Category Archives: Sailing Trips

Blog, Sailing Trips, Spain

Sardinia To Menorca

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After leaving the boat in the marina at Porto Torres the owner had since moved the boat to St Augusta further north east as the boat had been chartered for a week.  The boat needed to be moved again over to Menorca and at nearly 300 nautical miles it was going to be two over nighters. Some new crew arrived and after provisioning and refuelling we set off in the afternoon.

The crossing was drama free and with virtually no wind i can’t remember the sails ever going up !!

Our destination was Fornells on the north side of Menorca. It is a large natural well protected harbour known for its sailing holidays.

View across Fornells from the fort –

Fornells Menorca

I had a few days on the boat at anchor by myself. Fornells is a small town but has plenty of restaurants and a couple of bars to go to. Theres a small fort at the entrance of the harbour that is open to the public.  At only just over a Euro to gain entry its worth the small amount of time it takes to tour around !!

Views from the area around the fort –

Fornells in the evening –

Fornells old town –

We left Fornells to sail around Menorca, sadly with virtually no wind it was motoring again !

A lot of the coastline of Menorca is rugged with few places to stop. Every few miles you find a small inlet but unless the get there by midday its normally already full with boats !

One of the stops on the south side of the island –

A couple more people arrived for a few days and with some wind predicted we set sail for Menorca.

Off to Majorca –

With good wind on the beam we averaged 8 knots and a few hours later we arrived in Menorca.  It was the last stop for me as i had to head home, a quick bus ride and i was at the airport, and a few hours later arrived at home.

Got to love the fact that you can get home within a few hours when you are in the Med !!

Blog, Italy, Sailing Trips

Northern Sardinia

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First boat trip of the year took a little while to track down but well worth the wait. A Benetau First 45 was requiring crew to sail around the northern tip of Sardinia. This boat is more of a racer/cruiser rather than a traditional cruising yacht.

I met the owner and his motley crew in the bar at Wetherspoons at Stanstead airport. We flew into Olbia and got a taxi to Porto Torres, about 45 minutes away. Porto Torres is a port on the north west tip of Sardinia, large ferries come in from Corsica and the Italian mainland.

A short walk from the marina and port are some nice secluded beaches. There are some remains from Roman buildings by the sea, apparantly the only evidence of the Romans in Sardinia.

Our first night away we found a secluded inlet where we stayed for the night, very peaceful.

When we left the next day we saw these big guys hanging around not doing much. They were waiting for some wind so they could go racing. Alas the wind never came so they had to abandon the race. These boats were big, like really big ! Must have been 200ft long with a couple of dozen crew onboard.

The yachts undoubtable came out from Porto Cervo which is the expensive town of Sardinia. Its the place rich people like to be seen in !!

Purely by chance i managed to meet my cousin whilst i was in Sardinia. He was arriving into Alghero to attend a lecture at the university. Fortunately i was flying out of Alghero the next day so dinner was on the cards.

Old town Alghero –

Alghero old town

Alghero old town

Looking back at Alghero –Alghero

Watching the sunset from the restaurant –

Never worked out why all the lanterns were out, i’m sure there was some sort of festival on. Looked good at night time –

After a few days of sailing the boat returned to Porto Torres. I remained onboard for another few nights doing a few odd jobs and cleaning the boat for its next adventure.