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| Teulada, Sardinia |
I will not lie - we are sometimes lazy sailors. When the wind is not right: either not enough or from the wrong direction we will turn on our engine and "assist" the sails somewhat. Especially, when we have a long way to go. We got a late start from Trapani, as we had to wait on the fishing boat to move away from the fuel dock, which meant we would get in late the next day after an all night sail. We raised our sails as soon as we got away from the harbour but the wind was light and variable. On went the engine as we wanted to maintain at least five knots of SOG (speed over ground). If not, we might have two nights out and not one, or we may be trying to identify an unfamiliar harbour at night. We did not want to do either of those things.
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| Sardinia Coast |
Sailing in the Med is different from sailing in the Atlantic. For one, in the Med, there are numerous big ships and smaller boats as well. When you get way offshore in the Atlantic there is no-one and nothing around - just ocean from horizon to horizon. Which sounds scary but in many ways there is less danger. The water is very deep so you won't run aground, you won't run into the lee shore in a storm, you don't have to dodge huge tankers and cargo ships, there are no fishing buoys to watch out for and no fisherman dragging huge nets. Providing the weather is okay, you can just relax and enjoy the ride. If the weather is not good, you just deal with it or try to avoid it. Since there is no "safe harbour" to get to - there is also no time pressure. Ditto for time pressure getting to a harbour before dark, as again, there is no harbour at all. So time is not so much an issue... you set your sails and go and deal with what Mother Nature throws your way. If you are well prepared and are sailing at the right time for where you are, everything should be fine. Of course, there are occasional tragedies, however many, many sailboats cross oceans and have uneventful passages.
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| The water coming into Carloforte, Sardinia |
It is hard to describe the brilliant, teal blue color of the water in Sardinia. It is so perfect, you can't keep your eyes off of it. Sailors are adept at watching the water anyway, they are drawn to the water like a lover. The depth of color gives a sailor clues to the actual depth of the water - the lighter color is deeper and the darker is shallower. Very useful information for all sailors, but definitely for sailors of old who did not have all the fancy gadgets we have today.
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| Sardinia Coast |
We sailed from Trapani, Sicily to Teulada, Sardinia in a bit over 31 hours. It was around 1630 when we arrived and we were tired. I try to take a couple pictures wherever we are, but I failed to do so here. Just too tired. We got all tied up and checked in and then we ate something and went to sleep. Or at least thats what I imagine we did ... I honestly cannot remember the marina or what we did for dinner. That is how tired we were... and I have no photos to jog my memory. I remember the discussion we had when trying to find the harbour hidden behind a rock but thats about it. It was just a stopover for the night - nothing more. Next day we are heading to Carloforte, that is where we will go to check out of Italy before heading to Spain.
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