beaches of southern sardinia

we decided to go beach hopping in the south of sardinia and anchored at several beaches along the coast. some appeared in the maps or guides, some did not. we were sailing with the boat very close to shore and simply anchored wherever we spotted a place we liked.



tuarreda was the last of the spots we visited. when we went to shore to the cool bar on the beach we got a nice welcome from the bar tender who proudly said we were in one of the most famous and pretties beaches in the world. after this comment esteban and i looked at each other and realized that we have actually been to so many beaches around the world already that we had some sort of authority to tell this guy if he was right or not. and immediately in unison we told him he was right; and then we explained how many beaches we had seen so far; to which he was extremely pleased to have this confirmation from these world travelers that his sport was in fact one of the prettiest in the world; and it was indeed.

unfortunately we had very strong winds while we were here and we were forced to be a lot in the boat and could not leave it because we were dragging and also it would be too irresponsible to leave the boat with very strong winds while at anchor. But eventually the winds died down and we enjoyed this little piece of paradise. here, we were visited by a good friend of esteban from argentina that moved to italy many years ago, so she is really a local now. it was wonderful to spent some time with her and hear her stories of how life goes in sardinia. and from what she told us, is definitely not a bad place to live at all!

pula

the biggest town we visited in sardinia was pula, and this is not really big. it has around 6000 habitants and during siesta time it seems a bit like a ghost town. it has lovely small stoned streets full of restaurants and shops. almost all the houses have very pretty windows full of flowers of different types and colors.

the people that live her are very easy going and relaxed. we felt the atmosphere of a small town. we loved it. because the scooter rental was the highest price so far of the trip (102 dollars par day!!!) we decided to walk around this lovely region and were lucky to be picked up by locals in their cars who offered us rides. so we gladly hopped into their cars and saw a bit of their home while talking to them and getting to know a little bit some of the local culture. a perfect place to spend our vacation time in sardinia!

sardinia

because of lack of time we could not sail in the north of sardinia which was very much recommended by many friends that have sailed there. instead we only went to the south of this island but we were very pleased. if the south is so pretty i can only imagine how the north is. we found the towns and beaches around cagliari to be relaxing, quiet and extremely beautiful. the few days we were in sardinia we felt like on a vacation (as if we were not already in a major one) but we really did because we only stopped in remote anchorages with beautiful beaches in the background and white sand bottoms with transparent water. we would swim to shore or around the boat and spend the day enjoying the sun in the boat. perd’e sali was the town we arrived at. with only one restaurant and nothing else to do or see, we walked around the lonely streets, saw the many big and pretty houses mostly opened in the summers only, and enjoyed the beaches and atmosphere of a truly remote vacation place.

the evening shows

the leg from tropea to sardinia was about 360 miles due west passing through the aeolian islands in the middle. one of them is called stromboli, after the volcano that lies in the place. the island itself is only the volcano with a couple of towns near the shore. because it is so difficult to anchor in this place, we decided to only sail around it by night to see the show. the volcano has erupted many times, and is constantly active with minor eruptions, often visible from the sea, giving rise to the island's nickname "lighthouse of the mediterranean". sure enough when we sailed around it we saw the volcano’s eruptions, one every 5 to 10 minutes. it was unbelievable to see this. first because it is almost unreal to be sailing so close to a volcano and second, even more surreal when that volcano is active and constantly throwing lava up the sky. it was fantastic. this show lasted several hours for as long as we kept seeing the volcano’s lights in the horizon.


the second night at sea on this passage was uneventful except for a bad food poisoning that esteban caught in italy. it was his turn this night to see the fire… of another kind of course. luckily the whole ordeal lasted only one night and by daylight he was feeling a lot better.

the final night of the crossing was probably the scariest of our trip. during the day we saw the barometric pressure gauge go down quite a bit while at the same time we saw all the heavy clouds getting more dense and dark as the night approached. by nightfall we were sailing through the worse electrical storm we have ever seen. the clouds were surrounding us and we had nowhere to go. at some point in the night we tried to sail backwards to avoid being hit by the lighting but we also had lighting in the back, and to our left and right. there was nothing else to do but put all electronics that could fit inside the oven (i am not sure this works but some sailors do it, so we did it just in case) and wait for the daylight to come. we were so happy to see the sun light and with it the end of this grand 9 hour electrical storm.

unfortunately we did not take any pictures to share and show what we saw. these are only of the clouds forming earlier in the afternoon before. we were too occupied praying and literally maneuvering the boat around the strikes; well esteban was at least. i was below deck for the most part, afraid covering my eyes and ears imagining how we could get out of it. watching the display of lights would have been wonderful in a TV screen or some other place safe, but certainly not in the middle of the sea with the mast to act as the only pole to attract them and with the most horrific sounds on top of us. miraculously, and i really think it was a miracle, we were not hit by any of them and somehow made it to the morning safe and in one piece and with all the electronics working.

vibo valentia

this city is located some 40 kilometers up the mountain and away form the coast. we rented a scooter and went around little roads in calabria all the way to this non touristic place called vibo vanlentia. here we met some local officials and had a not so touristic experience in the questura to process some papers related to our travels. so we experienced a little bit the day to day business and some of the bureaucracy of the country. most of all, the officials were always very polite and friendly with us. we also had one of the best meals of the trip so far. in a little local place, nothing fancy, not expensive; just simple good food served by the owner: a kind and big italian woman that was clearly very happy to see us eating everything she served us.

tropea

this is a medieval city of calabria that seats high upon the cliffs with the most wonderful beaches below. italian friends recommended we stop here and of course we followed their advice. not bad at all. in fact we loved walking around the narrow streets, enjoying the fabulous views and as always on our trip: taking so much pleasure in the food. we stopped at the marina which was very comfortable and close to the town. here we washed down the salt from the last storm and enjoyed southern italy hospitality while relaxing in this picturesque town.

taormina

we arrived in a beautiful spot in giardini naxos and anchored and relaxed after the rocky and wet arrival. from the anchorage we had the most amazing view. we could see the town bordering the shore and also anther city high above the cliffs called taormina. finally we had mount etna at a distance with some snow still in the summit. it was a view to remember for sure.

we relaxed in the town for a few days and walked around naxos and also taormina. we visited the old theater and the streets full of restaurants and shops. we later discovered that taormina is one of the jewel cities of Europe, or something of that sort. we now understand why. everything looked too beautiful and fancy as well.




after enjoying ourselves in sicily; paying the most expensive diesel of the entire trip so far; and checking and double checking the weather and tides in preparation for the messina crossing, we finally headed north. the messina strait is known, at least among sailors; as a little body of water that must be crossed with caution. It is only 3 miles long and possibly 4 miles wide. it separates sicily from calabria in italy. the wind generally funnels from the mountains on either side and increases its speed significantly; and also, and this is the difficult part: the currents change every 6 hours from north to south but can run at very strong or high speeds. from reading some guides we knew that if we had some wind against and a minor current against, maybe our boat with engine and sail would not overcome the south going stream; so we definitely had to prepare to cross with a north current and hopefully favorable wind. the wind part has not been in our favor since many months ago, so hoping for a good south easterly in this part of the world was out of the question. It blows from the north west and it blows hard. so the best we could hope for was little or no wind at all. Unfortunately we were having constant 20 kts every day in the area. not good. finally the current is calculated based on the tides in Gibraltar at UTC time and for some reason this calculations are not always accurate… why there is not a simple tide table strictly for messina with local times is beyond me, or maybe we just couldn’t find it in the books, guides or the internet.

so, with our experience of strong winds so far in the med, plus the gale of a few days before and a forecast for the next weeks of at least 15 knots, we were getting a bit anxious and preoccupied about crossing this strait. luckily one night we felt the wind die down and we took the opportunity and just left. we had calculated the tides but were not sure if we were going to make it on a good time before the tide started to run south. but we left through the night and motor sailed with some boat traffic through the strait. finally when we arrived at the most complicated and narrow part of the strait we could not believe our luck: the wind died, the water was flat and the current was favorable; and we glided through in less that 30 minutes. once again, maybe we were lucky, or it was our accurate calculations and good planning…? Good planning sounds better I think!

sailing towards sicily

we had a very pleasant 3 day sail towards sicily accompanied with dolphins. only in the last five hours when we crossed the gap between the tip of italy and sicily the weather turned bad. the winds blew at force 7 at least (35 knots) and the sea became nasty. the boat was with minimum sail and was healing a lot and of course we were soaked, specially esteban who was at the helm. it was quite the little storm. nothing happened to us or the boat but we started feeling a bit scared of crossing the messina strait in a few days. we had already read that it was bad, but with a lot of wind and from the wrong direction, it could be really really bad… but we continued towards sicily and decided to worry about crossing the messina strait to the north later.