{"id":7087,"date":"2017-05-16T18:57:54","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T18:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/?p=7087"},"modified":"2025-10-01T16:32:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T16:32:13","slug":"return-to-sardinia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/?p=7087","title":{"rendered":"Return to Sardinia"},"content":{"rendered":"
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View of Sabbatical III tied to the seawall in Carloforte<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the end of April we returned to Sabbatical III berthed safely in the Marine Sifredi in Carloforte. \u00a0Our 250 pounds of baggage also made the journey safely. \u00a0We have been busy getting the boat ready for another sailing season. \u00a0The first order of business was a trip to the Sardinian capital of Cagliari to meet with the Immigration Police (Questura) to finalize our application for a visa renewal. \u00a0We had received a registered letter with a list of all of the documentation that we were required to bring, and we made sure that we had it all in quadruplicate. \u00a0Things seemed to go well until the Immigration official asked for another document that we had never heard of. \u00a0We showed him our letter with the list of documents and he said that there was a new document required and we had ten days to get it. \u00a0Turns out it is not so easy to get this document when one lives on a boat and not in a house or flat. \u00a0After a few days of trying to work this out, we came to believe that we would not get our visa renewed. \u00a0We then had a friend make some phone calls to explain our situation and our prospects now look reasonably good but not certain. \u00a0But we cannot make plans until this gets resolved.<\/p>\n

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When the mistral did not blow too hard, we walked to the end of the seawall to watch the ferry come and go.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The second major task is to get Sabbatical III hauled out and have anti-fouling paint applied to her hull, plus perform some maintenance to the bottom of the boat. \u00a0The small boatyard associated with the marina is well behind schedule hauling and painting boats, in part due to the high frequency of days with mistral winds. \u00a0The mistral is\u00a0a strong, cold, northwesterly wind that blows from southern France into the northern Mediterranean and on to Sardinia, with sustained winds often exceeding 66 km\/h (41 mph), sometimes reaching 185 km\/h (115 mph). \u00a0It is most common in the winter and spring, and strongest in the transition between the two seasons.<\/p>\n

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The Delcomar ferry from Portovesme, Sardinia makes its way to Carloforte<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Navigational aid at the end of the seawall, Carloforte<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Sabbatical III tied to the seawall with her newly purchased anchor chain waiting to be installed (Thanks Francesco!)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Marine Sifredi with the fishing harbor in the background on the other side of the seawall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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New anchor chain from France<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Looking down the length of the starboard seawall towards Marine Sifredi and the town of Carloforte<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since we are waiting to hear about the visa and our haul date, we took some time out to tour the interior of the “mainland” of Sardinia. \u00a0We already know the \u00a0Sardinian coast fairly well from our two sailing circumnavigations last year. \u00a0But we had never seen the interior except for the road from the Carloforte ferry port of Portovesme to the capital city of Cagliari, which is a fairly unattractive part of the island. \u00a0We just returned from our six day excursion yesterday and can only say that inland Sardinia is spectacularly beautiful.<\/p>\n

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Carloforte<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first evening of our excursion we attended a perfomance of “Lucia di Lammermoor” at the Lyric Opera of Cagliari. \u00a0We sat in the first row for a fine performance by the resident company. We then spent the night at a B&B in Cagliari. \u00a0In the morning we went to the airport to pick up a rental car and drove through beautiful countryside to the Agriturismo Il Ginepro. \u00a0An agriturismo is a working farm that accommodates guests and provides breakfast and supper made from local products and wines. \u00a0In the afternoon, we walked in the hills above the farmstead and then drove to the coast about 15 minutes away to walk on the beach. \u00a0An African dust storm obscured the view and the hoped for sunset. The supper was fantastic.<\/p>\n

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Spring flowers near Il Ginepro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Spring flowers near Il Ginepro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Agriturismo Il Ginepro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Laura at Il Ginepro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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View towards the ocean at Il Ginepro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Flower garden at Il Ginepro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Field of wild flowers near Il Ginepro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From Il Ginepro, we drove to the northcentral mountains of Sardinia. \u00a0We stayed one night at a B&B in Sorgono (“Cuccumiao” run by a lovely young woman named Paola) where we happened upon a beautiful winery (“Su Binariu”) on a small country road. \u00a0The two men working there were excited that two American had come through the gate and asked that we return the next morning when the winemaster\/owner was there. \u00a0So we did. \u00a0We sampled some wine and bought two bottles.<\/p>\n

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Country road near Sorgono<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Su Binariu vineyard near Sorgono<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Su Binariu winery near Sorgono<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From Sorgono we went to an agriturismo near Tonara and then to an agriturismo near Belvi. The latter provided fine hikes and excellent meals and wine.<\/p>\n

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Walking path in the valley beneath Belvi, Sardinia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Walking path in the valley beneath Belvi, Sardinia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Horse in paddock along the walking path in the valley beneath Belvi, Sardinia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

M.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the end of April we returned to Sabbatical III berthed safely in the Marine Sifredi in Carloforte. \u00a0Our 250 pounds of baggage also made the journey safely. \u00a0We have been busy getting the boat ready for another sailing season. \u00a0The first order of business was a trip to the Sardinian capital of Cagliari to … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Return to Sardinia”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-italy-2017"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbatical3.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}