40:35.39N 08:10.39E Porto Conte
40:35.39N 08:10.39E Porto Conte
Monday 16th August, 2010.
On Saturday afternoon whilst out for a walk we came across a small wild tortoise. He didn’t want his picture taken and as fast as you lifted him and relocated him he ran off at remarkable speed.
Yesterday we left Stintino at 10am and motor sailed up to the Fornelli passage to see if the conditions we quiet enough t venture through this shallow short cut between mainland Sardina and the island of Asinara. This saves about 20 miles on the passage around the NW corner, but the channel at times is only 3 meters deep and we need 2.05 meters for Ariel. This leaves no room for error and we can’t have too much swell in the shallow passage or we risk bottoming out in the through between the swell. Conditions looked OK so we went past the ‘super prison’ on Asinara where they used to imprison terrorists members of the Red Brigade and mafia bosses until 1998 when the prison was closed and past the isolation hospital opened in 1885 from when the island was a quarantine island. The island has been a National Park since 1997 and the area a marine reserve since 2003. On Asinara are a few wild white donkeys, a few of which we sighted through binoculars as we passed by. The passage is all turquoise blue water.
The coast down the West side of Sardinia going South towards Algero was very rugged and wild, with little signs of human existence. A lot of it was high granite cliffs and with a 1.5 to 2 meter swell running left over from the windy day before. There is nothing between Sardinia and Gibraltar with the sea running all the way across in a Westerly. We sailed and motor sailed down the coast until at the last headland before the port hand turn around Cabo Cassia. This headland is unusually mad of limestone; it towers up nearly 200 meters and in places is sheer. It is honeycombed with erosion from thousands of years from the elements. Inside it is a cave called Neptune’s grotto that is reached by a climb down 600 steps. We went around the headland into Porte Conte a very large beautiful horseshoe shaped bay that is all a marine reserve. We then anchored in a lovely quiet bay called Cala Tramariglio in gin clear water with visibility all they way to the bottom.
