Hiding from the Mistral

Yesterday we sailed, well motored, up the miles and miles of white sanded coast towards Olbia.

Saw a beautiful black hulls 115 ft yacht along the way, which was beautiful to watch and seemingly able to sail with very little wind.. motor sailing perhaps!

As ever the wind didn’t decide to join us until 30 minutes from where we wanted to stop, Cala Coda Cavallo.

We dropped anchor there about 7.30pm with a no of other boats around us, sheltered from the seas but not the winds which stayed with us gusting up to 25 knots at time through the night. Our anchor held fast but being always conscious that it could drag, meant a rather fitful night’s sleep.

This morning, having checked Movingweather, it was clear that later tonight the dreaded Mistral was on its way, that is a North Westerly which blows from anything above a Force 5 to Gale force. With that in mind a few calls were made to find a marina for the next couple of nights. We dared to try Porto Cervo as we are still in June but as none of the telephone nos worked and previous emails sent to them were still unanswered (pretty poor show for what is meant to be The Marina on the island), we gave up. We then tried one another who told us to phone back later in the afternoon, great help that was, so we reverted to Marina di Olbia who we knew were very professional, and grabbed a mooring for 2 nights there.

We set off, still a healthy Force 4, main sail reefed, but under motor as we negotiated the rocks and shallows in that area for a couple of miles, watching the clouds roll over the top of the Islands.

Clear of all that, we put the Genny up, again reefed, just as the winds cranked up to a Force 7 gusting 8! Fab sailing, at a rate of nearly 9 knots over ground, we popped around the corner, dodged a ferry and arrived safely in Oblia at 2pm this afternoon.

The plan now is to weather the Mistral here, hire a car tomorrow for a day to explore the places we wont get to by boat, including good Old Porto Cervo. David has not been and should see it, although, as my good friend Nova will recall, I haven’t been there for more than 20 years either. I wonder how it has changed, for better or worse, watch this space!