Sabbaticus Travel Log: Sicily to Sardinia

Ragusa to Trapani

Is this the future?

After a leisurely start, doing the rounds of farewells to friends the engine was started, lines slipped and we left Ragusa with fond memories of our time there. For once the weather forecast was accurate and we had great down wind sailing conditions for the 24hrs sail to Trapani. So much for an easy trip to get our sea legs, most of the time it was F5/6 then increased to F7 (28-33kts) for the last few hours. Despite starting out in shorts and tee-shirts by sunset we were in full wet weather gear with rain from 0400hrs - so much for summer sailing!

Sunday stroll ...

We arrived at Trapani and after being squeezed into a marina berth enjoyed a leisurely day to stroll around the town before departing for Sardinia. Of note (again) when completing the marina check in our flag was mistakenly identified as Australian, but when Leanne advised it was the NZ flag the friendly Maurizio quickly did the haka actions with a big smile and then proceeded to show her YouTube footage of the haka!

Arrival in Sardinia

It was an early departure from Trapani, but the bonus was seeing the beautiful sunrise as we headed towards Sardinia, a passage of 155NM. Again it was mixed weather from calm to near gale conditions and long-johns/full wet weather gear again. 30hrs later we arrived tired and pleased to be in Villasimius, Sardinia and away from the lumpy confused seas.

Best mate on her birthday

After a night to recover the wind was favourable so we departed up the east coast for a 6hr sail to Porto Corallo - a local fishing harbour with only a few cruising yachts and not much else. With the best mate's birthday looming the Skipper decided to take her sailing for the day - up the coast to Santa Maria Navarrese. It was then out for dinner in the #1 restaurant (only 15 listed on Trip Advisor). The menu was certainly different and included 'ewe, donkey, horse, goat and pork'. We had enough adventure this far and opted for the safe choice of pizza and half litre of local wine - which was perfect way to end a good day.

Local fishermen - Porto Corallo

We had several days at Santa Maria waiting for suitable wind and enjoyed the coastal walks along the spectacular, rugged cliffs. It was then a hard 10 hour sail up the coast to La Caletta in 30-35kts and challenging conditions with katabatic gusts rolling off the cliffs and mountains along the coast. This was the first trip where the autopilot "Tommy" was off watch for the entire passage - due to the gusty and highly changeable conditions. We will now spend several weeks cruising around the top of Sardinia.

Below are some photos from this trip and a short video clip from last year sailing in Greece in perfect conditions - which we finally got around to editing now! Please note it was the skipper's choice of music to accompany the video - next time the best mate is choosing!!