Onwards to another island

It was looking like another hot day as we slipped our lines and headed out of the marina towards the island of Asinara. By 8 o’clock it was already warm enough for Skipper Nigel to need his Sardinian hat and he took the sun-tan lotioning a step too far with a slop or two more than needed which really amused me 😉

We had an absolutely gorgeous day sail from Fertilia heading north to the island of Asinara where we had booked a mooring buoy in the natural park. We went out past the lighthouse that had caused us so much concern in the dark – how innocent it looks during the day 😉

The coastline is spectacular and the motor sail (yes – not really enough wind once again) was fabulous.  The advantage of coastline hugging is that we get spectacular scenery – the disadvantage is that we have to keep changing course to avoid pots and we have to keep our eyes peeled at all times being very vigilant for fishing pot and nets.  The thing we noticed is that here in Italy they are far, far more visible than in Spain- they all have posts and flags ….. well until they don’t – we virtually ran over a clearly illegal net, strung up by a bleach bottle at either end! Good job we were watching !  It was the only one like that we saw all day, and we saw a lot so we assume fishing is quite well regulated here.

When we arrived at the deserted buoy field Skipper Nigel tooks us on a couple of “laps” before we plumped for a buoy and I had to hook it up and get Gemini J attached as quickly as possible. It was my first time doing this alone and surprisingly it went amazingly well. It must be all the times we played “hook a duck” at the fair – that’s just what it made me think of, probably because the buoy was yellow too.

The first thing we said to each other after the engine was switched off “was that a donkey??” We could hear eeeaww eeeeaw and indeed looked across to land and saw a donkey!! Once we were happy that everything was good with the buoy and our position etc. we jumped in (well, gingerly stepped off the swim ladder) and cooled off with a swim.

We later found out that this deserted island was once home to mafia prisoners with 7 jails on the island – all now disused and abandoned, along with the villages where the prison staff lived. It also housed Italy’s first cholera isolation hospital and is now home to over 500 wild horses, along with the donkeys, goats and mufflon sheep (which are mainly found only on Sardinia and Corsica) all of which roam freely.

There is only one official resident on the island, a sculptor who used to be a prison guard and we can see his residence from Gemini J.

The next day we had fun watching tourist boats come and go and also the arrival of two massive buoys – we think ready to show the official natural park channel to enter the bay. When we had arrived we were looking out for them but we saw none – we certainly saw them the next day, heading out to be installed for the season !!!

We spent a very relaxing day swimming and snorkeling on day one here and then on day two we had planned to go on an organised snorkeling trip. Unfortunately, overnight a swell kicked in and we were rocking and rolling and we started banging against the buoy – it led to a fairly uncomfortable night. In the morning it was still rolly so Skipper Nigel bowed out of snorkeling to stay aboard in case conditions changed. It was a good decision although a bit disappointing as I headed out in the jeep to the other side of the island (it was too choppy on our side, a confirmation of our decision). I took a few photos from the jeep of the deserted island.

We entered the water from a few rocks, not even a bay – there is no way anyone would snorkel here without knowing about it. The underwater scenery and fish were amazing – an absolutely fabulous morning – just missing Skipper Nigel.

After snorkeling I wandered round the almost deserted village of Cala d’Oliva before paddle boarding back to Gemini J.

We had one job to finish before leaving ….. remove a plastic bag that was stuck round our propeller. It had been too choppy to go under the boat earlier. Skipper Nigel had made a tool from a boat hook and knife to assist the job. As Skipper Nigel went to climb into the water he found the bag remnants on the swim deck ! Senda – the snorkel trip organiser (and expert free-diver) had come over to the boat, unbeknownst to us and taken all the plastic off. What a kind and amazing thing to do for us after I mentioned it to her.

Tomorrow we hope to move on again, maybe crossing to Corsica to get a taste of France before it gets too busy in July – fingers crossed for good weather.