Equinox 2021

We could have a relaxed start to the day, but I was awake and up early anyway. I love the peace and tranquillity in the morning, joined here only by the put-put of the little fishing boats that go out of the small harbour close to us. The low sun creates shadows on the land and the sea, enhancing the clarity and colours of everything. Later in the morning, the boats exiting the harbour were small pleasure boats and ribs, which people had rented to go sea the grotto caves, around the headland, so there was a fairly steady stream of them. It was clear these were people who had been given a five minute lesson, before departure, on how to drive the boat. They were delighted to get some speed up, with complete disregard that their wake is uncomfortable for the boats in the anchorage area. I guess, if that’s all I have to complain about, then things are pretty good. And they are. This is a wide sweeping bay, backed by the little town, which is obviously a holiday destination. During th...

Time to move on again. Teresa was dispatched to the bakery for fresh bread while we prepared the boat and waited for the marinaro to arrive, so that we could pay. The marina was working on a skeleton staff, and in fact the internet said that it was actually closed,  but this was evidently not the case. The formalities done, we were nearly ready to go when a large shadow passed over us. A medium sized container ship was being eased into the port by various tugs. The pilot boat patrolled, ensuring that no one got in the way of the delicate operation. We did not have to wait too long and called the port authority for permission to move, but got no response. We let go of the lines and glided out, the wind being from behind making it all quite easy. We left the port and h eaded north. It wasn’t long before the sails were up and the engine off. There was good wind and a slightly rough sea, but it was just glorious sailing. We were flying along, regularly seeing 9 knots or more. Apparen...

As we had been greatly impressed with Trapani, we decided to stay another day and explore further. We also needed more food supplies as we get through the contents of the fridge much faster when there are 4 people on board. The greatest issue was a perceived shortage of tonic water, although the stocks of gin were ample. In the morning we ventured out to the supermarket, bakery and fruit and veg stall (twice), to ensure that we were adequately supplied for the next few days. Towering over the town is Mount Erice, 750 metres above sea level. From Favagnana we had seen the lights of the cable car that takes visitors to the top, where there is an ancient village, and we were keen to go there. As the cable car only starts operation at 1:00 pm, it fitted very well with getting the chores done in the morning.  Once the hottest of the day was past, we set off to walk to the base, which was about 5 km away. We left the old part of Trapani and moved through modern developments to the town...

We slipped lines off the mooring buoy, after breakfast, and said goodbye to this fabulous bay. It was only eight nautical miles to the city of Trapani and we had a very nice down wind sail, with just the jib, until we were approaching the large harbour. Trapani is a city of 68.5 thousand residents on the western side of Sicily. On one side of the city there are extensive salt pans. To one side of the harbour we could see large mounds of salt, ready to be loaded onto ships. It is a very industrial harbour and the marinas are well inside, down at the shallow end. Fairly large ships came in, as well as a cruise ship and an old tea clipper, while we were there. We were lucky to get a berth in a small marina, with only one pontoon; I suspect only because we were early, arriving before lunch. Our main motivation for this was that we had run out of bread and knew we would have to get to the bakery before they closed at lunchtime, especially as it was Sunday. We made it, after having to make...

We had been enjoying our beautiful bay so much that we decided to stay another day. We had protection from the wind which was a bit stronger that yesterday and a secure buoy to be attached to. There was swimming for some before breakfast. During the day, the bay filled up with boats of all shapes and sizes and we were treated to several fine examples of port theatre. One motor boat full of lads came steaming toward the buoyed area, and the abruptly stopped. It transpired that someone had lost a hat overboard and they wanted to get it back. This was accomplished by somebody jumping into the water to retrieve it. While he was getting it, the boat drifted away from him and he had to swim back. Doing this with the hat in his hand was difficult, so he threw it back to the boat, except he threw it right over the boat and back into the water. He had to swim round the back of the boat, past the propellers, which I think were still turning. Ultimately man and hat were recovered to the boat s...

I woke at 0530 and just dozed for half an hour, by which time Steve was awake. We were still rocking and rolling in the completely uncomfortable, irregular motion as last night. Our own private maelstrom. “Happy Birthday”, says Steve, followed by “ I don’t think we should stay here a minute longer than necessary. Let’s get out of here at first light”. So I made my tea and we readied the boat to slip away from the mooring buoy, before sunrise. The sea had calmed down a little but the swell was still just unbearably awful. Immediately, as the boat was moving through the water, rather than getting bounced around by it, the motion was way more comfortable. It may have been a beautiful bay, with the castle on the hill, still lit up, but I don’t think we’ll be going back there any time soon. However, it had allowed us to get some sort of rest after the crossing from Sardinia. We didn’t feel that the short distance across to the next Egadi Island, was worth putting the sails up, so we mot...

The final pieces of the jigsaw were to prepare the boat, pay the marina,  buy bread and collect the engine spare that we had ordered on Monday. Tricia and Teresa headed off to be at the chandlers to collect the spares at 9:00, but unsurprisingly it was not there. They assured us it would be by 11:00, which was all right, but we did not want to be too late leaving. We want to arrive in Sicily in daylight. At 10:30 we got a call to say the parts were there, and so Tricia and Teresa set off again to collect them. When they returned we were ready to go, called the marina for clearance to leave and we were off. We steamed out past a huge and impressive motor yacht (small to medium sized ship actually) and the Italian America’s Cup team’s base. Once we rounded the harbour wall we only had two waypoints en route, one after 5 miles to keep us clear of the south eastern tip of Sardinia, and another at our chosen anchorage, 153 miles further on. Across Cagliari bay we were motoring into ...

It was all happening today, hopefully our last day of preparation. We were up and going early, to go to the municipal market to buy more food. The supermarket we went to yesterday was fine for everything except fresh food. As it turned out the market was almost next to place where we had gone to get the soldering iron, we had walked past it without realising what it was. Inside there was a huge range of bread and cakes, fruit and veg, cooked and fresh meat of all types, and cheese. We walked through deciding which stalls the go to and then started buying on our second pass. We were a bit concerned that we had not seen any fish for sale, but when I asked one of the stall holders, he directed us downstairs, which was entirely dedicated to fish. We were already carrying our dirty laundry, and the laundromat was near to the market, and we wanted to just make one trip, so we staggered on under the weigh of our purchases and dirty clothes.  At this point it started to rain, bad news. A...

It was a prompt start this morning. On Saturday we had visited a chandlers, but they did not have what we wanted. They said that they could order it but it might take 2 days to get here, and if we wanted them to do this, we should return early on Monday morning.  We were in the shop by 9:30. There were a couple of things that we needed, the one that required ordering was a spare impellor for the engine. We had used our spare while in Bosa, and we don’t like being without at least one spare. The other thing that we needed was a new controller for the anchor winch. This has been an ongoing issue for some time. We have 2 and had eventually proved that the primary one does not work, and the backup does. However, during the intervening years, the design of the connection has changed and they did not have one of our configuration. After weighing up the possibilities, we concluded that we should replace the fitting on the boat with the new style and get the new controller to this specif...

We had a lie in this morning, all be it just an extra half an hour, but that’s the first since we’ve been in Italy. I had heard the general partying going on in the city, when I got up at about 2.30am but, considering we are so close to the city centre, it’s been remarkably quiet at night. After a run and breakfast, there was more work to be done. First up was making a better connection between the vang and the mast. We had fitted a new part while in Bosa and it wasn't quite right. The revision involved moving various bits of rope that hold things up, to take the weight of the boom, while we rearranged a couple of washers, so that the vang swings more freely. It wasn’t a completely easy job, but we got there, with a bit of persistence. Next up, was clearing out and cleaning one of the aft cabins. This was the last remainder of the deep clean and emptying out all the various bags that had been stored there in our absence allowed us to re a-quaint ourselves with further equipment...

We know that we will be in Cagliari for several days. We have folks coming for the crossing to Sicily, and we wanted to ensure that we were not prevented from getting here first by the weather.  There is also further checking and preparation needed. Principally there are a couple of spares that we need, so we set off in search of a chandlers that had been recommended. They were very helpful, but did not have what we needed. We tried another chandler but also without success, and then resorted to food shopping. We will return to the first one on Monday to see if the bits can be ordered and arrive in time for us to depart. They say that every day is a school day, but when you operate a boat, every day is a maintenance day. I note this especially, as today was the first day on this trip that I did not have to get anything out of the tool box, we seem to have made progress on a variety of these fronts. Despite all of our cleaning efforts, the exterior of the boat seemed dirty. We w...

We spent a very peaceful night at anchor in this delightful bay. There were only a few other boats and nothing in the way of wind or waves to disturb us. Definitely one of the most relaxed nights were have ever had at anchor. We did not rush to get going in the morning, as we knew that we had a short distance to go, and that we did not want to arrive before about 4:00, when the siesta period ends.  Tricia managed a swim before we departed. Fish swimming in our shadow Our original plan was to go to the marina in Cagliari that we had used before, but several things caused us to change our minds. First, when we had contacted them to book, they had demanded 50% of the fee with the booking and the balance on arrival. This is not how it is usually done. Secondly, we had asked for a package to be forwarded to them from Bosa, and they contacted us to say that as we were not clients, there would be a daily storage charge levied.  Given that we had already said we wanted to come, this...

We were all set to depart Carloforte today to head for an anchorage between here and Cagliari. We said our goodbyes to the marina staff and included that we had rated this marina the best we have been to in Sardinia, so far. The boss, Andrea, was genuinely, touched. He said they really need the five star rating, which we had given them. We can’t speak for earlier in the season, obviously, but now, we have the impression there are far fewer boats than in a normal year. I’m guessing this is due to the reduced numbers of foreign boats, now that the Italians have gone back to work and school. The son of the lady in the office was not a happy boy, two days ago. His mum told us it was his first day back at school, but he eventually, with head hung low, got on the back of his Dad’s scooter to go. He looked about eight years old. There is no school uniform, but he had to wear a tunic over his own clothes. His mum said that she did not realise quite how much he had grown, the sleeves looked a...

We are staying in Carloforte for a few days, because the weather forecast is not appealing for rounding the southern coast of Sardinia just yet. A bonus of being in the town today was the weekly open air market. We joined the locals in sourcing, particularly fresh fruit and vegetables, which were of very high quality. Some of the stall holders looked as if they were selling their own home ground produce. One was only selling various types of aubergines and tomatoes. At a more general stall, we had a bunch of parsley thrown in with the bunch of basil. There were also, of course, the stalls selling Sardinia cheeses and cured meats: prosciutto, speck, etc. All this was great entertainment for a good deal of the morning, enhanced by the people watching, during our visit. The locals here are very friendly and welcoming; not as dour as we found those in the north of Sardinia. We ticked some more items off the "to-do" list and walking down the main promenade to get petrol for th...