Hi all,

On 20 th September we left the dock at Stintino at 07.20 hrs on a very calm morning, with high humidity and wet decks.  We were both a little nervous about the prospect of navigating through the narrow and very shallow Fornelli passage. Just north of Stintino lies the island of Asinara with the Fornelli passage between it and Sardinia.
With minimum depths showing as 3 metres on a rocky seabed and isolated rocks and dangers the Fornelli passage with our 2.3 m draft is a place to consider passing with caution.
The alternative is a 25 mile circumnavigation of Asinara to get back to the same point.........doesn't sound like much of a contest.....but on a yacht that means 4/5 hours of extra sailing in the wrong direction.
We always like to leave land and make landfall in daylight hours and so the extra few hours around Asinara made the potential difference of one night or two nights at sea to sail from Sardinia to Menorca. A tough trade.

The Fornelli passage is only navigable in settled calm conditions and not after any strong winds which can leave a residual swell and current of up to 2 knots through the passage. This all sounds fine bit once again with a narrow channel between rocks and very little draft, a swell or current can be dangerous.
Our friend Lorenzo commented that a German yacht had recently been pulled off the rocks in Fornelli. In Stintino we both slept restlessly listening to the wind increasing, wondering if the sea would stay calm or create a swell for the following day.....making Fornelii a no go for us.

Tony and I studied the charts carefully, reading the pilot guides etc with Tony noting the transits and bearings.  We made the decision to get up early and to start into the deeper east side of the passage, see if there was a swell and turn around at the shallow west end if the sea was rougher as it met the west side open water.
From the east the transits have to line up.....two poles from in front of you and then a change of angle  for two transits lining up behind you.

Chart plotters and gps technology are the tools of the 21st century but poles and stone transits of antiquity are still the sailors guide.
We started into the passage with no current, no wind and a wonderful calm sea.....perfect conditions. Tony carefully followed the transits with me on the helm, steering, using the auto pilot for continuous bearing and watching our depth readout.  Tony used binoculars to call out left or right until we were on transit and then the left turn from 300degrees to 252 degrees to take us to the next heading. I hand steered until back on transit then auto pilot and tiny degrees of left / right change to keep on Tonys transit heading.
In the clear turquoise water we could clearly see the bottom rock and weed and due to Tonys superb navigation I didn't see the depth drop below 2 m below our keel.
The last part of the transit heading west takes you past two 3 m obstructions, rocks ,so we were happy to have passed north of them right in the channel, rather than over them ,with a 0.7 clearance.  The chart plotter also showed us passing in position just north of them.

Needless to say we were happy to see the depth flick quickly to 6 m and safely pass out of the passage to open water.
Our friend Lorenzo has also navigated this channel with the same model yacht as ours and no doubt other large yachts pass through the channel.

Tony was brilliant and super cautious and so the Fornelli passage is a pretty shortcut with lovely centuries old signalling towers and turquoise water.......but only to be attempted in the calmest of conditions.
And so we started sailing away from Sardinia heading West to the Balearics and Menorca approx 197 n miles and around 34 hours at sea.

As I sat on the stern of Tioram watching Sardinia disappear into the mist and haze of the humid day, I thought about a painting I know from my art lecturing days. It is a painting by the Pre-Rafaelite painter , Ford Madox Brown ,painted in 1864-6. It is a very large and poignant painting called ' last of England'. It depicts men and women , in the July of 1852, huddled together on an open boat with all of their carry able belongings sailing out to sea towards the goldfields of Australia ' new world' , emigrating to a new life, to new horizons, hopes and dreams.....watching the last of England disappear into the misty distance.
You can only get a sense of how brave those people were when you sail away into the Seas and Oceans.
So we watched the last silhouette of the mountains of Sardinia disappear into the misty horizon.

Photos  of.......
Early morning leaving Stintino
The Fornelli Passage
Heading out to sea and last of Sardinia.

Love to all
T and T x x x