Island hopping

With Dan gone and Abbie not arriving for a week we spent some time relaxing and making the most of our permit for the islands.  First stop was Cala Francese on the east side of La Maddalena, after being chased down by one of the ferries – looks like we are in the Solent.

Was a bit of a shame that the swimming buoys came out from the beach but we were still able to anchor outside and since we only wanted to swim and relax it was perfect for us. The beach was small and quiet with only a handful of people, we also had some great views back to the mainland.

North Sardinian coast line

Next day we sailed just another few miles for our first visit to the northern group of the Archipelago, we anchored in Cala Giorgio which was surrounded by all three islands. Although there were a lot of boats anchored and lots of daily tripper boats it was still a stunning place, we were able to swim over to the beach and the snorkelling was great. With it being the last weekend in June the crowds have started to build but at the moment it is still bearable. We were treated to a stunning sunset.

Sunset at north islands

By the time we had left the anchorage at lunch time the wind had built from the  so we had a force 4 on the nose but as we were in between the islands there was little swell so we had a lovely sail to Liscia di Vacca which is a bay on the north east coast and was home to 3 huge super yachts – made me think of my lovely friend Louise with the Lady Lou super yacht.  Also there was an island at the entrance with some great looking holiday cottages.

Lady Lou

Cool holiday cottages

The next day sail to Olbia was slow with very light winds so we had to motor sail for some of the day. Just as we rounded the headland into Golfo Olbia the wind died away to nothing but started to build from the south east just enough to sail again but within 10 minutes the wind went from 7-8 knots to 25-30 knots.  We were glad that we were actually in the Golfo Di Olbia (over 20 miles away) when the wind increased and we ran to Liscia delle Saline and weaved through the windsurfers and kite surfers to try to anchor in the shelter of a small island in the bay.  The wind continued to blow but the anchor dug in quick and we were treated to another lovely sunset over Olbia.

Sunset over Olbia