Having bid a fond farewell to Mike's fellow divers, we were delighted to be joined by Charlie Stott for our passage to Sicily - it was now late September and the weather was becoming unsettled. We needed to head South!
On 22nd September we escaped the clutches of Calvi Marina just before they charged us for another night & had a shake-down evening cruise for Charlie, to Cala Porto Vecchio - a couple of hours under sail.
We had a variable few days - quite a bit of motoring necessary but also some enjoyable sailing, including using the cruising chute, as we made our way to the South of Corsica, through the Straits of Bonifacio and down through the Maddalena Islands off NE Sardinia - province of the super-rich during the season and, apparently, then like a motorway filled with undisciplined drivers. But mercifully quiet and very beautiful in late September.
 |
By the 27th we were in Arbatax, about half way down E. Sardinia - we went into the friendly, slightly ramshackle Marina there, ashore for [limited] stores and Charlie kindly gave the mate a night off with a fun dinner ashore.
The 28th - Mike's actual birthday! The dry ship rule was broken by a modest beer at lunch time ~
~ and a lovely bunch of cards produced by Charlie
 |
| was that 70 or 17????
A couple of nights' sailing made the distance to Trapani, NW Sicily.
This little fellow landed on the quarter deck and stayed with us most of the night - we hope he was near enough to land when he took off - he slept for about 3 hours, but we couldn't persuade him to take any food or water
|
 |
| A first attempt at bread-making for Charlie - with excellent results |
There were strong South-Easterlies for the next few days, which quickly build unpleasant seas in the narrow channel between Africa & Sicily, so we stayed at anchor for 5 days
An overnight sail - not much shipping except a pretty close inspection by an Italian patrol boat in the middle of the night. [At this time there was much on the news about refugees getting into anything that could float to try the crossing, often with disastrous results] Mike shone our searchlight at the call-sign on the mainsail and then onto our Blue Ensign - at that, obviously, they sped off..... They did return when I was on watch, but not so close. On the 8th October we were led into the marina by the "marinieros" [shallow entrance, most advisable] and shown our winter home. The marina covers a large area - our bikes will be invaluable - and has a friendly, helpful office, decent showers & loos and a large liveaboard community in winter.
Lisbon to Sicily may not be the longest distance achieved by a yacht in 5 months, but we'd seen a great variety of places, had some frustrating hold-ups, some good sailing, too much motoring when trying to meet deadlines [a lesson now learned.....], good fun with friends and remarkably little hassle from officials. We got used to wonderful markets, friendly locals and a great deal of sunshine. Our cockpit awning is invaluable, as is our "breeze bandit". A long list of jobs and several must-haves [including a snuffer for the cruising chute] or would-likes for 2014 emerged, so we settled down in Sicily.
[Oh, and Mike had yet another, wonderful, birthday party - this time in London, hosted by our children, in late October]
