Nimrod Oceanlord

We are finally on our way from Sardinia to Napoli on the Italian mainland, where we will be mooring Nimmie for the next 12 months. We flew into Alghero on Friday morning with Jase and Lee who are helping us move her the 300 plus miles. We set off from Alghero on Sat morning, having spent Friday getting her ready, including Lee fixing our outboard! Friday eve was spent at Pesce d’Oro, our favourite restaurant. It was a fond farewell to a place we had come to really like and the marina had looked after Nimrod well.

After an 18 hour trip – all bar two hours motoring – we arrived in the Maddalena islands on the NE coast of Sardinia to one of our favourite spots. Deadman’s Passage is a beautiful location with turquoise seas and quiet beaches on the island of Budelli. This is also where the famous Pink Beach is located although it is closed to the public. You have to admire it from afar! Arriving at 0445 meant that we had to carefully pick our way through the rocks and pick up a park authority buoy. We then went to sleep for the next few hours only to woken by the park rangers wanting their mooring fee. After a lazy breakfast, we went exploring and had the beach to ourselves for a time but being a Sunday afternoon the locals had other ideas! It was warm enough today to sunbathe on the beach and even go for a swim! A quiet evening ahead before leaving at midnight for our 30 hour trip towards the mainland of Italy. We are planning at stopping at the Pontine Islands sometime on Tuesday.

Pictures of a last view of Alghero, sunset last night, Jase and Lee whilst moored in Deadman’s Passage and the beach on Budelli.

This time last week we were in Alghero with my cousins, Bryan and Linda. It was a long weekend of planned boat jobs plus a few we hadn’t! Having got up at the crack of dawn, we caught the early flight as usual but were lucky that, as we had reserved seats, we got out of the terminal quickly and managed to catch an earlier bus than usual. By 10.30am local time we were having breakfast at our favourite cafe. Only Liz managed a beer that early! This meant that the food shopping was all done by midday so Thursday afternoon was spent going round a local winery, Cantina Santa Maria De Palma followed by a few tastings. We were fortunate to be there when the harvested grapes were being delivered.

Then onto Sella & Mosca, another winery but no free tasting there. The evening was spent at one of the best restaurants in town, Al Tuguri. A lovely meal and fine wine ate inside as there was a brisk breeze despite the temperature of 27 degrees earlier.

The next day, Liz and I got on with jobs (like the gas regulator suddenly not working) and our guests went off on a boat trip to Neptune’s Grotto – except the boat turned round at the headland as the swell was too much to get close to the cave entrance. We ate chicken tagine on board and sat in the cockpit until midnight. It had been another gloriously sunny day.

The following day we decided to hire a car and do some sightseeing. We had tried to find the Neollithic village of Appui on the road to Bosa last year but had failed so we were very pleased to find it this time. Fascinating site with a lovely little cafe and ticket office.

Then it was of to Bosa itself where we climbed the steps to the castle but didn’t bother going inside as it was pretty much a shell. The town itself is quite pretty with the castle on the hill behind. After a lunch of dubious quality, we drove back towards Alghero in the late afternoon and made our way up to Capo Caccia to catch the sunset. It was truly beautiful. Back to the boat for an on board BBQ and more wine tasting from our vineyard tour.

Sunday saw Liz being hoisted up the mast by yours truly, ably supported by Bryan to replace the anchor light with a LED dusk to dawn light that will use a tenth of the power of conventional bulbs and only be on during the night time. Liz also replaced some of the melted caulking (the black rubber stuff between the teak strips) which turned out to be a long and messy job!

As this was one of our last night’s in Sardinia, we had cocktails before trying a new restaurant, Restaurant O, on the ramparts. Great meal and not pricey despite being run by a master chef.

Before we knew it, it was Monday morning and time to get to the airport. It had been a lovely few days in gorgeous, sunny weather. Next time will truly be our last time as we will be moving Nimrod to the Bay of Naples.

Day one:
We arrived at Nimrod in time for breakfast beers, was this to set the pattern for things to come? Foolishly allowed Benny to select a play list which consisted of Kenny Rogers! Thank god for Jo and Liz’s Ibiza mix. Enjoyed a lazy afternoon familiarising ourselves with our setting. Sampled cocktails and lobsters that bit back in the old town. There were reports of locals and other tourists being attacked by flying lobster shell!

Day two:
Started early (12.30) in anticipation of turquoise sea and sandy cove. Wind was lacking but sun was high so motored over to Porto Conte. Spent the evening swimming in lovely bay shared with some local mullet and star fish. Beautiful BBQ meat feast accompanied by local ravers till 6am.

Day 3:
After a trip to the local market we managed to get the sails up (for 30mins as wind wasn’t in our favour) and impress skipper with our race team potential! Sailed passed the fabulous Neptune grotto and honey combed cliffs. Trip made extra special by sharing the seas with two dolphins. Porto Ferro didn’t disappoint, yet more turquoise sea and sweeping beaches but this time with a back drop of old look out towers and a few naked gay boys. Swimming and lilo fun had by all although Liz Wall is still mourning the loss of her €2 toy(!) The evening continued with beers, a feast of cous cous and hammock swinging. Unfortunately, the peace was broken at 2am when the swell became too much and Jo announced to her crew “that’s it, we’re moving” and a night sail ensured. We arrived back at Porto Conte and the local rave at 5.30am ready for our beauty sleep.

Day four:
Once again a lovely breakfast enjoyed on deck in the beautiful sunshine. Had to hoist Liz Wall up the mast to stop her running off to the local beach bar disco! Meanwhile, we spent our time diving to take a look at the fish, giant clam and retrieving various objects! (Sorry about your camera lens Ali!). Had ten knots of wind so were looking forward to a sail again, but sadly after raising the sail wind dropped to 4 – So once again the team were thwarted at being able to show their great racing team potential.
When back in harbour we scrubbed Nimrod within an inch of her life, before heading for dinner at Kings restaurant for our last evening meal together……lovely 🙂

Quotes of the week:

“Darling that’s an onion!”
“Night time, day time”
“Crisp time, beer time”
“Shit, shit, shit”
“Al, al, al, al, al”
“Quick, where’s the fishing net”
“What?! I’m just eating cheese off ben’s shin”
“That’s it we’re moving! (Darling do you mind if I have a sleep!”)
“It’s 5.45am, why aren’t they in bed?”

Pictures of our time on Nimrod including BBQ, beach fun, eating out and beautiful sunset.

We were really looking forward to a long weekend away. The forecast was looking good at 36 degrees with light winds – perfect for some R&R in a local bay. The six of us arrived in Alghero at 10am after an early start from Luton. We stopped at our favourite cafe for a focaccia and a beer before going to the boat. Liz went with Donna and Liz C to do the food shop whilst Ben, Aly and I got the boat ready. Most had a little snooze for an hour or so before going into town where we all went for local rock lobster with spaghetti, washed down with the local white vermentino. Very nice.

Today, after a leisurely breakfast, there was no wind so we motored to Porto Conte – the large bay about 8nm from Alghero just before the main headland of Capo Caccia. We arrived around 2pm and anchored in a bay by the local marina. The first time we anchored it didn’t set properly as it seemed we had found a thin layer of sand over rock. We were okay whilst we had lunch but didn’t want to risk it overnight so we moved to another area of the bay and reset it. We are about to have a BBQ but needed to wait until it had cooled down a bit as it was still 31 degrees at 7.30pm!

Pictures of our meal on the ramparts, Liz C helping with supper and the beach at Porto Conte.

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