The surprising coast of Sardinia – The cabin boy letter

Just half an hour ago, I left my second letter in a mailbox in Stintino, Sardinia, where we’ve made an unscheduled stop, and I’m already writing this one, wichh will have to wait till we get to Nápoles if everything goes as planned.

Today we’ve been through a lot, it almost seems incredible that its been just one day since I wrote you the previous letter with no land in sight. Yesterday I woke up from my first marine sleep and it was one of those in which you open your eyes right after dreaming something nice and and yo feel relaxed and eager to start the day. But soon I realized that having slept so soundly and well was tinged with some guilt because, when I went on deck, Diego told me I had missed some problems that night.

Apparently, the smooth wind we had during the day before rose while me and Diego were sleeping and Fernando was taking the first watch. At 3 am, with the wind reaching 18 knots, Fernando woke Diego to maneuver the boat together. As they told me this morning Diego doubted «between taking two reefs or only one» and that «thanks he choose to take 2 cause the wind soon reached to 30 knots» (which is pretty strong). The truth is that I didn’t understand what «taking reefs» means, but was going to find out soon.

I know the situation was a little complicated and probably I wold have been just a bother to them, but I keep thinking that while I’ve been dreaming of sirens and men with trident, my companions were struggling with the boat.

When I woke up, things were easier and the engine was on, so I did my monitoring through the devices after I had breakfast. Every time I see this marvelous drone, I imagine myself flying it …. but apparently you should first meke the geolocation on ground once we’re in Italy.

We arrive in Sardinia

The wind rose during the day, so we could stop the engine and rely just on the sails. About five o’clock we sighted land (me, for the first time): the Northwest coast of Sardinia, first as a dark line on the horizon and later as a rocky and wild free from tourist exploit and no people at sight, so different form Salou or Peñiscola beaches.

To our right, starboard I mean, we spotted a more populated area, maybe Alghero, but we veered to the north of the island, following the coast of a group of islands, the largest of which is a protected National Park and prison long ago (it’s curious how many times you found similar stories with small islands like Cabrera or with large as a continent, like Australia).

Leaving starboard the turquoise waters of the wonderful beach of La Pelosa, one of the most beautiful in the Mediterranean, they say, it was time to decide whether our way through the northern Sardinia would be short or long. We could continue our route to meet the Tyrrhenian Sea or we could take a break and rest somewhere. Having had such a hard night and watching the welcoming small towns in the area, father and son decided to find a place to moor and skirted the coast up to the port of Stintino, the largest town in the area.

There must have been some problem to contact the authorities. Apparently in seaports things are not as easy as driving around a parking lot until you find a spot and then pay the parking fee. Diego radioed and no one answered, there is a channel set in the road map and another channel usually used for seaports, but no answer came back.

In those cases, the custom says you must moor at the port’s gas station, so, there we went, and we started a complicated docking maneuver to put the boat where I did not think it could fit. It did not contribute to reassure me seeing the two experts discussing whether the boat fitted or not. To be sincere, I didn’t contribute to calm everyone either as I rushed downstairs to my get my laptop in case I had to jump.

Everything went well and neither Acrobat, or the fishing boat, and the zodiac with its menacing engine, next to us, suffered a single scratch, not so much the confidence of my admiral and captain on my courage.

Both went to a local restaurant to eat while I stayed in the cabin to write this punishing myself to have some japanese noodles instead of whatever they ate… I don’t wanna know.

Day 3: Stintino – La Colba

Last night in Stintino I should have sent another letter, but It didn’t felt right searching for a mailbox as we had to discuss the changes in the schedule to compensate the night spent in Stintino.

I could have sent it that same morning, but, considering we ware woken up by a practical demonstration of how rich the italian language is in dirty words and how fit to lecture someone, i thoght otherwise.

It turns out that what we did the night before is forbbiden, That I think was explaining to us the first sardinian specimen i’ve ever met. Somehow, Diego managed to calm the little man explaining that we tried to contact someone and that his father was quite and had hurt his arm.

The thing is that i didn’t feel the guy was in the mood to ask him about the post office, so there won’t be post update until we arrive in Napoles.

The plan had been start sailing early to reach the Strait of Bonifacio at noon and continue the cruise trhrough the Tyrrhenian Sea all night up to the Pontine Islands, but even though Diego check every morning the weather forecasts, none foretold an angry Italian old man in charge of the port where you have docked screaming and pointing to what appears to be his boat. So, new change of plans, we were going to sail towards Capo Testa and the Strait and we were anchoring somewhere to get through by day.

This stage was curious, on one hand we enjoyed the sights of a wonderful, more populated coast than the east side of the island, with larger beaches as we advanced eastward sailing upwind, which is funnier and It makes the day pass faster and there was just two or three moments of «I told you so …», «you should have …» etc …

I have been able to participate in some of the maneuvers: strip this rope, tie this one, watch your head, etc … and I ended wet, but more confident as I was at least getting the mechanics of sailing. It may sound stupid, but i’m superproud to have helped make “a reef in the main”. As if I just won the America Cup. Diego and Fernando looked me and laughed, but couldn’t care less. I told Mom that I cannot sail without getting in the bow to shout the «I’m the King of the World» line from Titanic or without boarding other boats like a pirate, at least once

I think Diego had been encouraged to sail the stretch, maybe with someone with his father’s experience an my age, but since we were not in a hurry, better to risk not to spend the night with the shore by the lee (where the wind blows to). So we anchored in the Colba, again a sparsely populated area of Sardinia, but with a completely different coastline, with bare rock and smaller beaches.

Colba-Pontine Islands

This fourth stage will depend a little more on my memory than previous ones, because I’m writting this at Napoles ‘cause we stopped in Ponza just a bit to take a nap and rest. We had to adjust to the timetable Diego had agreed with our first temporary (and famous) peers.

We sailed yesterday morning from La Colba, after a very short morning swim (down to the water is easy, not so much climbing up, I think I did another one of those demonstrations of agility that characterizes me.

Beautiful site, by the way, it seems Sardinia is a nice destination once you dare to fly. Mom and the uncles would love that it does not look to be saturated with people, at least this area.

Also you will get see a lot of boats, because as we overcame the Bonifacio Stretch and got closer to the islands of the Emerald Coast, we found the most touristic part of Sardinia and sailed trhough what you can call “a maritime highway”. Hundreds of sailboats, boats, ferries, boats …!

As Diego said, we were very lucky that day, since we had the wind in our favor and we had the better weather and we could delight such a nice landscape, with those rocky shores wich gave the coast the appearance or marble.

The coasts on both sides and the concurrence with so many ships made this part of the journey feel shorter and we recovered the good vibe after a couple of days of discussion.

Soon we left behind the coasts of the island and we face towards the Pontine Islands, to Ponza, where we anchored a few hours for dinner and rest a while. At midnight we set sail with the idea of getting to Napoles early in the morning.

Ponza- Napoles

I had some time to enjoy the night sailing, enough to realize why the ancients used the stars to navigate. We’ve lost the habit of looking at the night sky, because civilization hid the stars from us, but for many centuries they were our companions in the dark and our guides to unknown.

But, as I say, I could enjoy looking at the Milky Way in the sky just for a while, because as we approached the island of Ventotene, It did justice to its name and brought clouds and wind, so we had to focus in navigation to reach Ischia at first light, an island that guards the entrance to the bay of Napoles and next to which is the impressive figure of the first Castelo Aragonese that we will find in this Corona de Aragón Route.

We left Ischia and the Castelo behind, but will return to visit them one of the days we´ll spent with our new crew at the foot of Vesuvius.

Diego was scheduled to dock at the port of Torre del Grieco because apparently it is the closest to Vesuvius and it eases the expedition to climb the volcano we will go for when our reinforcements, the Aragonese infantry: The Almogavers. arrive from the mainland.

As we entered the port it gave us a bad impression because it was a series of pontoons quite old looking with everyone staring at as us we moored.

Diego disimbarked to ask for a place to shower and freshen up comfortably and another one with wifi to send data, video, etc … and came back angry as they offer a hose and pointed to the city lights as an indication to go there to get such luxuries…

That same day he decided that once our new colleagues arrived, we were going to search a new port more modern and confortable and with less stares.

Sincerely, I found it to be very funny, more accurate to the idea of this city I got from movies and series, but it is also true thet other ports have been better.

Anyway, Diego found some new place nicer to stay, and this experience is just for one day

I have to finish writing. Tomorrow i’ll wake up soon to find on of these red mailboxes they have in Italy before Diego’s guests arrive.

In the next installment of our adventures, we´ll conquer three volcanoes and we’ll find out more of the Aragonese heritage in Italy and Sicily. I’ll try to find a book that explains that period, even in Italian.

Many salty kisses to everyone

Juan Sebastian Pym