Running from storms

On our return to Olbia, we were happy to find a space available on the free dock. With hardly any wind when we arrived, mooring alongside, in the relatively small space, went well. We got chatting to our neighbours and joined them later for a nightcap. They were following the same route that we have planned for the rest of the summer, and had booked the same winter marina, so I’m sure we will meet up with them again along the way.

Olbia has a smart cobbled waterfront lined with palm trees and grassy areas (kept neat with the help of a ‘Spider-Man’ robot), very different to how it looked on our last visit in 2009 when it was all a little scruffy.

The city has a small historic centre with stone buildings and churches, and a main shopping street which attracts many tourists in the evening. There are piazza’s with a choice of restaurants, cafes and souvenir shops.

We found a little pizza restaurant just off the Main Street where we sat under colourful umbrellas, shading us from the last rays of evening sun. After dinner, we couldn’t avoid the temptation of a small craft ale bar in the corner of the main piazza.

As the sky went dark, the streets got busier, musicians sat along the street playing their favourite tunes and market stalls were set up displaying hand made crafts and souvenirs.

Being moored in the city we were sheltered from any breeze and our stay was very hot and stuffy, with the humidity also increasing through the night. However, stormy weather was on its way which would hopefully bring cooler weather and clear the air a little. The next day we left the dock and motored back out of the Olbia channel. We anchored a few miles outside of the channel, at Porto Istana, which would give us shelter from the storm.

The forecasted strong winds came the following day, blowing from all directions and spinning us around the anchor, giving us panoramic views of the hills and beaches lining the bay. The anchor held fast and we actually had a comfortable couple of days here.

Our next stop was a further 25nm up the coast to Golfo Saline. The journey was mostly under power as there was a light northerly wind and a residual southerly swell causing a very lumpy sea with waves crashing over the bow. We took a slight detour, between the islands around a nature reserve, for a calmer sea.

Arriving in the bay, we anchored in clear water with a good view of ‘bear rock’. It didn’t look much like a bear during the day, but was easier to see it in the evening when it was helpfully illuminated.

We had another day of strong wind, with more stormy weather and winds up to 50kn due to hit the top of Sardinia, so we decided to continue on and hopefully get north of the worst of it. Our course was set to travel 35 nm to Corsica. After leaving the bay, a view of the back of ‘bear rock’ was in sight and it really looked more like a bear from this angle.

Black clouds descended upon us with some light showers, as we passed the Maddelaina Islands. These islands are within a nature reserve and very beautiful so it was a pity to miss them, but having previously visited 16 years ago, we decided that we would prefer to press on and avoid being in the middle of the storm.

With a force 4 easterly wind, we had a great sail across the Bonafacio straits. The French curtesy flag was hoisted before eventually arriving in Porto Vecchio where we dropped our anchor into a seabed of mud and settled in for the evening.

Over the next couple of days we did have wind but only gusting up to 25 kts, which was not too bad and we were certainly glad that we headed north and escaped the worst of the storm. This weather map shows the wind, Porto Vecchio is the green dot, the blue dot below is around the top of Sardinia. The light red shows winds of 25 kts, darker red shows stronger winds of 35-45 kts, whereas the grey/black areas forecast winds of 50+ kts.