40:57.9N 08:13.2E

At anchor in “Passagio della Pelosa”.  Left Castelsardo yesterday afternonn with Vasuki on board.   This is Lesley’s work colleague who has joined us for 4 days or so.  Unfortunately, she is not a sailor, and easily gets seasick.  As she had downed 3 Quells for breakfast it was obvious that she was concerned about the proposed trip that day.   I decided, therefore, that we ought to go for a simple downwind sail.  With a 15 knot breeze out of the East, we headed towards the Asinar National Park again, under genoa alone.  Lovely gentle 4 hour sail, that brought us to this anchorage.  On the Italian charts, this area is clearly marked with an anchor and a big red cross through it!  Guess how many Italian boats were at anchor here:  6!, including the local catamaran that does “trips” to the National Park.  I decided, that we too, could join them. 

The spot is ideal.  About 2 – 3 metres depth, clear water, and a good sandy bottom to dig your anchor into.  First time round, I ended up too close to a 50 ft Swiss catamaran, so had to pull the hook up and re-anchor.  Much nicer for both of us, as you don’t want to be peering into each others cockpits all the time.  There is a beautiful beach on the mainland, but through the binoculars you could see that it was absolutely crowded, dozens and dozens of parasols etc… We decided to stay put.

Around 2 am woke up to howling winds.  Looked at the instruments, and we were recording 24 knots of wind!  I checked the anchor, but we were secure and the boat was not dragging or moving in any way.  Went back on line, and checked the forecasts again.  Nothing on the usual ones, but when I looked at Meteo France, they had forecast a  Force 7 (neargale) for our area, peaking at 6 am!     We had managed to tuck ourselves behind a mini reef, so the waves coming into our spot were manageable, and there is little to do but sit it out.  The forecast is for the wind to drop to a lovely Force 2 this afternoon, so hopefully we will be able to motor back to Castelsardo then, as the weather for the next few days is looking iffy to say the least, and the barometer has dropped 9 points overnight.  It’s now 10 am, so I will make a final decision around 1300 hrs, but expect to be in Castelsardo tonight.