The wind changed during the last day of crossing coming from the west and for a while we had force 6 in the nose and we took direction south west by passing the SE tip of Calabria. During the strong sea we realised that a lot of water was coming into the boat over flowing the floor. I realised it was the problem I faced during my first cargo trip to Italy due to dirt in the anchor chain compartment that blocked the drainage hole. Water was coming in not draining and overflowing into the front cabin. Kay deployed his great skills. We stopped sailing in the middle of the sea, he took out all the chain that we stored on the deck. They big waves of the open sea were not too violent. He cleaned the dirt in the narrow, deep compartment and the drainage was repaired for the needs of he moment. The operation lasted less than an hour.
We continued and we past the tip at the begining of the night and we had westerly wind continuously in the nose for the next 24 hours it took us to bypass the south coast of Calabria, continuously tacking as you can see in the screenshot of our travel. We finally arrived in the early morning of Thursday 16 to our preferred little Porto Bolaro that is not used in the winter, only in the summer for vacationing. It is a very safe port, free of charge in the winter, beautifully built with natural stone and wood. I would not want to visit in the middle of the summer. The close-by shopping centre is a big plus for expedient food resupply. We took the time to clean again the chain compartment and following the advice of Takis Tsiropoulos we opened two more drainage holes higher up for extra security. Kay taped and blocked with silicone all the other leaking points. We washed our clothes that were soaked and salty preparing for the continuation.
We had to wait until the stormy north wind blowing in the Etruscan sea calms down. So Saturday on my birthday we set sail early morning to be at the narrow north end of the Messina Straight (the Skyla and Harybdi part) after 12.00 when the current starts flowing northwards for 6 hours. The wind was not strong enough, the current was against with as a result at 18.00 when the current started flowing south we were still far from the exit, more like in the worst area for maximum tidal current. We opted for the only reasonable solution: anchor to wait six hours for the he current to reverse.
On Sunday, 19th of March morning at 3.00, the current and our motor pushed us out of the straight. The wind conditions as predicted were confusing as to what direction to take. Strong south wind was blowing far out west off the end of Sicily while weak south wind was blowing towards The Eolian islands. We selected the latter and we we started on a very slow long trip north. We had to use the motor for long hours at low speed for economy of energy. The young medusas that we were observing glow in the night without knowing what they were took advantage of my going in the water to refresh myself and they stung me on my chest, belly, legs and I spare the in between. Two days later we had to stop at Maratea, a little port in Basilicata for battery recharge and fresh product provisions.
We left in the afternoon on Wednesday. I asked dr. Rantas what to do with the allergic reaction to the medusa stings and he suggested salty soup and a lemon since I did not have antihistaminics in the pharmacy. I drank sea water for salty liquids and ate one lemon that, to my surprise, dr. Rantas explained, is considered basic food and helps against acid stings. The weakness and shivering disappeared after a good night sleep.
Using the motor again to help the weak windsailing we managed to get out of the windless bay of Polycastro and sail through the night around the cape of Palinuro. With weak wind we continued all day and night using the motor in the night along with the wind to advance towards Capri. We reached Capri on Friday at the end of the day and we enjoyed the meeting of the Moon with Venus right after the sunset. During the night we continued with weak wind towards Istria off the bay of Napoli to reach it on Saturday 25/3. The wind took us to the Capri Salerno narrow passage before the night. We tacked and used the motor to pass the straight and then we continued all night with very week wind and the motor at very low power, only 300W. Thus we traversed the bay of Napoli in the direction of the island of Procida that we reached at 3.00 in the morning. We decided to use the anchor to get a few more hours of sleep in peace.
At 8.00 on Saturday 25/3 we set off towards Rome because the wind seamed favourable. it was more favourable than predicted. And we spent he day advancing at good speed without waves.
We left by 8.00, breakfast while sailing, with little wind and we needed to add some motor force to continue towards the Capo Circeo. Around noon a good west wind took over our propulsion but it pushed us slightly towards Gaeta that we came close to by early night. At around 22.00 the wind died completely and we went to sleep waiting for the next easterly wind that was predicted to blow after midnight. It did and woke us up to set the sails to bypass the Capo Circeo. The auto pilot took over but we had to wake up three or four times to readjust the sails to the exact direction of the wind that was playing left to right like mentioned in the Verdi aria.
By morning we reached the Capo Circeo and we then calculated our options. We could be safely by the evening in Nettuno Marina 26NM short of Porto Di Roma if we helped the sails that had the weak wind behind us with the motor at cruising power 1.5 kW. We could also risk continuing towards Rome where 5m waves were starting by midnight. We opted for Nettuno and we are now, Sunday evening 26 March, preparing for docking probably for two nights while the waves will pass by.
The trace from Skyla to Nettuno in the picture.
To be continued…
