Up the West coast to Bosa Marina

Night was surprisingly calm and we slept well. In the morning our anchorage was even prettier than the evening before.

After the breakfast we sailed off, between cliffs and the island. In the almost vertical rocks opposite the small island was Porto Flavia. It was named after the daughter of engineer who designed it in 1926.

Below the building there was a crane for loading ships with minerals that were mined here and were brought to this point through tunnels. Water below is more than 15m deep so ships could anchor right beneath the cliff. It is now under Unesco protection and if we have time (if the calm weather lasts that long) on our way back, we might stop again and take the tour.

The small island has two holes and we saw some motor boats sail though them. We couldn't, unless we would saw our mast off.

Further up North coast is rocky and wild.

There are many Genovese towers everywhere. The Genovese republic controlled a big part of Mediterranean, pretty much in the same time the Venetian republic controlled Adriatic.

We tried sailing, but were very slow, so we mostly motored the whole day. We saw many birds...

...and couple of dolphins.

The water was so clear, we could see the dolphins coming up to the boat from the deep.

They came couple of times. We were the only non-fishing boat around, and their best chance to play a little.

Only in the afternoon we were able to sail a little. We turned into Oristano Bay and tie the boat to the mooring buoy on the West side of the bay. Buoys are free, put there to protect Poseidonia gras. In the evening we had a nice sunset, that coloured the sea green and sky light purple and made the buildings on the other side of bay glow.

We had a good night. Right next to our buoy was this Genovese tower...

...and a bit further North another one with old Roman ruins.

We didn't go ashore, we just took a look at them from the boat.

Although we expected to motor again the whole day, we were able to sail nicely. It was just enough wind to make 4 to 5 knots and we weren't in a hurry.

In the afternoon we reached the bay of Bosa Marina and anchored there. It is a port for town Bosa, that is situated 2 miles up the river. It was quite windy, but warm, and we went for a swim in crystal turquoise water. Captain prepared the dinghy and the outboard and made a test drive. We last used outboard last August. Luckily everything was working well. We wanted to sail to the town next day with the dinghy.

After a calm and good night and breakfast we sailed around the forth...

...and into the river. Scenery was so different, calm, peaceful.

After some time we reached the town...

...where banks were full of all kinds of small vessels...

...along pretty houses...

...and under the second bridge, where we tied our dinghy.

After a short walk we made a stop for gelato. It was delicious.

Then we walked through narrow streets with colourful houses...

...and even climbed a few steps up the hill, where we could see the town, the river and all the way to the sea. But it was too hot to walk all the way up to the fortress.

This is the right kind of vehicle for narrow streets of old Italian towns.

I liked the way they were "recycling" the old cans.

Beyond the town, to the East,  everything is green.

The fortress above the town, Maybe next time we're here, when it's not so hot.

We ended up in a nice cool restaurant and had a very delicious lunch. Yes, Italian food, wines and gelato are famous for a reason.

After lunch we did some shopping in one of the big supermarkets, luckily not far away from our dinghy. We mostly bought fruit and veggies, and bread, and two bottles of Sardinian wine. Everything else we still have from Spain.

After the expedition we were pretty tired and were just resting on the boat and swam a lot for the rest of the day. It was a really hot day, with almost no wind, not like the day before. We didn't even need any food, since we had such a big lunch. Since it was Friday, there were couple of parties going on on the beach, but not for too long. Everything went quiet shortly after midnight and we thought night would be calm. But no, at around 3 in the morning waves started rolling into the bay from SW, pounding on our boat and rolling it violently. None of us could sleep. We would gladly re-anchor, but we didn't know where to go. Luckily the worst didn't last long and towards the morning we were able to go back to sleep.

Next morning there were still some waves and the anchorage a bit rolly, so we sailed off already after the coffee. We were trying to figure out where the waves came from, but there was no wind anywhere near this side of Sardinia. Needless to say, none of the weather forecasts mentioned it either. Our next destination was Alghero, but we were mostly interested to find a good calm anchorage for the night and get some sleep.