The Mediterranean islands Sardinia and Corsica
From Cagliari, we explore the east coast of Sardinia and the Maddalena archipelago. A short detour to Corsica, a forced stopover in Bonifacio and lots of crew changes on board the CERVINO.
Welcome to Sardinia!
The CERVINO Express is back in the Mediterranean! Sardinia & Corsica are two popular holiday islands in the Mediterranean, neither of which I have ever visited. Their reputation precedes them, and we are really looking forward to seeing them for ourselves. We have a lot of family on board during this stage and we enjoy the quiet time before high season.
On the east coast of Sardinia
We drive from Cagliari to Villasimius, where we sleep in and then spend a few days with my parents. They are currently travelling with their camper van, the weather and their schedule are just right, allowing us to enjoy this lovely reunion ❤ A few days later, Thierry's parents join us on board the CERVINO for a fortnight. Their return flight departs from Olbia, which means that we will explore the east coast of Sardinia together.
Although the wind conditions are reported to be rather mild, we are able to sail most of the way. The east coast of Sardinia doesn't offer much protection from wind and waves, which is why we often seek shelter in a harbour for the night. We find the Baunei marina in Santa Maria Navarrese particularly cosy. We spend a few nights in a row here, partly because our engine is losing cooling water again, partly because the weather isn't really playing ball and finally because Peter has probably caught a bad mussel. After a few days, we manage to sail further north, and as soon as we pass Cape Coda Cavallo, we find sheltered anchorages again ⚓ Thierry's brother Cédric and his family visit us here, we explore the Maddalena archipelago and have a few windy kite sessions in Porto Pollo.
Gone with the wind
Between the two islands of Corsica & Sardinia there is often a lot of wind. After all the members of the Müller family have left us again, the forecast is so strong that we decide to "flee" to the east coast of Corsica. And so we do, with a stopover on the beautiful island of Lavezzi. We drop anchor in the bay of Pinarellu with a wind of 20 knots. We feel safe here. After a few days, the wind dies down up here and we can leave the boat alone. We explore the area on a scooter: pain au chocolat, everything imaginable with chestnuts and a spontaneous canyoning excursion sweeten our first Corsica experience.
Back to Sardinia
As our next visitors on the CERVINO are practically just around the corner, we have to get back to Sardinia. So, we spend an afternoon sailing back to Porto Pollo in windy conditions. Here we meet the Pat Pat family. They have their base camp at a campsite nearby and want to slowly get used to the boat feeling with the kids. As everyone feels comfortable and the weather is fine, we even go on a three-day trip with the seven of us. There's probably never been so much action on the CERVINO 😉 Again, time goes by super fast and our crew shrinks back down to two.
Now we have a few more days until our next crew arrives. We fulfil a small wish and treat ourselves to two nights in the marina of Bonifacio. We enjoy the days as a couple, exploring the town and the surrounding area, and we don't miss out on the nightlife either. A marvellous little break that we both really enjoy. Then it's off to Sardinia again (once more)! 😆 Because this is where we want to pick up our crew for the next two weeks. We start the engine and suddenly there's a noise that we don't like at all. Really not at all. We can't sail like this, but we can't stay in the harbour either (thank you, high season) and so we move to the bay next door. This is part of the harbour and has mooring lines, which is cool, but the manoeuvre would be much easier if there were three of us 🥴 So we moor up and it turns out that the water pump on our engine is broken, which is why it's making noises. If it blocked, it would be fatal, so it has to be repaired immediately. We can order all the parts from the Volvo shop in the harbour, wait 5 days and take half the engine apart. In the meantime, our crew have also found us, as we couldn't get to them. That's just the way sailing life is.
You have to be flexible.
As soon as the new pump arrives, it is installed and the engine is started with a great deal of nervousness. And it runs - woooooooho! 🥳 What a relief. Now we can finally get on with it!
Balearics, get ready!
We want to go to Menorca. This time we have a very special crew on board: on the one hand there is Mirko, the Captain of Captains, who is sailing round the world himself. His boat is currently in New Zealand (yes, he sailed there) and he is spending a few months in Switzerland to earn money. He is now spending two weeks on holiday with us and we are looking forward to spending time together. Our good friends Alessandro & Zoe (you may remember them from previous blog posts) are also joining us, as the possibility of them accompanying us on our Atlantic crossing is on the table. However, as neither of them have any sailing experience, this short crossing will serve as a taster sailing trip and help them decide. We are really looking forward to it!
After a few anchor stops in north-west Sardinia and a few days in the harbour with strong winds, we finally set sail for Spain! We're sailing west! We're sailing - towards the Atlantic 🌍.
Menorca, here we come!