Sardinia

Fish farming in Sardinia

It was only about a six hour trip the next day to reach Carloforte but we still left fairly early as we wanted to visit the town a bit.  It seemed we were the only ones out on the water that morning. But then as we were coming out of one bay and into another, we noticed a power boat coming at us fast.  Both of us thought it was a pleasure boat running wide open and our thought was "that guy is going to wake us and it won't be pretty".  Michael was giving them the "what the hell" look as they got closer and closer.  As soon as we saw the guns though, we thought uh oh... we better slow down.  As it turns out it was the Italian Military warning us that they were getting ready to start live firing exercises where we happened to be sailing.  They told us what course to take and to stay on that course for five miles... after that we could resume our plotted course.  No problem ... we are changing course!  We had no desire to be shot on that particular day (or any day)!

Sardinian Coastline

Our first impression of the Sardinian coastline was that it appeared very Spartan.  As unpopulated as Sicily is populated.  It is both pretty and rugged.  Up near Corsica is apparently very beautiful but we will have to come back for that visit.  It is very clear to us how folks would just want to linger here for a long time.  The isolation is appealing and the water is such a clear vivid blue.  

 

Coming in to Carloforte

Carloforte is a small, charming town.  They were having a "tuna festival" so there was a lot of horn honking going on by folks in funny costumes.  We replenished our grocery supplies, got fuel, did a bit of exploring and then went to find the Guardia Costiera to "check out" of Italy.  That involved a bit of fuss and paper shuffling but we managed to get it all accomplished in about 30 minutes.  

Sardinia coastline

The town of Carloforte is on the side of the Isola di San Pietro, as opposed to the tip of the island.  I puzzled over which way would be the quickest for getting around the island and the closest for our course.  I decided against going the way we came in, choosing instead to go around the other way.  There was a fishing boat coming around us as we were starting to come around the island.  They were staring at us... we thought it was because of our American flag.  Our misconception was soon revealed by Port Control,  who was then calling us on the VHF radio.  The path I had chosen ran right through a "restricted area".  About the time Port Control called we started to notice the huge fish farming operation going on in the area.  So thats why they were staring!!  Again we were given a heading to follow for five miles away from the fish farm ... after that we could get back on our course.  

Fishing boat

Maybe its just as well it was a brief visit to Sardinia ... we haven't had the best of luck navigating the area so far :).  Once out of the fish farming area we got on our course to Menora, Spain - another overnight passage.