Our next destination was set to be Santa Maria Navarrese and we weighed anchor at 1041 and set a southerly course in reasonable winds and, as usual on this trip, we managed to sail all the way to the entrance of our destination.

We were welcomed by to marina staff members, who took our lines, and were extremely friendly, as were the staff in the office. €50 per night and a discount for Cruising Association Members of 10%.

We were here two years ago, and neither Ed nor I can remember much about it. Looking at our logs of two years ago, we reminded ourselves that we arrived here quite late in the evening and left early the next day. So that’s probably why we don’t remember much about this town and not for the fact that we overindulged. Phew a relief.

We settled into our new home, and then took a walk into town, up a slight incline and a distance of a kilometre. We never ventured this far on our last visit. The town is delightful. Full of hotels, restaurants, shops and delightful properties. We ventured further up the hill, past ever more beautiful houses, overlooking the marina and bay. We were tempted to eat out, but Ed and I made a pact to eat on board and so we descended back to the marina and to Arctura. Our neighbours, were a delightful Swiss family, who invited us for a drink on their, slightly smaller Dufour, and we struck up a good rapour. back to Arctura, and down to the special business of watching Liverpool beat Tottenham, in the UEFA league final 2-0, Alex will be happy as his team became the champions.

The next day we decided to get to tourist boats and visit the caves, some 12 miles north the the marina. At €46, plus the additional €8 to enter the caves, it seemed quite expensive, but we decided to go for it. We just about managed to catch the 0930 boat, but were a little rushed and forgot a few things, such as Edwards iPhone, swimming trunks and towels. Anyway, we made our way out of the marina and along the coast, which we had said the previous day, but this time a lot closer, at times literally 4 metres from the steep cliff face. I think the biggest danger being so close is falling rocks rather than depth.

The coast is stunning, the cliffs simply rise virtically out of the sea. Occasionally, there are incredible beaches along the 12 miles of coast the we visited. You have the option of stopping at beaches or going to caves, we choose the caves. There is however a compulsory beach stop for lunch, with a pleasant restaurant located some 300 metres from the shore. We stopped here and had a couple of basic pasta dishes at reasonable prices.

We visited two caves, Grotta del Fico and Grotte del Beau Marino. Both are amazing and worth the visit. The cost of entry was €8 and €10 respectively.

The boat tour, with stops, lasts the whole day and covers approximately 15 miles. We left at 0930 and didn’t get back until 1800. We’ll worth the money and in my opinion should not be missed.

We invited our Swiss friends for a drink at the marina bar and exchanged sailing stories. A really pleasant family and hopefully we’ll stay in touch and may meet again.

This is an amazing quite and yet very sociable town, with many bars, restaurants and activities, one of which includes diving, which is probably fabulous in the crystal clear turquoise waters in this region.

The next day we walked into town to pick up some basic food supplies and walked down towards the beach and back to the marina. The beach looks fantastic, clean and with inviting waters. I dare say this town is awfully busy in the height of summer.

We slipped lines at noon and engined up the coast again and onto the anchorage of Cala Goloritze, which we had passed by ferry the prior day. Lovely scenery, and we were going to stay overnight, but it was rather folly, with passing pleasure boats and northerly swell. So we moved onto an anchorage south of Arbatax, Cala Frailis.

5th June 2019

Slipping lines at 1056, we raised sails whilst still in the marina and headed out of Porto Corallo and into open water. Our planned destination is Villasimius. We managed to sail until 1420, when the wind dropped and on went the engine. As we approached the south eastern tip of Sardinia, “Capo Carbonara”, the wind pipped up and we managed to sail the last 2nms to an anchorage in ” Spiaggia di Campulongu”, which is just a stones throw from Marina Di Villasimius.

The anchorage seemed very settled and protected from the south easterly swell and there were at least 8 yachts already at anchor. So we dropped the hook in 8 mtrs and decided to see how Arctura settled. All seemed fine, and calm, and as we sat on deck more and more yachts arrived.

We watched as they anchored and I made a note of all the different nationalities we had in our bay. Two Canadian, several English, Australian, Dutch, French, Swedish and even a RAF ensign, were all anchored in our Cala. Quite appropriate for the 75th anniversary of the D Day landings, and NOT a German in sight.

As I sat on deck watching our D-Day contingent, I thought of my Grandfather, “Maximilian Szafranski”, who served in the Polish Allied Forces, under General Anders, in the Second World War. I now regret, not asking more question of him when he was alive.

This anchorage is quite a find, settled peaceful and quite. Even overnight and next morning, when the wind turned to a westerly at 15 kts, it wasn’t to lumpy and certainly not rolly.

We decided not to stay in Goloritze, as there was to much swell and it became very rolly. So we weighed anchor and headed to a small anchorage, just south of Arbatax, called Frailis. We anchored in 3.5 metres and about 100 metres of the beach. A very pleasant anchorage and in June was quite of noise from the beach., but reports say it becomes quite noisy in July and August. there were 4 other yachts anchored in this Cala and we had a wonderfully peaceful and still night.

Another highly recommended anchorage.