On the 21st August we lifted anchor from San Paolo to motor to the lovely bay and
marine reserve of Coda Covallo. The weather forecasting here has been pretty
good and with a southerly light wind forecast overnight and going westerly the
bay was flat calm and would be sheltered.

The bay is turquoise, lovely sand to anchor and a favourite of local and
visiting yachts but with everyone anchoring sensibly with good space. By late
afternoon an Italian yacht decided to anchor too close ahead of us so we hoped
he wouldn't stay the night.  By 18.30 he was pretty close and other yachts
had left making space so rather than lift his anchor and reset somewhere he
decided to drag and plough his anchor across the seabed...... And then just
switched off his engine.....anchor .....no idea ....or if hooked in......but
thankfully a little further away for us for the night.

The lovely evening went  to a calm night, however by midnight the wind
strengthened considerably and went to an un forecast north westerly blowing
straight into the unprotected bay.

We had lots of chain out and were well dug in, feeling secure although
uncomfortable with the on shore wind and certainly going to be a sleepless
night on watch.

But yes you guessed.......where was the yacht which dragged himself across the
bay......change of wind direction and he was extremely close to the side of our
stern. He had a quick look at us in the dark as we used our torches.....and yes
disappeared below again, not wanting to deal with a potential situation.

We decided to quickly lift our anchor to avoid a likely collision.
Thankfully our radios are fab in windy conditions when Tony wouldn't hear
me from the anchor or vice versa. We collected our anchor in pitch darkness
threading our way between other anchored yachts.

A yacht was dragging to our port side and 3 motor boats which had been rafter
together in the calm bay parted and lifted anchors. Navigation lights flashed
on around us as yachts and boats started to move. We decided to leave ASAP.

It's a pretty unpleasant experience collecting our anchor in these conditions
but it came up and we carefully headed out of the bay. The 3 local motor boats
flew past us with nav lights on and only one had radar the others closely
following. A 70ft super yacht put on his navs to our right and started to move.

Tony and I got had our chart plotter position on and quickly got the radar
running too to try to see other boats and especially land. After all the miles
we have sailed, we quickly went into our unspoken safety regime, life jackets
on, harnesses clipped on,VHF radio on.

We are a great team in these situations but those of you who read our blogs
will know about my thoughts of the ' simplicity of camper van travel' .........
And do wives of camper van owners face these knee knocking experiences at 1 am
.... I wonder ....???

Tony overlaid the radar onto our chart plotter as we have found some discrepancies
particularly around Tavolara area and motoring into the pitch black night with
rocks , reefs,shallows and a wreck around isn't fun. Tony gave me a safe
heading to steer at low speeds to clear the hazards and get us into deeper
water.  

Looking back into the bay we saw that the yacht anchored too close to us had
also left the bay along with several others. The motor boats disappeared at
speed ahead of us.....too fast we thought.

Our intention was to head for the nearest protected anchorage with a safe
approach. The sand spit beach at The Island of Tavolara offered this. We looked
at it again on the chart and knew it would be a calm sea behind the spit but
the wind wS increasing and we didn't fancy the prospect of anchoring in deep
water off the beach at 1 am.

We decided to thread our way past the headlands and Tavolara keeping a very
careful watch of all instruments and by eye to go back to a bay we knew of
Porto Della Taverna.

The wide bay has a safe approach with no hazards. As we finally got into the
bay the wind reduced dramatically and we finally anchored in the middle of the
bay at 1am with just 8 true knots of wind and a calm sea. The super yacht
arrived about 30 mins after us. We lit ourselves up like a Christmas tree
incase of other arriving yachts.

By 02.10 am on 22nd we went to bed and slept surprisingly calmly for the rest
of the night.

The next morning we woke to see the 3 other local motor boats had anchored
closely together and had arrived ahead of us the night before.

Photos of the lovely calm Coda Cavollo bay and of Porto della Taverna the next
day snorkelling on the shore in turquoise water with local boats...........no
photos of the new camper van.....just yet.

Love to all

T and T x x