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.