Carloforte Sardinia

Hi everyone,

We spent two nights in Carloforte on the small island of San Pietro, just off the main island of Sardinia. We were in Marina Fronte Nautico which is friendly with quite a few foreign cruisers there, mainly French.

Carabinieri

The marina arranged for our mandatory rapid Covid test which took place within hours of arrival.  Having been proven Covid-negative we were free to go ashore.  There were no border controls as we'd arrived from another Schengen country.

Marina Fronte Nautico

Zen Again

Carloforte is a nice little town.  It's clearly a popular tourist destination in normal times.  Ferries run continuously to at least two destinations on the main island.  Lots of bars, cafes and restaurants, with prices climbing as one approaches the ferry terminal.

The smallish supermarkets were adequate and the market very good indeed.  Having been advised good cheese is hard to find in Tunisia we bought a wheel of cheese in the market.  It was vacuum packed for us and will keep us going for some time!

Carloforte Cafes, Bars & Palm Trees

Carloforte Waterfront

Carloforte Lanes

Salt lagoons behind Carloforte

A small part of the Carloforte market

Our Italian is non-existent and only a few locals appeared to speak English.  None of the menus had English translations so it appears English speakers are a small minority here.  With a little effort, and occasional attempts with Spanish or French, we managed to get roughly what we wanted.

"Shaker Coffee" (ice coffee)

In Cala Taulera in Menorca we met the Kiwi cruisers on sv Calista.  They'd sailed to Carloforte a day before us and we met them for dinner ashore.  Twas nice to hear their story.  Turns out their Amel 50 is one of the boats which has been attacked by Orcas.  On our second night in Carloforte they visited Zen Again for a sundowner.

Beers with Kiwi sv Calista

Carloforte was our final port in Schengen.  We enquired at the marina and were advised to go the the Police Station (Caribinieri).  Sadly it was closed and they didn't respond to the buzzer on the gate.  That meant no Schengen OUT stamp.

The perfect pursuit vehicle for the lanes!

During our second night in Carloforte a thunderstorm came through.  It brought gusts to 30 knots with it, blowing us back towards the jetty.  All it took was a spare mooring line rolling hitched to the slime (bow) line and the sheet winch to haul us off.  But it kept us awake for a while, almost into our watch system which resumed in the morning when we departed for Tunisia.

Menorca to Sardinia

Hi everyone,

We had a pretty good 2 day passage from Mahon in Menorca to Carloforte on St Pietro island off Sardinia's SW coast.  We're now in Italy!  The passage was about half sailing and half motoring, as anticipated from the weather forecasts.

Full Sail Set

Here are the plots...

Track

Arrival Track Detail

Graphs

And here are the vital stats for the passage…

    • Distances/Speeds

        • Route Distance = 197nm

        • Logged Distance = 190nm (log still under-reading)

        • GPS Distance = 207nm

        • Duration = 46 hours

        • Average speed over ground = 4.5 kt

        • Minimum boat speed = 3 kt

        • Maximum boat speed = 6 kt

    • Weather

        • Minimum wind speed = 0 kt

        • Average wind speed = 6 kt

        • Maximum wind speed = gusts to 15 kt

        • Apparent wind angle range = 0 to 100

        • Seas up to 0.5m

        • Swell up to 0.5m

        • Mostly clear skies

    • Engine

        • Total = 25 hours

On Saturday afternoon we motored the 2nm from Cala Taulera anchorage to Mahon Marina to take on water, fuel and supplies.  It's an expensive marina but the town was well worth the visit.  It'd be a great place to explore further, especially if we can find cheaper accommodation for the boat.

Mahon Marina

On Sunday morning we departed the marina and set sail for Sardinia.  To our surprise there was wind.  Throughout the passage it appeared the weather was 'ahead' of the forecast.  We had a great sail all day Sunday and through the night until just before dawn on Monday.  The wind was on the beam, allowing us to set our staysail (=storm jib) to good effect.

One of few cargo ships seen

There was little traffic.  We only saw a few cargo ships.  Overnight Sunday we passed a group of fishing boats, happily just skirting around them.  We also saw several yachts.

Day 1 Sunset

With the wind gone on Monday we donked along at modest RPM to keep the noise down.  The seas gradually calmed to a glassy surface with only a low swell left behind.

Day 2 Calm

Both nights were clear of cloud and the moon didn't rise until shortly before dawn.  The night sky was spectacular.  Both Saturn and Jupiter cast 'stairways' on the water.  We saw shooting stars and several satellites, including the ISS (identified using the app GoSatWatch).  As usual we worked on our constellation and star identification using the app GoSkyWatch.

Arrival Dawn

On Monday afternoon and night we used a couple of bursts of less light winds to give the motor a rest and sail.  This also allowed us to manage our arrival time since we were earlier than anticipated and didn't want to arrive at night.  Ultimately we arrived about half an hour before the marina opened, so explored the harbour while waiting.

In Carloforte harbour

Carloforte Ferry Terminal

Harbour Walls from inside the harbour

The marina staff assisted with mooring and arranged for a local doctor to visit later in the morning to do the necessary Covid tests.  They're now done and we're cleared to explore Carloforte.

We expect to spend a few days here while awaiting N winds to take us onward towards Tunisia.  Looks like we'll get good winds on Friday.  That'll get us out of Schengen with about 10 of our 90 days in hand.

Mallorca to Menorca

Hi everyone,

Yesterday we had a very nice 50nm passage from Porto Cristo in Mallorca to Cala Taulera in Menorca.  We had to motor the first 5 and last 1 hour but between we had a very nice 6 hour sail.  The wind was on the beam which allowed us to do 4 knots in the 7 knot breeze on calm seas.

Motoring over a glassed-out sea

Here are the plots...

Track

Track Detail

Graphs

And here are the vital stats for the passage…

    • Distances/Speeds

        • Route Distance = 52nm

        • Logged Distance = 42nm (log still under-reading)

        • GPS Distance = 53nm

        • Duration = 12 hours

        • Average speed over ground = 4.4 kt

        • Minimum boat speed = 3.5 kt

        • Maximum boat speed = 5.5 kt

    • Weather

        • Minimum wind speed = 0 kt

        • Average wind speed = 6 kt

        • Maximum wind speed = gusts to 15 kt

        • Apparent wind angle range = 90 to 150

        • Seas up to 0.5m

        • 0.25m swell

        • Clear skies!

    • Engine

        • Total = 6 hours

We had a good night's sleep at Porto Cristo.  The traffic stopped around sunset, leaving the boat quite still.  Port Cristo is a small port with a small marina and busy tour boats.  Looks like a very nice place to explore properly.

The passage started at 0645 in a very light NW breeze of 3-4 knots, possibly a land breeze.  That died within an hour leaving a flat calm.  We motored until 1100 when the predicted SSW breeze of 7-9 knots came in.  We then had a lovely sail across Canal de Menorca to the SE corner of Menorca.  When we gybed north the light wind was right behind us, giving us very little apparent wind.  We motored in from there.

Sunrise departure from Porto Cristo

Menorca Ho!

Isla del Aire on SE tip of Menorca

Cala Taulera is the safest anchorage we've come across in the Balearics.  It's protected from all directions, flat as a millpond, in 4-6m over mud.  Apparently the local officials hassle boats which stay here for 'too long', trying to get them into the marinas in Mahon.

The anchorage isn't charted accurately, at least not in Navionics.  There are shallow patches (< 2m) on the east side.  However they're mud.  We bumped one, and another yacht did the same an hour later.  Perhaps we'll wear them down over time!

Entering the channel to Cala Taulera

Entering Cala Taulera

On entering the anchorage we spotted a very flash boat sporting a Kiwi flag.  We said hello to the Calistas on our way past, then got in contact via email with the assistance of the OCC app.  Like us they're heading east and we hope to meet them in Sardinia.

Kiwi boat Calista

Taulera anchorage

We'll be going into a marina in Mahon tonight.  Some of you may have noticed we haven't been ashore in the Balearics yet.  That's because we're in a hurry since our Schengen 90 days are running down.  Also because many of the marina are extremely expensive.

The one night at the marina tonight will cost us over E100.  That's the most expensive night in a marina we've ever had.  But it'll allow us to rewater, refuel, reprovision and wash laundry prior to our passage onward to Sardinia.  Might even take our first showers since Cartagena!  We'll be employing our NHS PCR test kits this morning to meet Balearic entry requirements.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed a distinct lack of anode on our prop shaft in the recent underwater picture of Zen Again.  The anode on the auto-prop has been working hard and was on the verge of departing too.  At several anchorages we've tightened the nylon bolts which secure the auto-prop anode.  In Cala Xarraca it actually fell off while doing so and I had to dive the 5.5m to retrieve it!

This morning we replaced the auto-prop anode with a new one.  Took us a little while to find the spares, but we knew we had some!  Feels much better knowing the prop's properly protected.  We'll add a shaft anode as soon as we can find one.

Tomorrow we plan to set sail for Carloforte in Sardinia.  We've booked into a marina there for a couple of nights, at only ~E30/night.  The marina there provides a Covid test-on-arrival service for E40/person.