drinking so much amazing wine here to – most regions seem to have their own wine variety – We have been enjoying sampling them all. Especially the whites, which are great in the heat. The most disappointing thing has been beers, we thought that Italian beer would be everywhere and super cheap, but most super markets stock German beers and if the stock Italian, there isn’t much choice and it’s overpriced. (Compared to Spain = cheap and great). And most amusingly cans of beer come in two packs – imagine how that would go down in UK! You struggle to find beers on draft in bars, it’s normally overpriced bottles or nothing. Much better to stick to wine, which costs as little as 3EURS for a litre. Even the cheap stuff in drinkable. Anyway it’s fair to say we are big fans of Sardinia! – lovely sailing, stunning coastline, great wine & food.



Wednesday 1^st October – Menorca to Sardinia (Alghero)

Distance: 190nm (30hrs)

We were up early to catch the early morning winds, we left our lovely little anchorage at 7:30am, just in time to catch sunrise. This was going to be our second longest ever sail and 100%!o(MISSING)ur longest couple sail. We took it in turns to have naps during the day, so we would be wide awake for our solo night shifts of between 2-3hrs, depending on how tired we were. For once the winds are with us and for the first 22 hours we were able to sail, with good winds meaning speeds of 6-8kts, not bad at all. Although the boat is leaning, it’s pretty stable at around 20 degrees, especially after mike used the water ballast system to its full effect. The night watches were uneventful apart from a fishing boat and another sailing yacht who passed us through the night. The stars were out in full force and the normal green glowing phosphorescence that you get in Disco’s wake. Finally had to put the engine on in the early hours of Thursday morning and then motored the rest of the way – it disturbed our sleep, as the engine is pretty much in our cabin, but we didn’t mind after our lovely sail through the night.



Thursday 2^nd October – Arrival into Alghero

We thought we would arrive in Sardinia early afternoon, so were very chuffed when we started to see land at around 9am. By 11am we were in Alghero bay and pootling about trying to find an anchorage for some Zzzzzzsssss. We found a tiny little bay with good shelter, but decided we weren’t so tired after all, so had a swim and chilled on deck during a lazy afternoon. Then it was an early night, whilst waiting for the Murleys (though Mike also just noted that when Anna gets married, she’ll be called “A Bus”) to arrive the next day.



Friday 3^rd October – Alghero (Ser Mar Marina)

We had pre-booked a nice little marina in Alghero, right in the heart of the town. It was a family run place and we had a nice spot right on the end of the pontoon. We had to do a lot of cleaning and washing before Anna & Tom arrived, which took most of the day, until they arrived at about 6pm. It had been 4 months seen we had last seen them, so we knew tonight would be a big one. As soon as we’d had some prosecco welcome drinks, we headed into town for dinner and drinks.

We started off in some kind of English pub, which served cheap cocktails on one of the lovely old cobbled streets. Then we headed to a restaurant which was mentioned in the rough guide. This was all of our first meal out in Sardinia and the food didn’t disappoint (Well apart from Tom’s lack lustre gnocchi – During the trip, Tom rather amusingly developed the habit of always ordering the wrong thing off the menu. The swordfish for which Sardinia is famous (topped with fresh cherry tomatoes, capers and olive oil – simple but delicious), Mike opted for pizza, which was amazing too. We had a nice bottle of Alghero’s locally produced white wine, which was also very good. It’s fair to say there aren’t many nightlife options in Alghero, so we headed to a lively looking bar next door. The boys had rather weak cocktails, but when Anna & I’s gins arrived they pretty much knocked our heads off! They were literally 75% gin / 25% tonic. The barmen even smirked as they delivered them. A knowing look passed between the barmen and the boys, clearly it is the Italian way to get girls more dunk than the boys, so they can have their wicked way more easily! After much sipping and exclaiming over the new invention of wrapping cold glasses in napkins, to stop your hand getting cold and wet I presume, we finally managed to drink the lethal gins. At this point I decide to head to the ladies. On the way back I am accosted by Salvo, the reputed bar owner. He speaks barely any English, but insists on buying me a drink, I accept, don’t want to seem rude to the bar owner do I?? I opt for a Limoncello as at least it’s small. How wrong could I be!!! A tumbler of the stuff turns up – no ice. I knock it back, promising I will be back the following night. He’s taking me clubbing in Rosario supposedly. Needless to say we avoided that place the next night.. I really should have brought my wedding ring away with me! (It is much needed in Italy!!!)

We head back to the boat to have our own party in the end, as we all fancy a dance and some decent music. Thank goodness we didn’t have any live aboard neighbours!



Saturday 4^th October – Alghero

This shall be known from now on as hangover day… Eek, we all had screaming hangovers. Finally managed to leave the boat, after some gentle sunbathing, about 4pm. Thankfully that coincided with the shops reopening after siesta (roughly 1230-1630 in Italy!!!), so off we trooped for groceries, wine top up and some hangover friendly yummy pizza slices in preparation for our sail to Asinara Island the next day.

Once the chores were out of the way, we headed out for a last meal in Alghero. As dictated by our delicate condition, we opted for pasta and pizza. Mike and I had THE most amazing Spaghetti carbanara, scattered with cubed pancetta and with a lovely eggwhite sauce, Anna had seafood spaghetti, and Tom’s sdeafood pizza came covered with mussels, but no tomato sauce base – clearly not the done thing when you pizza contains seafood???



Sunday 5^th October – Alghero to Arisina Islands

Distance: 40nm

Much improved after an early night and good sleep, we sailed off to an Island we had spotted in the Italian Waters guide. It was once a leper colony, then a high level Mafia prison until 1960, but most recently is a nature reserve. It was an 8hr sail and there was quite a tricky point between two islands where you had to follow a special course to avoid shallows & sand banks (You had to line the boat up with various posts on the land). We got the sails up and down quite a few times – getting out new crew up to speed ;-) We planned to pick up one of the paid-for mooring buoys once we got there, as anchoring is rightly prohibited. It’s clear it is off season as we can’t find another boat staying the night. We did pass a few yachts and motor boats in the channel, but that was it. We had a comedy moment as Mike decided on a rather unusual tactic for Tom to use to pick up the mooring buoy, it almost resulted in him either dislocating his shoulder or getting pulled in – won’t use that one again then!

Once we were settled we all jumped in for a swim, though windy outside, the water was like a bath! Just as we had got out inflatables in the water and were swimming around, the wardens came over to issue our ticket, they were most bemused to see us in the water – both of them were wearing jeans and puffa jackets, mildly amused by the Brits splashing around like it was August.

We had an epic BBQ onboard that night – Tom taking charge if the BBQ & the flameboy and doing an amazing job! We fell asleep to sounds of the islands wild donkey population, breying and hee-hawing like their life depended on it – BLISS.



Monday 6^th October – Arisina Islands to Castelsardo

Distance: 20nm

Wasps like beer – well we assumed this as the next morning, with most of the boat scattered with beer can empties, we were attacked.. First one wasp, then two, then ten… It got so bad we all abandoned ship and rowed quickly to shore to escape them and get rid of the wasp magnet beer cans! Alas the wasps followed and we have now renamed this rather pretty island – WASP ISLAND! They were everywhere, chasing us around and making a general nuisance of themselves. It wasn’t pleasant.

We did however manage to go on a short walk. We discovered a stunning swimming platform which we had all to ourselves, which you can imagine a) in summer & b) minus the wasps, would be a fab place to spend a day. The wasps finally got the better of us again though, even following us into the water, it was time to leave wasp island behind…

We set sail for the nearby marina/town of Castelsardo , which roughly translates as ‘Sardinian Castel’, nice! We arrived as it was getting dark, but a fellow sailor directed us in and took the ropes from us. The town looked very pretty, we were looking forward to exploring it the next day.



Tuesday 7^th October – Castelsardo

Distance: 0nm

We had a day for exploring the pretty little town. (Marina was just 19EUR a night for the 4 of us = winner). We had a VERY long climb up the hill into the old town & up to the castle. Well worth the sweaty climb though as they views were stunning, even if the medieval weaponry the boys were getting excited about, amounted to one trebuchet made of 2x4 & a large crossbow.

A cute little jack russel puppy adopted us on our way around the castle and walls and even when he got shoed away by an Italian caretaker, managed to find us again – with a massive waggy tail, though he soon became bored of our company once he had some lizards to chase. After all that effort we needed some pizza and beer refreshment and found a fab place with a terrace for a long and boozy lunch. Thank goodness it was downhill from the marina after that. In the afternoon we were in desperate need of a swim, so we took the boat out of the harbour and anchored off some rocks for a spot of snorkelling and swimming. Then it was back to town to meet up with Phil and Emily, who had just arrived in Sardinia. A proper Bristol reunion! Much wine later, we headed back to our pizza place for round two – well the wine was only 6EUR a litre!! So pizza #2 of the day was consumed rather easily – along with some very ‘interesting’ rose wine. When we asked the waiter if he had any rose, he gave us a quizzical look, then looked like a lightbulb had gone off in his brain and replied – yes of course! So that was our first taste of red wine and white wine mixed together – must remember that if I ever run out of rose at a dinner party! COMEDY.



Wednesday 8^th October – Castelsardo to Maddalena archipelago, Costa Smeralda

Distance: 40nm

Phil & Emily stayed over on the boat in the saloon. Disco was at full capacity as we headed on a none-to-shabby 40 mile sail to the Maddalena Islands. We were a little tender after the rose/red/white combo, and with sails up the boat was at full tilt. Gratefully we arrived just before nightfall, into a pretty rocky bay, with mooring buoys. It was actually quite full, but we managed to grab the last mooring buoy. It was clear there was no way Emily & Phil could get a bus back to Alghero now – our kidnap plan had worked a treat – night two on Disco Volante!

After our ‘family’ shopping trip on Disco Volante the day before – six people going shopping together, why not… We had enough meat and cheese to feed a third world county for a week. Tom was back at the helm of the BBQ, cooking up a meat storm. Emily was fed various vegetables & lots of cheese & pesto. Just as the BBQ started up and Italian boat came over and asked to raft up next to us. We didn’t mind, though couldn’t help laughing of all the boats in the quiet anchorage, they had chosen the one with six pissed Brits onboard, whoops.



Thursday 9^th October – Maddalena archipelago, Costa Smeralda

Distance: 0nm

Up early, so we could drop poor Phil & Emily off to dry land, we continued around the archipelago to the large and inhabited Isla Maddalena. (The capital of the group). We anchored in a lovely deserted little bay about 45 mins walk from the main town. We had a sweaty walk into town, but luckily it was lunchtime. Not much happening in town as it’s quite off season, so we spent the day on a mini bar crawl. Mike finally got a haircut too – YAY! We wimped it and got a taxi back to near the boat as we couldn’t face the trudge back. But luckily we made it back for a sunset swim, which hit the mark after our hot dusty day!



Friday 10^th October – Maddelena archipelago to Puerto Cervo Capa Di Volpe

Distance: 12nm

You never quite know what is going to happen when you set off for a sail – but I think we all agreed today was a perfect sailing day!!! Nice amount of wind, calm seas, some easy tacking upwind between the islands. Tom enjoyed steering and competing with Mike on top speeds. Also it wasn’t very far, so we had no time pressures to contend with. The plan had been to go into Puerto Cervo Marina, which is a super yacht haven and has great bars and restaurants. However on arrival, after dodging all the super yachts and their giant moorings, we found out (Even off season) it was 160EUR a night…. ..to sleep on your own boat.. OMG! So we did a quick u-turn and moved down the coast to a really pretty bay called Capa Di Volpe. Again this attracts the rich and famous in the summer months and anchorages are hard to find, but luckily we found a spot in very shallow water. It was a long rough row to the nearest bar/hotel, so despite the temptation of lovely sunset bar, we stayed aboard. Deciding to make our own fun, we thought boat karaoke was a good idea (See pics of Mike’s Tom Jones solo, complete with purple whisk microphone – classic!!).



Saturday 11^th October – Capa Di Volpe to Olbia

Distance: 18.5nm

Our last day and night with Anna & Tom before they headed off to Cagliari for their flight home. We had a nice short sail into Olbia, with good winds again. Once safely in, we took a taxi into town as the marina was quite far from the old town, though very close to the airport.

Mike was very hungry, to the point of going a little bit nuts, so we settled on a place close to the seafront and all had some yummy pasta & local mussels – The carbonara in Sardinia is to die for. (Can’t find it at all in Sicily so far…) We then explored the town, which was awash with people as there was a running race around the town. We took a ring side seat at one of the central bars and enjoyed several cocktails. The waiter was typical Italian and had a very sarcastic sense of humour!!! He looked most disgusted when we ordered Limoncello at the end of the night. Then we had a nightcap in one of the lively bars. By this point the booze had hit us and we needed a taxi home. But we also needed food! Olbia must be the only town in Italy with no late night pizza and no taxis. You should have heard Tom’s complaining! Luckily a man from one of the closed bars took pity on us and called us a taxi – not only that but he gave us seats to sit on while we waited – what a gentleman.



Sunday 12^th October – Olbia Marina

Distance: 0nm

Ouch – cocktail hangover! Tom and Anna had to be up early to catch their train, we waved them off, before sneaking back to bed.. It was all too much, we booked in for another night at the marina. Lazy duvet day! Anna had an eventful train journey to Cagliari – the low point being sick in a train toilet, eek! Gonna miss you guys, don’t leave us…..



Monday 13^th October – Olbia to Cala Gonone

Distance: 50nm

We sailed out of Olbia, past the mussel farms.. We had a long sail ahead and the marinas are few and far between on the east coast. We had to motor most of the way with the wind right on our nose and finally arrived in Cala Gonone at past 7pm and getting dark. It’s only a tiny shallow port and we were concerned they wouldn’t have any room for us, and with no anchorages near by, we would have had to push on into the night. Luckily as we came into the port the local mooring guy saw us and we found a sweet spot between a catamaran and a racing yacht. We had a beer on the quay to celebrate!!! (Despite promising never to drink again after Anna & Tom left!)



Tuesday 14^th October – Cala Gonone to Arbatax

Distance: 21nm

We left Cala Gonone at 10am and desided to stop off at one of the beautiful little beaches along the coast. The coastline is peppered with caves and little beaches you can visit on day trips from the harbour. The coastline was very picturesque, so we hugged it for a while. We found one that looked really nice and dropped anchor. We swam ashore to explore. It was a very beautiful white sand beach, but the surprise was there was a nature pond area behind. We saw something snuffling around and realised it was a wild pig making him or herself a mud bath to lie in. Very cute. Then some wild goats came down from the hillside, but where quickly shoed away by what we assumed was a goatherder. We then went to explore the rocks and caves. It was a magical hour.

We had a nice little sail the rest of the way into the small commercial port of Arbatax to pick up Mike’s friend from school, Gwyn. He had flown into Cagliari a few days before and was going to sail across to Sicily with us. When we arrived into the port we could see a large gas platform being constructed, but although it is clearly a working harbour it is surrounded by majestic mountains and quite nice all the same. We got moored and where delighted to find out it was just 12EUR a night. Also it was a lovely family run place where they took real pride in the marina. Very nice to see.

Gwynn arrived within minutes of us tying up – easily spottable with his full trouser/shirt/panama combo – Sticking out as quite the British gent. Not much to see in town, so after a welcome gin and tonic & some provision shopping, we headed out for Pizza.



Wednesday 15^th October – Arbatax to Porto Corallo (Villaputzu Marina)

Distance: 40nm

Gwyn’s first sailing day was a bit of a baptism of fire. It was a lot windier than was forecast (force 4 forecast, turned out to be high force 6) and the sea was very choppy, throwing quite a lot of water into the cockpit. We were also tacking against the wind, so although the distance to Porto Corallo was 40 miles, we probably did more like 60 in the end. He certainly knew how to tack by the end of the day! Not to mention put in reefs. ‘Winch quickly’ was shouted quite a lot that day. We arrived rather bedraggled into the marina at 7:30pm, in the dark. Early night all round!



Thursday 16^th October – Porto Corallo to Cagliari (Silent ‘g’)

Distance: 40nm

The weather gods were not being kind to Gwyn. Day two sailing on Disco Volante and we have to get round Cabo Carbonara on the way to Cagliari. Again the wind was heading us, so we were sailing very close to the wind in choppy seas with gusting winds reaching 28knts. If anything we got wetter today, but we were all a bit more mentally prepared. Gwyn wore slightly less absorbent clothing today and being more used to the conditions we all had to laugh that Gwyn’s first two days had been so unusual. At this point he definitely didn’t understand the meaning of ‘champagne sailing’. In fact I think he thought we had been joking about all the windless days we had been having!

We got in Cagliari just after 6pm, in the light thankfully. The marina was nice and very central, so with happily got ready for our night out, hanging our soggy clothing around the boat, turning it into a very expensive Chinese laundry and generally lowering the tone of the super yacht marina.

Just as we were about to head out, some Italians on a nearby boat started asking mike questions about the boat – he showed them the album and then they came on board for a tour. I had to quickly throw on some clothes before they caught me in the buff.

We all walked with the ground swaying (As it does after a windy sail) to a restaurant for some well-earned steak, narrowly avoiding the horse steak! Then we walked up A LOT of stairs to the old town bars for some lovely cocktails. Mike tried unsuccessfully to find a Disco as usual!



Friday 17^th October – Cagliari

Distance: 0nm

We were all looking forward to a day on dry land, so we set off sightseeing. We walked around the old town, went up the lift (I kid you not) up the mountain to a cool old tower, that used to be a mafia prison (As most things in Italy are – there must be a LOT of Mafioso in Italy!!!). The views from the top were stunning. We managed to find a nice restaurant for lunch, on a panoramic terrace overlooking the port. I had managed to do the normal Sarah klutz thing of stubbing my toe and it bled and hurt a lot. Got weird looks walking around with a bloody tissue soaking up the blood. (It still hasn’t healed properly! – me and feet!!!)

That evening we went shopping to stock up for our big crossing the next day to Sicily, but also managed to fit in a takeaway pizza!

Cagliari is definitely worth a visit – really vibrant atmospheric city – WE LIKE.



Saturday 18^th October – Cagliari to Sicily

Distance: 178nm

Big sail today. Certainly for Gwyn, who had two (albeit extreme) sailing days under his belt before an overnighter. We left at 7am, and got to see a lovely sunrise. There was lots of activity in the harbour including a massive cruise ship doing a three point turn. Our first hurdle was going back round that damn Cabo Carbonara!!! But all went well and seas were much calmer than before. To be honest the whole crossing was pretty calm, we motored until the wee hours as the wind was right on our nose, but at about 7am we managed to get the sails up, greatly improving our time into Trapani. After his previous two sailing days, this was as close to champagne sailing as Gwyn could hope for. He managed very well on his two solo shifts and definitely saw the most boats on his watches, include a cruise liner. The stars were absolutely stunning overnight, I have never seen anything like it! We even saw a solo dolphin. Finally we made it into Trapani, via the lovely Egadi Islands.



I will leave it there now, mainly because I am gagging for some wine – Part 1 of our adventures in Sicily to follow in November. We are off to the Aeolian Islands & Mt Etna in the next week or so.



Lots of Love



Sarah & Mike xx

p.s. Mike thinks this reads like an 18-30s holiday, tee hee..

---

Photos

First night out in Alghero - Gin O'clock
Note the Italian custom of wrapping napkins around cold drinks - it's actually quite a good idea if it didn't waste so much paper

Morning Anna!
(Before cloud of wasps arrived)

Swimming was necessary to escape the wasps..
..but they still followed us!

Anna to the rescue!
Anna took one for the team to reclaim our rubbish bag from the wasps!

Our Italian beer of choice - Birra Moretti
Comes in (handy?!?) two packs - ideal for romantic picnics.

View from the top of the castle
Well worth the climb.

Then along came Emily & Phil.
(Prior to us kidnapping them)

Description of Capa Di Volpe from Italian Crusing guide
It was true!

Boat karaoke
Note Mike is singing into a whisk (His idea)

waiting...
..waiting..waiting for a taxi home. (Lovely man in background took pity and called us a cab.

Porto Corallo
Pretty seaside town and fishing village.

View from the top of one of Cagliari's medieval towers
Me with head in a guide book as usual