Telltales 76

Corsica and Sardinia, the likes of Costa Esmerelda and Cala di Volpe.

Roland left the dreamy and glorious Lipari Islands to head back north to Corsica and the north part of Sardinia for the next two months of chartering there. Manoel, the autopilot, steered the boat, while Roland did more or less nothing on this 1,5 day trip. It was only at 6 in  the  morning of the second day that things turned less bright, as the wind had picked up from nothing to 25 knots, right on the nose of course. It took a rather wet 9 hours to make it to the shelter of Porto Cervo, although I could see it the whole day. Motor sailing under a staysail we did our best, only to get more wet, with every wave that came over the boat. A very unpleasant trip and not to be repeated in the near future, I hope.

I picked up Mr. and Mrs. Smith in Ajaccio and we sailed up and down a glorious Corsica, with no wind at all. The heat wave that we already had in Naples and Lipari islands simply continued We anchored in places and in front of beaches, where one normally would not be able to stop. Bonifacio remains the treat of this area and steals everyone's heart every time. But, my goodness, it was hot and damp. Sleeping on deck was the only solution, to the utter delight and biggest adventure of the kids, who were allowed to sleep there as well

I sailed down from Ajaccio to Porto Rotondo (Sardinia) overnight, while Manolo did all the work again and Roland watched movies on his newApple computer (thanks Rob). And it was here that Marit and Roland were reunited for two weeks of holiday-ing together. Marit had been working in Nigeria till begin July and had just spend a few days in the house in Symi, but once again took 3 planes to join Roland. A few days later we were joined byAndrea "Deja Fini", our Milanese friend. And the crew of Agneta completed our dreamy evenings around the BBQ on Sylphe. We managed to invent some kind of body surfing behind the dinghy and it became an instant hit, although I might have to buy a more powerfull outboard soon, aas I keep destroying propellors.

Begin August saw the first signs of Mistral and it coincided with Marits last days. Out and over with a period of more than 1,5 months of great (and too hot) temperatures and NO wind. In the next weeks I would long back to those days as the weather in August is absolute CRAZY.
Giovanni (our Olbian taxi driver) is now a regular for trips to the airport, for Marit or clients. I have kept him busy over the last weeks and he has the SYLPHE sign permanently in his car. But it is good to have friends here.
The month of August saw crsuing along the Costa Esmeralda and in and out of the Strait of Bonifacio.  Under the most weird and varied conditions possible:
The good thing about this crazy weather is that nobody will believe my clients when they tell this back at home and complain to their freinds: hail??  in Sardinia??? in August???. haha,!!!! some grappa too many maybe.


Cruising in this area AND in the month of Agust means it is HIGH SEASON at it worst. The harbors are full and you do not get a berth, period. The anchorages are crowded and the italians have invented several taxes to make sure you pay either way. The first one is a tax for every boat to enter Sardinian waters, invented by the governor of Sardinia. No one pays, but a lot of boats have stayed away and remain in Corsica, urging the Corsican to put up a sign :"Thank you, Sardinia" Ha, that is humor.
The second one is a tax for the National Park....and guess what...the national park encompasses almost every possible anchorage!!!!! When I enquired to obtain a license for a month the girl behind the counter asked if was sure. Only THAN I asked her how much it was PER DAY. I walked out of the office after receiving the answer.
And finally, in a lot of anchorages mooring bouys are in place, but these cost money as well of course....and NO you are not allowed (officially) to put down your own anchor.

I can only ask myself: is it because of this or despite this, that still the complete world of Super yachting gathers here. The number of super motoryachts was uncountable, the number of helicopters on them significant and the size of their dinghys is some times equal to Sylphe's overall length. And on the sailboat front: The Maltese Falcon, Wally's and Perini Navi's fight for your attention. Amazing and horryfying at the same time.

But to compensate for all of this, there were the classics as well: Eleonora, Deva, Zacca, Owl, Agneta and many Sangermani's