Sant’Antioco

Today’s paddle took me from Buggerru to Sant’Antioco. Its been a fairly calm day, but rather gray. The sky has been covered in dark clouds, and I have had a good bit of light rain.

Wind and waves has been exactly like forecast, with the wind turning from SE in the morning over SW to NW in the afternoon, while growing in strength from F1 to F3. Tomorrow it will remain NW (maestrale) at F4, which was what determined my plan of reaching S. Antioco today. After S. Antioco I will have some shelter from the maestrale, allowing me to continue anyway.

I set off from Buggerru a bit late. Yesterday had been harder then it first seemed, and I slept well and long, but I was off at about 9.30.

The sea almost entirely calm around the first cape, at Cala Domestica, but further ahead, towards the Scogliere Pan di Zucchero (Sugarbread Rock) and down the bay I had a bit of following waves. As I came down the bay, in a SW direction towards the Capo Altano/Giordano, the wind had turned so I now had a bit of headwind and waves from the NW.

Around the cape the waters were choppy as always, but not as bad as yesterday at Capo Pecora.

I went into Portoscuso harbour for a lunch break at two.

The rest of the day was easy, and with the beginng of the maestrale pushing me, also fast. The water is very shallow in the area between Sardinia proper and the island of Sant’Antioco, and I was at time paddling more in seaweed than in water.

I had a bit of difficulty finding a suitable landing spot as the city is right on the water front. The recreational harbour was out, way too posh, but a local fisherman indicated a good spot, where little clubs of motorboat owners had their boats. I landed and spoke to a few of them, and no problem, I could pitch my tent under the trees, but wouldn’t I rather sleep in one of the boats? In the end I got two boats, one for sleeping and one for changing, washing and drying my gear.

Tomorrow I hope I can continue around the SW corner of Sardinia, in spite of the nasty forecasts Karel sends me about force 5-6 maestrale, but I hope the NW winds won’t bother me too much where I’m going now.

I still have problems with my dayhatch. There’s always a bit of water in the buttom, the more the more waves there been. I’m no longer sure its a problem with the hatch. Today I had placed a wind breaker jacket under the hatch, and it wasn’t wet on arrival, even though there were a lot of water in the compartment. I’m afraid there might be a crack in the separation between cockpit and dayhatch. The two other stay tight as long as I clean out sand and other stuff from the hatches each day.

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Location