I thought we were going to have an easy sail to Stintino from Alghero, which we did but there’s always a but…
Richard had been saying to me for a few days that I should read the pilot guide [Ed, ‘Corsica & North Sardinia, Fourth Edition, Madelaine and Stephan Strobel, pub. Imray] for our trip to Stintino. A pilot guide for an area is a book that helps passage planning, but also describes towns, marinas, anchor spots, wildlife, some cultural references etc, and of course hazards you might encounter on the way.
When he said read the pilot guide, I was thinking of the former: towns, marinas etc. What he meant was the latter: hazards! At the north-west point of Sardinia, lies an island called Asinara, a former penal colony. And between it and Sardinia itself lies a smaller island called Piana. The channel between Piana and Sardinia is unpassable for yachts, whereas the channel between Asinara and Diana, called the Passagio di Fornelli, is navigable with care and good weather. It is not to be undertaken during high winds or a rolling sea.
We checked weather forecasts, and at the time, the sea state was forecast to be waves of 1m. The draught of Missy Bear is 2.17m, so anything over that should be clear, but you wouldn’t say 2.20m is fine. The minimum depth of the Fornelli passage is 3m, so if you are being bounced around by the waves, then it’s pretty easy to touch the bottom at that depth. I wasn’t too happy, but the alternative was a 28-mile detour. So we agreed we’d pootle up and take a look. We had a couple of plan B’s (anchor around the island of Asinara or return to Alghero), so we could bail out if needed. Later-on that evening, we looked again, and the wind forecast seemed to have eased. Fingers crossed.
Wednesday dawned bright and calm. Richard was up at 6am; I knew he was trying to get stuff done so we could get away early, in case we needed to go around the top. We set off at 6.45 (and you guys think we’re on holiday). It was a lovely morning. Quite a few little fishing boats around, visiting their many lobster pots. Later on, we acquired what my sister called a “tail”. Another yacht followed us up the coastline, probably having the same discussion as we were.
Richard kept an eye on the AIS screen on our navigation software, and could tell that some yachts were coming through the channel. We decided we would go for it. By this time, the water was glassy and still anyway.
Now for the tricky-ish navigation techniques. Although the channel is pretty wide, the actual path that boats can take is narrow. You have to be on the correct course, and there are land-based aids called navigation marks / lights to guide you, which you have to get, and then keep, in line. Richard has the courses marked on the chart plotter, but we agreed we would also use the traditional method as back-up, in case of power or software failure. The traditional method is crew and a pair of binoculars.
Once we passed the tip of the north-west coats of Sardinia, I started watching out for these navigation marks on Asinara. Eventually I spotted them, and Richard turned the boat to keep them in line. They are large black constructions with a white line down them. He kept to the course of 072 degrees, while I told him if he needed to steer to port a bit of starboard a bit. I knew all my years of watching the Golden Shot would come in useful.
We chugged along slowly until we passed a small rock outcrop. From there, I turned around so I was facing the back of the boat and looked for a similar set of beacons in astern. Once these were in line, Richard had to steer a course of 121 degrees for 0.8 miles keeping them in line. Again, I used binoculars, and warned him if he was going off course. Once we had gone a mile, we were now in deeper water (5 metres), and along with many other boats, we dropped our anchor and rested there, as our marina berth was not available until after 6.30pm.
Stintino is absolutely charming. It’s laid out on a grid section with a main street running through. Lots of shops selling Sardinian specialties, and a lovely market with fruit, vegetables, cheese (of course) and kitchen ware. We were able to make two longed-for purchases – large cushions for use up on deck and in the main cabin as we have no backs to our deck cushions. And finally, a decent lemon zester and cheese grater for all those lovely pasta dishes we are cooking on board.
We are now in Isola Rossa in the north of Sardinia. We had a bouncy six-hour sail across from Stintino, and we need to head off today as the wind is changing to an Easterly tomorrow, so another bouncy day today versus a day with the wind on the nose tomorrow. Such are our choices in life. But we have great software available now, which can even tell us how comfortable an anchorage will be over 24 hours by linking to the weather software. But that’s for another blog