Redwings Round the World
Italian Passage
20 August - 1 September
20 August, Rocella Ionica
Aaron - Afternoon arrival. Met Andante, Spanish couple, tired, sleep.....So good to be in first civilized marina for ages. Actual fingers on dock to go alongside. Locals fishing off pier.
Sometime mention Italian women's role on boat....
Aaron - I woke up at 0630 to listen to the weather net, and was immediately worried when only Basil jumped on the bed when the alarm went off and Sybil's dingly bell was silent. Usually, they both give me a good morning mewing chorus to make sure they are fed, scratched, and watered before I am. 10 minutes later, my contact lenses have moistened up enough so I can see straight, the coffee has perked, and still no Sybil. I call her and she does not appear. I am very worried as there is really nowhere for her to disappear to here. The harbor wall in front of the boat is unscaleable and its about 1/4 mile in either direction to any kitty cover. She is gone.
My biggest worry here was the traffic. Apparently the mouth of the harbor is good fishing (if the 5 inch minnows the local Mediterranean townie fishermen spend hours chasing can be really called fish) and cars were zooming by the boat all afternoon and evening to get there. But I could find no fur or blood that would indicate that she had been hit. I walked around the whole marina calling her to no avail. If she fell in, she should have been able to get up our fenders which have cloth covers and were dangling in the water. Also, there are plenty of areas along the side of the harbor where she could have clambered out on the rocks. However, the two sailboats that were nearby last night, Andante and one which I think was called Messe Molle, are gone. There is a chance that she was on board of these boats and has left with them..... Frankly, the more I think about it, it is the most logical explanation. In Fiskardo neither cat went ashore, but both did spend a lot of time on the two boats on either side of us - inside and out. There is really nothing else interesting for them to do here. I can't believe on the first night she would have gone all the way to the entrance of the marina, were there are some forest areas she could hide in. Basil is the ranger and even he does not go that far. Sybil was barely willing to even get off the boat when we first arrived and stayed within 100 feet of our slip yesterday evening.
Anyway, I guess that seals our decision to stay here for the day at least. We dug out our bikes, borrowed the Spanish couple's Italian Pilot and peddled off towards town. Rocella Ionica probably passes for a typical Southern Italian town: one main street with a train station, town square with cafes and shady trees, a few banks, and lots of food stores. Throw in a few beaches, a hill with a ruin, and there you have it. We found a photo copy shop and the old lady who ran the shop started copying away. We did a bit of shopping, looked around a bit, but we did not really enjoy ourselves much as we kept thinking of Sybie.....
She had not miraculously returned when we got back. We decided towards sunset to put the dingy in and look along the edge of the harbor under all of the concrete quays (there is a bit of space underneath them with rocks where she might be hiding if she fell in). We took flashlights and Basil. I rowed while Colleen shined the light under the docks and called. Basil mewed. No luck. We then biked over to the woods at the edge of the marina and called her and searched with our flashlights but turned up nothing.
Well perhaps she is holed up somewhere and will make it back to the boat later tonight.......
22 August, Rocella Ionica
Name - Sad day..... no Sybie. Put the word out on radio nets to look for Andante and Messe Molly. Free Spirit came in friends of La Scala going to Barcelona too. Depressed. Read a lot. Slept a lot. Got water. Got ready to leave in evening. Last desperate search round the docks....
23 August, Reggio Di Calabria
Name - Light winds, beautiful day, too depressed to sail, motored out of the harbor sans Sybil with tears in our eyes..... Motor sail to Reggio Di Calabria. Wind shift to nose as rounded the toe of the boot. Arrival near sundown - what a pit. No room in "yacht basin". Alongside main harbor under huge cranes and near train tracks - big black fenders. Basil hounded by Italian cat lovers escaped below. Kept him below. Favorable tide at 0235 tomorrow - will leave early to ride out with it. Lets get out of here!
24 August, Milazzo
Name - Up at 0500 and out of there at 0530 - peak of North flowing tidal current. Whizzed through Straits with 1-5 knots of positive current hitting 11 knots over the ground at one point. Light winds from NW of 5 knots. Motor sailed to town of Milazzo on NE tip of Sicily and arrived around noon. Industrial harbor, but decent place for yachts. Good back up job. Old guy helped us - tip of L10,000 - he will "guard" the boat. Otherwise free port. Stern to and Bas quickly off exploring and under a car. Quick check in - friendly staff. Walk around - nice town, yummie lunch. Naps, yummie dinner, play with Bas on dock, German girls scare him, sleep.
25 August, Lipari
Name - Talk to Hells Belles on radio net who are in Aeolian Islands - had a great night last night watching Stromboli erupt. We decide to go over there - I'd been 10 years ago and loved it. As weather is settled, anchorages over there should be tenable. After buying some new mooring lines (chain etc), left for Lipari. Little wind. Pleasant motor. Anchor, dingy ashore and catch up on Lewinskigate and collapse of world markets. Rip off lunch. Hells Belles comes in and we go out to dinner with them. They look at Bas and say, gosh did you hear the sad story about those people on the net who lost their cat? Fun - lots to talk about as he is on board of CS First Boston and old investment banking industry veteran. Good sleep.
26 August, Alicudi
Name - Sad news on net - someone found Andante and they do not have Sybil. Little hope now.... Hells Belles gave Spanish info in am as well as lent us several Spanish Coast pilots. Tony Khien somehow got hold of their Atlantic crossing notes and contacted them! Small world... not surprised with Tony though... Left for Alicudi Western most Aeolian Island. From here easy day to Ustica and then on to Sardinia. This track is direct, but anchorages are fair weather only - which we have so we decided to go for it. Again 2-5 knots on nose so motoring. Alicudi had not harbor, anchor in lee of prevailing winds on Eastern side near "town" in 25 meters. Let out all chain. As long as wind does not blow up, should be ok and while onshore we can keep eye on boat / weather. Steep sided volcanic island. Scattered houses up the side, twisting paths.... Both really engrossed in our books - thank God for me as helps keep my mind off Sybie...Colleen swam to town. Beautiful water. Don't venture in till 2100. Stumble around in dark looking for restaurant. Neat village, houses along paths with families settling down to evening meal. Finally found restaurant - decent meal. Back to boat. Quiet evening. No wind. No worries.
27 August, Ustica
Name - Still no wind in morning. Motoring towards Ustica. Should have more than enough fuel I calculate (gauge is busted) - P18 goes down. Oh well, lots more in P50 - it goes down 1h later. Zippo fuel. Sails up, drifting around making .5 knots towards Ustica which is only 10 miles away and very visible. Fishing boat in distance. Closer. Call on VHF - no luck. Toot horn - no luck. Finally close enough I chance it and dingy towards them. They veer towards me. In halting Italian and sign language, I communicate fuel problem and they give us 20l free! What luck! Make it in just after sunset. No room at inn. We go stern to at end of mole and still get a bit of protection from breakwater. Still no wind so no worries. Anyway, any wind should come from N or W in which case we would still be well protected.... Bring Basil ashore for walk - he is getting used to dingy. Big excitement - two other cats, cars to hide under... Back and then out with Colleen to explore town find dinner. Neat town. Touristy, but not too much as out of way and most tourists come for diving. Real small town atmos with lots of pedestrian areas, square. Yummie Pizza dinner. On arrival back at boat, can see another boat has come in and squeezed in between us and other boat. Also, wind has shifted to SE and is blowing straight in. Luckily not much of it, but even this amount of wind sets up an almost untenable surge. We are only feet from the rocks and don't know how well anchor is set. We loosen shore lines and tighten anchor chain moving out a bit - anchor seems very stuck - I tightened it right up. Basil exploring boat next door. We opt to lock him in. Boats bobbing like mad in here. If the wind whips up from this direction, we will probably have to leave in the middle of the night. Nerve wracking, but go to sleep. At 0230 hear bank and sounds like inside washing machine. Break out of cabin (takes awhile cause of locks to keep Basil in) and looks like we are almost on the rocks. The wind and swell has increased. People are up on most of the boats on anchor watch. I try to tighten our anchor chain, but a lot of chain comes in and it does not tighten up much - must have snapped out during a big surge and jerk. Get Colleen up. Put out kedge anchor. Fairly smooth operation - guy next door of course has to come over to pull in rode when Colleen (a woman) shockingly tried to do it herself. Seems to bite very well. Thank god. Between the two anchors we should be ok. Wind eventually shifts more to S and dies a bit. Surge falls. Back to sleep....
28 August, Leaving Ustica bound for Sardinia
Name - .....till awakened at 0630 by banging on hull. After about 5 mins, I figure out that they want us to release our anchor rode, which is going across the harbor entrance, as the ferry needs to go out and they are afraid its prop will catch in the rode. We start the engine and put in in forward to keep the boat off the mole, I released the rode and let it sink to the bottom. There was probably room, but better safe than sorry. After the ferry left, we tightened it up again.
Craziest day ever. Wind is building, we must get out of this tenuous spot but have no diesel. Decide to jury can run in dingy till have enough and hope boat can be held off rocks in the mean time. Going back and forth. Townspeople real nice and helpful. Finally time to go, just as well as gas station shuts at 11am. Typical Italian entrepreneurship... Try to get away second anchor stuck on huge metal chain on bottom of bay. We are now in the middle of harbor entrance, stuck, blocking all traffic. Pilots for HUGE ferry come and try to get us to move, we refuse to leave our anchor, they help, no avail. We move to side for ferry to come in. Colleen ashore to ask for help from dive shop/authorities. Come back to boat, We were blocking dive boat of 100 people to get into harbor, they dive down and release anchor for us. What luck. I jump aboard in time to haul anchor. By this time whole dive boat standing off watching, and half the harbor. I'm hauling and hauling, people are making funny faces, like go go. I can't see anchor, but all of a sudden huge cheer and clapping all around. I look up, the anchors up! We burst out of harbor into 30 knots on the nose, huge sea. Struggle to get dingy up and all away for a sail. Not very nice conditions at all, but by now too late to make it to Palermo (35 miles away) in daylight. Go for Sardinia.
Beating into wind. Tired already from morning drama. New routine for passage making we trade off watch every 4 hours. Whoever's off sleeps in main cabin with basil. Too tired and too rough to move from recline position when off watch. Wind dies to average of 20knots for night, with gusts up to 30.
29 August, Tyrrhenian Sea
Name - A blur of watch sleep watch sleep, still beating. Slogging into sea. We did manage shifts well and always were able to enjoy the making tack. Text
30 August, Cagliari, Sardinia
Aaron - After bashing into a 20-30 knot headwind most of the night, at daybreak we arrived at Cagliari, Sardinia's biggest city, and made our way inside the enormous harbor. We initially headed into an inner harbor which supposedly had a quay for visiting yachts, but were waved out by fisherman and pointed towards a larger breakwater we passed on the way in where several yachts were tied. It did not look too nice so instead we headed for the "yacht club" which was on the other side of the harbor about a mile away. Notwithstanding "members only" signs, we thought we'd give it a try and eased into an empty berth at around 0700. Quiet, water, electricity, no cars or other visible cat-hazards. Perfect.
However, within 1/2 an hour a Bang Bang Bang on the stainless radar arch roused me from listening to the morning weather net and sure enough, we're busted.
Man only speaks Italian but insists we must move no room, yet he wants my ships papers and insists I pay 46,000 lire. I tell him I can't understand what he wants the money for if we can't stay. Some kind of fee? Ends up finally he was assuming we spent the previous night, not realizing we had just arrived. He ripped up papers and said leave. We snuck water to fill our tanks and rinse down boat while there - couldn't resist with it just on the dock and a hose. Basil was going mad after being cooked up, running up and down dock. As prepare to go we here a wingy meow, meow, follow the sound he's under the dock. had fallen in water climbed under dock and refused to come out. Aaron has to unscrew the plank of the dock and grab him from above.
Over to main dock area. Actually not so bad. A German/Canadian older man from another boat comes to greet us. He wont stop talking and all we want to do is sleep. The most bizarre accent if you can imaging speaking a cross brogue of German and Canadian. Take my first shower in 3 days - the salt water kept coming into boat figured why bother at sea, besides it was too rough to shower. Feel so clean. Off to sleep. Are awoken briefly by "Terry" from Serendipity English boat wanting to know if we'd be "in " for a diesel truck if they arranged one.
Aaron sleeps till 8pm. I awake near 4pm. Meet Bulgarian singlehander on dock. He gives me restaurant suggestions. Italians lining the dock fishing. So pathetic. Would you eat that fish I think from this industrial harbor. Bulgarian winds me up, must have sensed my vulnerabilities - saying to watch out for the Mistral wind crossing the gulf of Lyon to Balearics. I freeze of course has he mumbles.. "Is dangerous. I sail all around Dee med, bud this is Dee wors, force 10 to force11 sumtimes..." Just what I shouldn't hear about our next leg.
I wander down to Serendipity to discuss fuel truck. They invite me on for a drink. Actually really nick couple, cruising med for years and years. I force Aaron up at 8pm to go get pizza. A "local" spot just up the street. Full of young Italians. Great big oven for pizza. Its actually cold! I'm wearing a sweater and jacket!
31 August, Cagliari, Sardinia
Colleen - We awake and go to wander around town. Is actually a beautiful city. Absolutely no tourists, a real place. Lovely streets to wind through. I must get money from amex. lost my atm card. We check for internet but not an appropriate situation. Find a little restaurant down a back alley for another delicious meal. Procitto, Salami, salad, Pasta with mussels, spaghetti cabonara. Aaron has this crazy inspiration we should grab fuel and leave immediately for Spain to catch the weather window of easterly now blowing. Can we muster the energy. We walk to huge supermarket for provisions. A dream come true with aisles of Italian delicacies at reasonable prices. Aaron says I can only buy what we can carry back to boat!! How tragic.
I go off to call my mum, Aaron prepares boat to go. We cast off for "fuel dock" . realize fuel dock is somehow inoperable, and must come back and do the jury can shuffle to local filling station and back. Bit of a mess up with docking and Aaron freaks out yelling in front of whole pier with people fishing. Aaron's totally hyper and panicked, rushing me around. Wants to dump our water for the jury cans. He gets diesel while I fill tanks. Back and forth. German/Canadian comes and talks my ear off again while i fill tanks. Finally take off. Long sail across bay past oil terminal.
Pleasant enough evening sail, Aaron has mix up with offshore island light that is never there.
Back to Redwings Homepage
Copyright ©1999 All Rights Reserved by Aaron Henderson and Colleen Duggan