Olbia

On thursday we headed to Olbia - we actually sailed back south a couple of miles. Our friend Lidija was leaving on friday, so we had to go back to civilization to get her on the plane. We tied our boat to town quay - for free. There is also a good space for anchoring in front of the quay, if the quay is full. This already makes Olbia sailor-friendly town. This also explains why there were a couple of boats that didn't move from the quay for more then a week.

Our boat beside the quay with the town behind.

There is a good supermarket not far from the port, so stocking up was not difficult. There are plenty of restaurants with reasonable prices and we had a very good pizza (first one since we're in Italy) on friday night. And that's all there is about Olbia. The town itself is not very interesting, no old town center or interesting buildings. We stayed till sunday, mainly because of bad weather forecast. On friday it was very windy, there was strong hot wind blowing from SE, with waves coming all the way through the bay to the port. On saturday picture changed - wind was blowing from W, it was even stronger and quite cold. It felt like the end of summer! The wind was result of the weather front coming from golf of Lyon, which was coming down along the west coast of Sardinia and part of it from west through the strait between Corsica and Sardinia. And big waves came with it. So we knew, that even if we decided to continue our journey, we would have strong wing and waves up our noses all the time. So we decided to wait in Olbia till sunday. Actually, once one gets used to civilization again, it is not so bad - i could have stayed another day or two! We had our hair cut, we had fresh bread every day already for breakfast, trash cans were just a short walk away and there were many friendly boaters to have a word or two with.

We left Olbia on sunday at about noon - lately we always need so much time to get ready to sail off. Don't know why ...  This is Olbia looking back from beginning if the marked channel.

A lighthouse is guarding the entrance to the channel.

Although weather was supposed to be less wild on sunday, there was still more then plenty of wind (up to 25 knots) and quite high waves, of course on the nose. We sailed only on our small flock and it was very bumpy. After two hours of what i call hard work, we decided to turn back to coast again and make a stop at Cala di Volpe. And it was such a change - suddenly we were in this little fjord with green water, no waves, less wind, so it was actually warm again. It was beautiful! 

There are some great looking houses around Cala, there were some big expensive yachts and sailboats anchored around us, but most fascinating was the nature - the coastline with sandy beaches, interrupted by big boulders,  and emerald water, so inviting. 

Entrance to Cala di Volpe

Looking up the Cala towards north

Boulders on east side near the entrance

We had lunch, took a swim, then realized that we have to move on. It would be so nice to stay, but ... Our plan is to start a passage to Menorca on tuesday (the weather looks most cooperative on tuesday and wednesday this week), so we have to be somewhere around Capo Falcone on monday evening.

When we came around the corner, we saw that weather didn't improve. This time the wind and the waves were directly in our nose so we motored for couple of hours.

We came by this pretty old lighthouse and old village before sailing by the bay of Arzachena to our anchorage, Golfo dela Salline. It was getting dark and we were fed up with wind and waves, so we stopped for the night. And rewarded ourselves with baked bananas with lots of melted chocolate. But boy do we have some long miles to travel tomorrow .....