When the perfect anchorage meets
the perfect storm
We arrived to Sardinia near Porto Pino after midnight from our pleasant sail from the Balearics. We found the perfect anchorage sheltered from any of the wind we had during the day. It was silent enough for us to enjoy some sleep. The next day we had our coffee on the deck while Luna was catching some sun and rolling about on the solar panels. Around 10Am in the morning, a fresh breeze started to pick up. We thought finally we can go kite surfing! We took out our gear but Tux decided he wanted to take a nap on my wetsuit. We enjoyed a perfect afternoon of kiting when the wind got just a little too strong for us to continue. In fact it kept gaining in strength and the waves started to pick up. The wind speed went over 35knts reaching gale force…in our protected bay. We were on careful anchor watch to see if the anchor would hold in a gale, and sure enough it held for over 12 hours of constant pounding. In hind sight we are very happy with our selection of a 40kg Rocna anchor with 100 meters of high strength anchor chain. I don’t think any crew would look back and wish they had any less. When it comes to anchors, bigger is better. We thought we would stay in our perfect anchorage and wait out the storm and we made it until around midnight when the wind and waves suddenly turned our perfect anchorage into a LEE SHORE!! It was time to take a big deep breath and pull up anchor against force 7 wind (notice our max wind speed of 47 knts). That was a first for me but the windlass was strong and we maneuvered away from danger and set sail towards Cagliari in Sardinia. After a night of shift on shift we arrived in port against the gale to seek shelter. We got a big plate of pasta and some rest after all the excitement and toured the capital of Sardinia.
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