Once you have passed the La Maddalena Archipelago Park, you might think that you are about to embark on a long (and possibly boring) ride south along the east coast of Sardegna. This is far from the case, and we found some of the most moving views of the island.
Below are some of these unique spots!
First, a resort of Porto Cervo, seen from the sea as we leave the harbour. Not bad at all!
A view of the rocks along the coast. Of course there are the same underwater things to look out for!
An improbable construction on a military island.
Below is the military island of Isola Tavolara (Tavola means table). Indeed, a view of Table Mountain without Cape Town below.
We spent a night in La Caletta on the way to Arbatax to split the sailing into two legs of 45 miles each, which would normally take 8 to 9 hours each.
Belisama in the marina of Arbatax, in the centre of the picture
Morning pearl in the boat. Nights are still quite fresh!
Then, we went for a walk in the small town of Arbatax.
This small altar on a street corner was referred to as a chapel in Google Maps,
the Cappella del Sacro Cuore di Gesù
Another street chapel a few hundred meters
A monument for the unknown soldier lost at sea, referring probably to the first world war
These memorials remind me of Brittany, a land of seafarers, where you can find many such chapels and monuments to the memory of those lost at sea.
We learnt today that cacti can have flowers! Maybe an idea for our garden in Pula?
As the water in Arbatax is undrinkable, households install large clay pot filters
outside their homes or on their balconies.
Finally, a few encounters along the way worth a few digressions...
We met two big boats on the way and they happened to be exceptional boats. The first was called Vava II The registration flag looks British, but it is actually from the Cayman Islands (don't forget we are close to Porto Cervo).
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A quick search on the internet reveals that she belongs to
Ernesto Bertarelli , an Italian-born Swiss billionaire businessman and philanthropist, according to Wikipedia. As for the 97 metre long 6-deck
Vava II it was launched in 2012. The engine power is 11922 horsepower. For reference, Belisama has 55 hp. She can accommodate 50 guests, looked after by a crew of 30, for cruises of up to 5,000 nautical miles on her
615,000 litre tank (no typo in the fuel capacity)! Surely she cannot be refueled in Porto Cervo.
The sad news for us :-) was that we could not greet Ernesto, the great sailor (he won the America's Cup twice with
Alinghi), as the ship's helicopter was not on board.
The second exceptional boat was
Bravewind a large cargo ship. She is 148 metres long with an open deck measuring 128 x 28 metres.
It took us a minute to realise that she was carrying 8 blades for offshore wind turbines. Given the length of the ship, we estimated that each blade should be about 80 metres long. And after checking on the internet, the latest offshore windmills do indeed reach 200 metres, with blades around 80 metres long! For some inexplicable reason, she was sailing at 1.7 knots for hours on end, as we later saw on MarineTraffic. She was heading north, although her destination on Marinetraffic was Amsterdam. Not quite the right direction!
Finally we came across the Nouvo Fiore, a fishing vessel based in Arbatax.
Back to reality!
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