Passage to Cagliari, Sardinia

Our first overnight passage on Mistral. 250 nm so at least a night and a half at sea. I downloaded and subscribed to an app called Weather4D Routing and Navigation which downloads grib files and comes up with an optimum routing and departure time for your boat. Here’s what it came up with:

We set off for Cagliari, Sardinia, at 1430 local on Thursday 15 October. The first night went well. With a reef in the main and the genoa we made 7-7.5 kt most of the time. In the day the wind dropped off and we needed to go directly downwind so we motored.
We had quartering seas for most of the passage and were sailing on a broad reach. All great until the wind drops and the boat rolls more and the boom starts swinging. We eventually furled the main and ran on the huge genoa alone, but some damage was done – both boom lights fell off and the topping lift snapped.

By 9pm on the second night we were all pretty knackered and decided to drop anchor and complete the last 5 hours the next day. However, despite trying three times the anchor dropped into weed each time so we gave up and carried on to Marina Del Sole in Cagliari.

Got here at 6:30 am on Saturday morning, no reply on the radio so we dropped Shirley off so she could take our lines. Then the bloke from the marina arrived and said we couldn’t park there. Hmmm.

Totals for the passage : 261 nm in 40 hours, 25 at night.

One bacon sandwich and a cup of tea later we’re feeling refreshed. The boom lights were undamaged and were reinserted with some electrical tape to increase the sturdiness. The topping lift was also an easy fix, a replacement shackle of which we have many. All good. Now to find somewhere to get a covid test! Pics to follow once we’re released from isolation on the boat.

Cagliari
Cagliari