We finally left Bosa a few days after I finished the installation of the new inverter and alternator along with a number of other “to do” items, I felt pretty worn out. For a few days after that, Brenda and I just relaxed and enjoyed Bosa.
The last day that we were there turned out to be a special holiday for Catholics with processions that wound through the narrow Medieval streets. Brenda did a wonderful post that gives a great feel for what that last few days were like before we departed. I won’t repeat all that here so click to see what Brenda wrote.
I will, however, put up this photo of her. We had stumbled on this lovely restaurant earlier that day. It turned out to be the best meal we had in Bosa. What a charming spot.
The streets were full of the faithful.
Definately check out Brenda’s post above or you will miss a lot.
We topped up the fuel and headed about 25 miles south to well protected bay that has been used for thousands of years.
For the first time since we entered the Med, we had a spectacular day of sailing. Hardly a ripple and a lovely breeze. I did a short video as we glided along on a broad reach.
You can see our location as the red spot about half the way down the coast. The end of the course is where we will head after our two day stay here.
The bay, the Gulf of Orisanto, is one of the few on the western coast of Sardinia, has been used for thousands of years as witnessed by ruins of a significant Roman settlement, complete with two reconstructed columns. Nice view from the bow of Pandora. Brenda told me that the bay was called the Dead Sea by the Romans as it was always “dead calm”. Calm is good…
We chose this spot in large part as a well sheltered harbor but as a plus, the ruins of Tharros are amazing. People have lived in this area for nearly 3,000 years, beginning with a Nuragic settlement before the Phoenicians established an important trading center here in the 8th century BC. It later came under Carthaginian control and, following Rome’s conquest of Sardinia in 238 BC, developed into a substantial Roman city.
The site is well organized with carefully constructed walkways winding through what was once an important Roman outpost. I found it humbling to know that as Pandora rides on a mooring (you can’t anchor here as it is a protected area and they don’t want anchors to damage the underwater grass areas) and it is humbling to share spot where boats/ships have anchored for thousands of years. The site includes the remains of streets that Romans walked nearly 2,000 years ago as well as foundations of houses, temples and baths along with an amazingly sophisticated water and sewer system.
Of course, what is a visit to Roman ruins without a shot of Pandora framed by the remains of a building thousands of years old. She’s a tiny spot on the right hand side of the left column. The view reminded me of our own insignificance.
The setting is spectacular on this narrow isthmus with remains on both the protected harbor as well as the sea on the narrow peninsula.
High above the Roman city is the massive stone Tower of San Giovanni, built centuries after the Romans left by the Spanish as part of a coastal defense system intended to provide warning of raiders approaching from the sea. I climbed the tower and can only imagine what it was like to be there when invaders were a constant menace.
Brenda watched, I climbed.
The view extends for miles along the coast and across the Gulf of Oristano. On the ocean side wide sandy beaches. The color of the water is hard to believe.
Tharros remained inhabited for centuries after the Roman Empire declined, but by about 1070 the settlement was largely abandoned and its inhabitants moved inland to what became Oristano. I guess that was because there weren’t as many bad guys pestering them. Standing above the ruins and looking out over the sea, it isn’t difficult to understand why this beautiful and strategically important spot attracted one civilization after another and is still a draw today.
As the sun rises in the east, the morning light casts a beautiful warm glow on everything. Not a bad view to wake up to.
But it really gets interesting in the evening as the sun sets to the west.
After dark they light it beautifully.
Made even more magical as the moon rises.
I’ll admit that after how hard it was to work my way through the equipment issues this spring along with the trials at the marina in Bosa, and not to forget getting attacked by orcas near Gibraltar, it is more than worth it now that we are underway and visiting places that I could never have dreamed of when Brenda and I started sailing together on our 20′ catboat back in the late 70s. She looked pretty fetching if you ask me.
As we sailed, what we thought was a long way, the 15 miles between Norwalk and Port Jefferson on weekends, the idea that someday we would cruise much of the US east coast, Cuba, the Bahamas, eastern Caribbean and now across the Atlantic Ocean, would have seemed like a pipe dream. And yes, it would have been.
And, as I have remarked, it really wasn’t until we landed here in the Med, that Brenda has felt at least a little bit “at home” visiting places we couldn’t have imagined when we were just starting out as a newly married couple. Actually, come to think of it, had I mentioned dreams like this I think that Brenda would have run for the exits.
Glad she didn’t.