Carloforte, Isola San' Pietro, Sardinia
Beowulf
Tom Fenton and Faith Ressmeyer
Tue 27 May 2014 14:30
Warped the boat round (ie turned it round using ropes, to face the way we want to go out) before leaving the quay at Buggeru. Klaus went out backwards and grounded as he turned. So restricted is the room for manoeuvre in that silted harbour. Sand has almost filled the harbour. Already the south end of both basins is now a sandy beach, and someone has enterprisingly set up a small cafe to cater for beach users. A safe place to swim. There is still water to most of the dock but only one electricity station has power to three of its sockets. Who, I wonder, is paying for this. There is a toilet and shower cabin. It is not cleaned, but it has hot water. It is a dream like landscape - reality seems to have tilted. I asked the owner of one of the local boats whether there was a harbour office during the holiday season. No no, he said, abandonato. Like the mine works on the cliff above. Like Tharros. Farewell.
We sailed in a good breeze to Pan de Zucchero, the Sugarloaf, a pinnacle rock standing 130 metres sheer above sea level, and then to Carloforte. Ferries enter and leave the harbour every half hour or so, so we turned the engine on in case we had to manoeuvre suddenly, but sailed into the harbour without using it. A large harbour with plenty of room to get the sails down. We chose Marina Sifredi in the NW corner, reasonably well sheltered although you get the wash from the ferries throughout the day and night. The town is small and not prosperous, but it was gearing itself up with gusto for the annual festival of the massacre of the tuna. We decided not to stay.