We had an uneventful night sail over to Sardinia on Friday evening despite crossing the Straits of Bonifacio – a heavy shipping channel. We saw a couple of large freight liners and a superyacht but none of them close enough to worry about. We had wind for the first three hours but then it died so the last 5 were with the motor. There was a significant swell of 1.5m that made it difficult for those off watch to sleep well but once we were moored up on a mooring buoy in the Asinara national park, sleep claimed us for the rest of the morning.

After a lazy breakfast in the late morning we took the dinghy ashore to wander around the ex penal colony and also walk to the beach at Cala Sabrina. The last time we were here it was in October and everything was shut. This time a bar, shops and plenty of tourists gave the place some life. It is still a barren and rugged place and we were pleased to see that the donkeys and goats were still going strong.

We were going to make our way further south towards Stintino so that we had less of a journey back to Alghero tomorrow but we felt so chilled that we decided to stay here the night.

Pictures of nimrod in the bay, the tower in Cala d’Oliva and the beach at Sabrina.

Cala d’Oliva

Sabrina Beach