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Published: September 12th 2023
In the last blog entry, we told you that we had arrived in Italy in the town of Crotone. That was in the morning of June 24
thand we decided to head into the marina after our overnight passage. It gave us time to get a full night’s sleep without being on duty every 4 hours, but also gave Bob time to change the oil in the engine. It is much easier to do when the boat is “stable” in a marina rather than at anchor. It doesn’t say he hasn’t done that, but if there is a choice and it works out with the timing necessary for the oil change, why not! It also gives the added bonus of having a place to take the used oil rather than keeping it on board for a later time.
As mentioned, we had been in Crotone before when we came through this area a few years ago, but it still was enjoyable to take our nightly walks along the promenade people watching and just enjoying stretching our legs on land. The weather was predicted to be not favorable for leaving the next day so we asked if we could stay in the
marina an extra day. Fortunately, that wasn’t a problem as they had room for us. That is always a big question when you come into a marina as this was run by a Sailing Club and many times, they put cruisers moving through an area into a place that is typically filled with a club member that is out sailing themselves. We did find out that here in Crotone, they actually keep a small percentage of slips free for sailors cruising in the area. This is excellent as the coast here (on the sole of Italy) does not have many good areas for anchoring.
Monday - June 26 – Crotone to Roccella Ionia – As yesterday had high wind and large waves, we typically would not leave the port allowing for an extra day for the seas to settle down, but in looking at the forecast the winds didn’t look like they would be too bad. Of course, that still doesn’t say what the seas would be like as we have been finding that the weather apps haven’t been that great with wave predictions. We decided to go for it and left at 5:20 AM. Now that we are
in Italy, we had to change our watches to one hour earlier than Greece which resulted in daylight coming earlier, but then of course it gets dark one hour earlier as well. We got out of the marina and found it was “not a nice day to go out”, but we figured we could deal with it. We also knew that we had about an hour to get to a point of land across the bay where we would make a turn and we hoped that would put the waves in a better position to the boat (meaning a more comfortable ride). We knew Tsamaya could handle it and pretty sure we could to. It definitely did not make a nice start to the day, but figured that if we could move farther west today, it would help in not using up one of our 90 days in a port that we had already spent 2 days in. We really are not enjoying having to be concerned about the number of days we have used up as it does have an impact on our decisions about departures and “hops” we should do. We did round the corner of the next
Eat At a Restaurant, Buy from a Truck or Cook Your Own
forgot to take photo earlier with all the fish offeringspoint and the waves were definitely hitting us at a better angle so that logic did work. Within our 12-hour crossing to Roccella Ionica we had made numerous changes to our sails (some minor changes and other where we changed sails completely) due to changes in wind speed and/or direction. There was even a time when we didn’t have wind at all, while other times we had 16 -20 knots of wind within a matter of minutes. It definitely kept us awake and neither of us got in much reading today. Fortunately, we had made a reservation at the marina at Roccella Ionia as none of the anchorages along this coast of Italy would be protected from the south wind that we were getting near the end of the passage. The charge here for the first night is 55 euro ($60) and each day after it goes down. Water and electricity are included in the price which is a nice bonus if needed. A real luxury to us as it is almost unheard of here in the Med is that this marina provides actual docks to tie up to so we can hop on and off the side of the
boat – what a bonus! With the new solar panels that we installed this year in Turkey, we have not needed to plug into shore power. This has the extra advantage of not having to get out our extension cords and one less thing to disconnect and put away when departing. We saw that the fuel dock is in a very handy location as you arrive so filled up our diesel tank on the way in to the marina slip. It wasn’t urgent to get diesel, but when it is so easy to get to the pump, we take advantage of it. We had been in this marina in 2017, but there were so many changes since then we hardly recognized it as they have expanded the size of the marina. One thing they didn’t change which we remembered was that they have finger piers here which is rare – we always enjoy having a finger pier like we were used to back in the US. We planned on only staying overnight but in the evening, Bob looked at the forecast again and it appears we will be staying here a couple more nights before moving again. That at least
means we can sleep in tomorrow morning if we’d like!
There is a coast guard office right next to the marina office so we took our Constituto to them to get it stamped. The funny thing is that whenever we ask about doing this, it seems like it causes confusion for awhile until someone agrees that they will complete the form and stamp it for us. Definitely a strange official document that some seem to not truly understand. As it is only needed for those of us that are not EU citizens or have a non-EU boat, guess they don’t come across us that often.
Last time we were in this marina a few years ago we borrowed a bicycle from the office and rode into town, but as we didn’t need any provisions this time, we decided to just relax and enjoy being in one place for an extra day. We did notice that there were people near the marina store enjoying eating something that looked very refreshing as the day was very hot and no one was moving around much. We decided to check it out and had our first granita ever – not the healthiest
of desserts, but it sure was great on a very hot day! It is made from sugar, water and fruit flavoring – think of snow cones, but much, much smoother. We definitely enjoyed our treat of peach and lemon granitas.
June 27 – as we stayed a 2
nd day, we went to the Coast Guard office again the night before leaving to get our Constituto stamped. The person that met me at the door said that she could not stamp it until the day we actually left. I informed her we were leaving at 5AM and at other places they stamped it the night before. She called someone else and again she said we’d have to come back in the morning when the office opened at 8AM. Luckily for us, just at that time a few other Coast Guard officers came out the door and after a few minutes of discussion he must have told her it was fine to stamp it so fortunately we got that done. She did explain that she was very new and had checked with her supervisor – we told her, no problem, we understood. We were just very pleased that it worked out
Having a Dock to Tie Up To Is So Unusual!
this is the marina in Roccella Ionica, a nice change! that we could get it done the night before departure. Another stamp on our Constituto.
June 28 – We made an easy departure from the Roccella Ionica marina at 4:55AM leaving the mainland of Italy and heading for Naxos on the island of Sicily. This was an interesting trip as we seemed to have run into all kinds of wind shifts that kept us awake and alert as did sail adjustments to get as much speed as we could as figured it was going to be a 14-hour day. About 8:30AM the wind started coming from the SE which was a pleasant change as it definitely helped us along. The seas changed considerably during the day as they started out as smooth as a mill pond, but about 12:30PM we were facing a wall of whitecaps and the waves increased to between 4-6 feet! By 3PM they had settled back down to about 2 feet so as I say, the day kept us alert. We were fortunate with the help of the change in wind direction, making it to our destination in less than 12 hours as we were anchored by 4:45PM. This anchorage was a repeat for us
as well, as we were year back in 2017 (or was it 2018?). It is a very large anchorage and there is plenty of room for anchoring even if you come later in the day. One end of the anchorage is near Naxos and the other is near Taormina. With this trip through Italy being a rush, we are so glad that we had time before to explore these locations. We still have wonderful memories of our time exploring the hilltop town of Taormina with its ancient Greco-Roman amphitheater. It also brought back great memories of making new friends on “SV Second Life”, Christine and Peer (and their dog Nuchi).
We didn’t get off the boat, just made some dinner, relaxed and tried to get to bed a little earlier as we kept making ourselves stressed out the more we read of others that went through the Straits of Messina. Why is it that you seem to always hear about those that didn’t have the best of passages? We will see what the next day brings. So many tell of the difficulty of passing through the Strait so it gets you worked up some – hopefully our experience will
be fine based on our studying the tide charts numerous times!
June 29- Naxos to Milazzo (Poseidon Marina) – Through the Strait of Messina! We left the anchorage at 6AM – a little later than we normally do, but that was because we were trying to time our arrival at Messina at slack tide in order to have the current with us as we continued north of Messina (at least that is what we planned). With all the horror stories you read, it can definitely stress you out as they talk about wind vs currents, numerous ferries going back and forth, swordfish boats darting back and forth, lots of whirlpool areas, getting down to ½ - 1 knot of forward motion even with engine rpm high and numerous other problems that they encountered. Fortunately, we did our homework well, we had very little traffic to contend with, we didn’t do bad on figuring our timing and the weather cooperated.
For those of you that aren’t aware, the Strait of Messina is the channel that runs between the mainland of Italy and the island of Sicily. The Strait connects the Tyrrhenian Sea to the north and the Ionian Sea
to the south. The Strait is 20 miles long, 2 miles across at the northern end and 10 miles across at the southern end. There are constant currents here due to the Tyrrhenian Sea being warmer and less salty than the Ionian Sea to the south. It is a passage that many commercial ships take as it cuts off going around the island of Sicily so there is a traffic separation system which boats must watch out for with north and southbound ships. The requirement is that all ships much contact the Traffic Controller for this area to gain permission to travel through the Traffic Separation area. We actually were very fortunate as there was little commercial traffic and it all was going south on the other side of the Strait from where we were. The funny thing was that when I called on the radio to them to tell them our details and state that we wished to travel north through the Strait, it seemed as if they almost wondered why I was calling them! It was probably the strangest response we have ever received when traveling through one of these Traffic Separation Zones. Oh well, at least they
knew we were there which I’m sure they would have already seen with our AIS working.
We wanted to time our arrival at Messina at 11AM which was suppose to be slack tide and then the current would switch and head northbound which would help us on our travels north. Everything worked well except slack tide may have actually been about an hour later than we figured, as we did have to fight some of the southbound current. We have dealt with numerous ferry crossings in other places and fortunately this time wasn’t bad. There were a couple of ferries that we had to be watchful of as they were taking off close to the time we would be crossing, but no problems at all – we even noticed that some of the ferries veered some in order to be sure to be out of our way – think that with our having AIS that definitely helps. We really appreciate the AIS due to the fact that the ferries look the same at both ends so it is difficult just by glancing ahead to know which direction they are headed!
Another warning we read about was the number
When Ferries Look The Same At Either End
luckily AIS shows the arrow of their actual direction of swordfish boats that ply the Strait as it is prime fishing ground for swordfish. We did see numerous swordfish boats which are quite impressive. Until you spot your first swordfish boat, they are somewhat difficult to see as the rig out front blends in as well as the upper rig surprisingly does as well as it is a dark color and doesn’t show up easily. Fortunately, once you seen one, it gets easier to spot them as they do move quite fast back and forth as they search for the swordfish. They have a very tall lookout where 3 people (spotters) are located and one person way out front of the boat with a harpoon in case they see a swordfish. We were impressed with the rig, especially the one way out front from the bow as it didn’t bounce up and down as it is very stable. We did notice on a couple that the harpoonist was actually sitting back on the boat under a shade while he waited for the spotters to see any sailfish. Afterwards we looked up some of the specs on these boats and found that the spotters are typically 30 meters (98 feet)
The Strait of Messina Between Italy & Sicily
1.9 miles wide at the north & 3.2 miles at the south high and the harpoonist is 45 meters (147 feet) in front of the bow of the boat. We also learned that the captain of the boat is one of the people in the upper rig as he steers the boat to follow the swordfish. Fishing for swordfish is compared to hunting for animals on land – they are “hunted” once the swordfish are seen or the spotters see a change in the surface of the water. The only fishing that is allowed in the Strait is that of the swordfish from May through August.
Once we were out of the Strait of Messina we turned west to go along the northern coast of Sicily. We had done this coast a few years back fortunately so we will be moving along quickly (or as quick as the weather permits). We made a planned stop in a marina, Poseidon Marine in Milazzo. We figured after a long couple of passages a stop for a Hollywood shower and stretching our legs in the evening was worth the price. Well, at the end we aren’t sure that was a smart decision. We got to the marina and right from the beginning we were
very concerned about the way we were tied to a floating concrete pontoon. The idea here is that there is so much wash from the numerous ferries leaving the town here that not being fixed to a dock is the best solution. We noticed right away the concrete dock that they had us hook to was not as massive as the ones further in as we were on the outer most dock, resulting in it bouncing up and down more than the other larger docks. After getting tied up, the big question – can we even get off the boat as we had to be back further off the pontoon than normal. The dock and our boat were moving in different directions when the wash came rushing in which was pretty constant. Bob did get off the boat to see (which I really didn’t want him to do as didn’t know if he’d get back on). He walked down further to see if there were any other openings, but think as we were only staying one night, they put us on the outside. When Bob tried getting back on the boat, he started to get on and then was sort
Special Boats for Fishing for Swordfish
the spotters also steer the boat from 98 feet up! of hanging off trying to see how he was going to change his grip (meaning he’d have to let go of one hand). I had him grab me (he was afraid he’d pull me off but it worked). It definitely took a lot of upper body strength on both of our parts (and determination) but he made it back on board! As he said a 70-year-old shouldn’t have to do that!
We actually thought about leaving, but we didn’t have another place close by as an alternative so final decision was to make it work. Bob decided that we could try our plank that we use when we go in stern first (we can’t now as we have our dinghy on the davits in the stern). He tied it on to the bow and he demonstrated for me how to “walk down the plank”. I told him I could probably do that OK, but wondered about walking up the plank and climbing over the bowsprit while the plank continued to move up and down. We got our things together to go to the shower as well as pay at the office and made it off the boat (easier than
The Harpoonist Is 147 Feet From the Bow!
a very strrong "rig" for up top & out front I thought) as there weren’t any ferries going by at the time. The facilities were less than ideal, but the shower worked – we got cleaned up and headed back to the boat. It definitely took quite a bit of upper body strength to hang on to the bowsprit, and pull yourself over while the plank you are standing on keeps moving up and down – not something we want to do too often. As we did accomplish it successfully, we did brave doing it again in the evening so we could wander through the town as well as find a place to eat. With the temperatures and humidity high, we haven’t been cooking on the boat much in order to keep it as cool as possible.
We knew already that we would definitely not recommend stopping at this marina to anyone due to the strange set up they have for tying to a moving concrete pier, BUT the next morning departure definitely confirmed it for us as it was less than graceful! It is hard to describe all the details of what happened when trying to leave, but with the combination of the wave action coming into the
One of Two Pylons Now Are Historic Monuments
but from 1957-1985 carried power lines across the strait marina from the ferry traffic next door, the angle of the lines that kept the boat next to us in place and the narrow fairway, let’s just say, things did not go smoothly at all. It ended up that Bob had to go into the water to see if the line from the boat next to us was wrapped around our prop while I fended off the boat from the one behind us. Thankfully, two other sailors came by to see what they could do to help. In the end, a line was around the prop, but the guys that helped were able to loosen the line to set us free. Before that happened, we had handed one of them Bob’s good dive knife in case it was needed. Thankfully it wasn’t but by that time we were moving away and out of arms he wondered how to get the knife back to us. We just told him it was a gift for helping us! Bob had removed some line from around the prop & shaft, but he felt that there was probably some more that he would want to remove later. We know refer to the Poseidon Marina as
the marina from H… Shortly after we left, we did contact the marina by email to let them know what happened and offered to pay for any repairs that would be needed to their mooring lines. We got a very gracious response telling us that these things happen and that they had already fixed it and not to worry – they were appreciative of us making contact with them. Sounds like this wasn’t the first time something like this happened here. We were glad that it was an easy enough fix and no one or boat got hurt in the process. We sure don’t want a repeat of that any time soon (or ever!) It sure did get the heart racing!
June 30 – Once we were free of the marina in Milazzo we headed west along the northern coast of Sicily to an anchorage we had been to a few years ago in Cefalu. There is an inner harbor we could anchor in or we could anchor outside in the bay. We choose to anchor outside and it worked out nicely as in the end we were the only ones there. We felt we were ready for a
very quiet night after the “wild” start this morning. This also gave Bob time to get in the water to check again to see if there was more line caught. Bob planned on just going down on his own to check it out, but I reminded him that we have a “hooka” which is a piece of equipment that has a long hose that would provide air to him while underwater, similar to a scuba setup. We got it out and it definitely was worth using it as it allowed Bob more time to get all of the line off from around the prop shaft. Bob said some of the line was polypropylene so it had started to melt around the prop shaft. The only thing was that it did remove some of the anti-fouling that we put on our prop, but that is minimal, compared to what could have happened. Guess, even if the equipment we have on board isn’t used much, when needed, it really is worth its space onboard for situations like this. Again, stayed onboard and didn’t go ashore as we had done so a few years back and explored the town at that time. It
The Poseidon Marina in Milazzo Was Not Our Favorite
a new meaning to "walking the plank" to get off & on was enjoyable back then, but decided it wasn’t worth taking the dinghy down to go to shore -rest is what we needed instead.
July 1 – Cefulu to Mondello – We knew from the forecast that the winds would be picking up in the wrong direction of course (that seems to be the rule). We knew that Palermo was nearby and we thought even though we had visited there a few years ago, it would be a nice place to spend a few days while waiting for weather. We have an app that we use all the time (Navily) which you can use to book marinas. We tried a couple of places and unfortunately all were full so guess we won’t make it there this time which is disappointing as we really loved our time there before. In looking up our records we see that we did spend 2 weeks there before so glad we were able to do it back then. Next thing to do is to check to see where there is a good anchorage that isn’t too far away but a safe haven. We found it in Mondello which we found out later is considered part
of Palmero. The anchorage at Mondello ended up being a great one. It is a very large bay and even though there were many anchored during the day, it emptied out quite a bit in the evening. With the weather that was forecast it wound up that we stayed here for 3 nights.
We enjoyed exploring Mondello as it was easy to get to shore with a safe place to tie up the dinghy when we went to shore and there were plenty of interesting places to explore on our walks. First, we noticed that there were quite a few decorations hanging around the town that we have seen before that usually indicate that there is a religious festival. We were right as we got a chance to hear a band in the central square when we were ashore and before that we actually could hear a parade happening while we are on the boat. We also saw part of the religious proceedings as the priest and statute of the Saint being honored out on the water. Many boats follow as well as escort the main boat with the priest onboard as they proceeded all around the Bay before
returning to port. We did not know the details of the festivities, but on one of our walks we did see the schedule for the Feast of the Madonna delle Grazie. Using Google translate (which is definitely a savior for us!) we found that the procession we saw in the bay was for the priest to bless the sea, the fishermen and the village. As part of the festivities, we were treated to amazing firework displays on both the July 1 & 2
nd. As we aren’t home for July 4
th, we decided it could also be an early celebration for that as well!
On one of our walks, we saw many homes built in the style of Art Nouveau. It seemed the more we walked farther down the beach area, the more we saw. The next day on our walk farther away from the waterfront we were enjoying the coolness of the lovely tree lined streets when a person that was leaving his house stopped to talk to us. We asked about the numerous Art Nouveau style homes and he filled us in on the history. He informed us that in 1910, a Belgian company bought large pieces
The Temperature & Humidity Stopped Us Exploring
The castle used by Greeks, Romans, Arabs & Spanish of property along the waterfront and decided to create an upscale seaside resort for the aristocrats of nearby Palermo to relax and enjoy the sea. As Art Nouveau was a popular style at the time, they incorporated this into the community of homes they built. The crowning jewel was the extensive bath house that was built to provide a safe place to change, enjoy the swimming area and even had it as a base for a sailing club. This still remains as a focus along this beachfront and the main building is now a restaurant, and the bath house is still maintained and used extensively.
July 4 - As much as we enjoyed exploring Mondello and staying in one place for a few days, it was time to move farther west along the coast of Sicily with our aim for the day being Trapani. It seems that this year we are following in our footsteps of a few years ago as we had been in Trapani before as well. There are numerous marinas within Trapani harbor with many of them run by various sailing clubs and businesses. We made contact with many of them and found there were no
A Shame They Have to Put Signs Up
to keep dogs and trash away from using these! vacancies. Finally, we called the boat yard at the farthest point inside the harbor that we had been to before and we were told that they had room for us. Trapani is a busy harbor with a large amount of commercial traffic, therefore you need to call the Trapani harbor master about entering. As the harbor is deep and there is a 90 degree turn you can’t see all of the movement inside. We arrived at the boatyard and the person there was surprised to see us show up. We mentioned that we would like to top up our diesel tanks so he put us into the slip used for launching boats. It seemed like it was quite a distance from the pumps, but luckily, they had a long hose so no problem with that task. The next major problem for them was “what to do with us”. We told them who we communicated with and they said they would work on figuring something out. All of this communication was mainly by sign language as there wasn’t much English being spoken and our Italian is almost non-existent unfortunately. We waited for a while, but then someone wanted to launch a
boat so needed us out of there quickly wish got things moving. We were told that we could go to another marina farther out in the harbor. Things were so packed in, they actually came with a dinghy and pulled us out of the spot we were in and directed us to the marina we needed to go to – good thing they did as we would never have been able to figure out which of the many marinas we were going to – no signs out, just local knowledge, I guess! We checked in to the marina and asked where the showers were. We found out they had 1 bathroom/shower area for both men & women together so we hoped no one else needed the facilities while we both showered! It is still quite hot as it has been in many places this year so went back to the boat for the rest of the day, hoping that it would be somewhat better after the sun went down. It does go down some, but the humidity is still high so our nightly walks get later and later. We had to get a couple of things at the grocery store
so had to get going a little earlier before the stores closed. On the route, we did see a church so on the way back we stopped in for a few minutes to see it as the exterior was quite different than others that we have seen. We saw that they are trying to raise money for repairs and once inside we see that it is sorely needed. Definitely didn’t see much of Trapani, but as you can tell by this blog, we keep chugging along quite quickly as we have to think about the end goal of getting to Cartagena, Spain within our 90 days allowed.
July 5 – this was just a short day of moving as we were working on positioning ourselves just a little closer to Sardinia as that will be our next large jump. We left Trapani at 8AM and we were anchored that day at Favignana, one of the Egadi Islands by 10:15AM. The three islands that make up the Egadi Island archipelago are all within the marine park that was established in 1991. It encompasses 208 square miles and the area is divided off into 4 different zones which allow only certain
activities within each section. This is clearly marked out on their informational brochures that are provided when you pay for the mooring that you pick up in any of the mooring fields that they have set up. With our check of the weather for our crossing to Sardinia, we decided to stay two nights. The charge is based on the length of your boat, for ours it cost 63 euros for 2 nights ($67). The mooring balls are well maintained and the money goes to help pay for the maintenance of this marine park. The Posidonia seagrass is prolific here and is an excellent habitat for a number of marine creatures such as shellfish, sea turtles and even monk seals. Migratory seabirds also are attracted to this area as a result.
Bob had noticed that our steaming light was not working, therefore it was a good time to go up the mast to change the bulb or see if there is another problem that needed to be addressed. With getting here mid-morning, our original idea was that we would be able to enjoy the rest of the day and the next with getting in the water to swim. From
the vantage point of Bob up the mast, he could see one or two very large jellyfish near the boat so we wondered about getting in the water. After he got done with the light, we were still interested in checking out the water, but by then the boat was surrounded by jellyfish so that definitely changed our mind. Bob had gotten a bad sting from a jellyfish a couple of years ago so we are quite watchful for them. This was unfortunate as we were looking forward to having time to swim. Oh well, just more time to relax and get some reading in. We didn’t go ashore here as we had done so before and with the heat, we really were not eager to go to shore where there wasn’t much shade. Again, we are so glad that we had taken the time to explore these areas a few years ago when we passed this way. It made us feel not as bad about how this trip is pushing us through an area that we truly enjoyed last time.
When planning overnight trips we of course look at the weather quite closely, but we also try to
calculate how long it would take so that we can plan our departure time in order to arrive during the day (again, this is the optimal situation). If we can we plan a morning arrival in case we are not moving at our “normal” speed we still have plenty of time to get to our destination during daylight.
Most people that anchor out are typically consider of each other, but unfortunately, we found one boat that wasn’t when we were at the mooring field in Favignana. We had a visit from a person from a boat anchored ahead of us stating that there was a person on their boat that was celebrating their 18
th birthday so they would have music going, but he promised that it would all stop at midnight. We told him we appreciated his letting us know as we would need some sleep as we were departing at 5AM the next morning. We noticed that we went by all of the neighboring boats to let them know the same thing. This was a thoughtful thing for him to do. It didn’t work out that way, as the boat was packed with people and the music and
Mondello Bay anchorage Was Busy During the Day
but thankfully most leave at night so much quieter shouting lasted way past midnight. It actually didn’t stop until 3AM and that was only after numerous boat owners were shouting at them and one boat actually went over by dinghy to talk to them in person. So much for consideration of others in the anchorage. Thankfully this is a rare situation, just wished we would have had more sleep for the next days passage.
July 7-8 – We let lose of the mooring ball at 5AM and now headed to the island of Sardinia which is still part of Italy. Bob had checked the weather forecast numerous times (as always) and it looked like we would have a little more wind than we have had, but the prediction was that it would be from the right direction for a change figuring that would speed us along the way. Well, we got some nice wind, but what we didn’t figure on was the large seas that were hitting us on the side rocking us back and forth – not a favorite way to rock! We still had sails up but also increased the rpms on the engine to try to make it a little more bearable. We figured we
(and Tsamaya) could deal with it and we were hopeful that the seas would calm down some. Instead about 2:30 in the morning, we were hit with a squall and 35 knot winds. Why does this always happen in the middle of the night?! Seas were nasty so decided to drop the sails and go bare pole. Unfortunately, the pack that we have that the mainsail should drop down into, was not hooked completely and as a result the main dropped on the deck (and swung over to the side) Not the best, but with the seas as they were, decided that Bob would not go forward to take care of the sails. I, as Admiral, stated my strong opinion on this and thankfully Bob agreed! We remained without any sails up for about 90 minutes without any engine and kept our fingers crossed that things would get better. We are usually very strict with keeping our log entries up, but as I look back, I see that we missed a few entries during this time – it really was not a comfortable time to do much of anything. We did get our small staysail out again and kept moving
forward still with 15-20 knot wind and 7-8’ seas. The anchorage at Carbonara, Sardinia that we were aiming for worked out well as it was a large bay and it was only 10:30AM when we arrived. We anchored farther out than normal in deeper water (22 feet) while the wind in the bay was still registering 17 knots. We were just happy that this particular passage was over and we were safety at anchor. There were already some boats anchored here, but with such a large bay, we were able to find a place to anchor without much of a problem. With the wind and knowing that we would be leaving early the next morning, being out farther, it makes it easier for “our escape” without dodging as many other anchored boats. As it had been a long passage we just wanted to sleep, which thankfully we were able to do.
July 9 - Another early start at 5AM to head to a small island to the west of the main island of Sardinia, again, doing this to help position us for our departure to the next country, Spain. This a 13-hour passage, but knew that this just helped
shorten our next jump. We saw the bay we were originally aiming for, but as there were numerous other boats there and the bay wasn’t that large, we went to another anchorage we had our eye on. This was a good decision as this bay was so much nicer. There were quite a few boats in the anchorage already, but there was plenty of room and we were able to find a nice sandy spot for the anchor in 15 feet of beautifully clear water. There were no hotels, restaurants or loud music here which made it even better. A beautiful beach around the perimeter of the bay so plenty of colorful umbrellas and people still swimming and enjoying what was left of the day. Many of the boats that were anchored left in the evening and there were only 8 boats that stayed overnight. Such a nice, peaceful anchorage. Just what the Dr. ordered after our rushed trip through a wonderful country that we enjoyed so much last time we were here. Thanks to the weather, we did get a chance to stop and see a few new places this time. Every journey is not always what you’d hope
it to be, but we did get to enjoy the places we did visit. We are still quite a few miles from our destination but will now be heading to new areas that we have never seen before. Always have to look at the glass as being half full and look forward to new experiences ahead.
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Jan Delf
non-member comment
Marina @ Rocella Ionica
Thanks for all the stories about your time in Italy. Mariana looks very well fortified. High waves? Love the blog! Safe journey, miss u2.