Stormy Baia di Mondello - 5 October 2021

Well, if we thought the firework display last night was impressive, we were in for much more of a show from Mother Nature today.

About four in the morning lightening and thunder started and it lasted a couple of hours. Steve and I each got up to check all was well with the boat. There wasn’t a lot of wind as we were well sheltered, so everything was fine.

When we surfaced for breakfast, there was a lot of blue sky, if you looked to the east. To the west, dark grey clouds and poor visibility loomed.

From the forecast, we knew there would be further thunder storms and we had a window to get around the headland, to be sheltered from the west wind that was coming. Before we left, we saw the fisherman from last night lifting his net, but we still gave the area a wide berth. It was only a journey of eight miles and we found it head to wind almost all the way, so we motored.

We arrived in the picturesque Baia di Mondello about 10.30 and within five minutes of securing the anchor, the rain started to fall and the wind whipped up. We had a full on electric storm above our heads. The lightening made incredible pictures across the sky and I have never heard thunder so loud. We had a top gust of forty knots, but the anchor was well bedded in. We watched the PC screen colouring in the track of our position; very reassuring. It went quite dark and gloomy, and for a little while, we estimated the visibility to be less than 50 metres. I couldn’t concentrate on reading and have to admit to being a little scared when we were in the gale, but thankfully the wind eased quickly and we could just enjoy the light and sound show, with the battering of the rain on the deck. We were thinking that, at this point, we were probably in the eye of the storm, so braced ourselves for more high wind.

View from the companionway during the storm

The same view 30 mins later

When we had arrived in the bay, a large South African registered catamaran was leaving, but within 10 mins, they had returned and re-anchored. Nevertheless, we were very surprised that, by lunchtime, they had gone, heading in the direction of the storm. They must have had very compelling reasons to go out in these conditions.

By the early evening, the weather had calmed down. We were able to sit on deck to watch the sunset, all be it in a couple of small dry patches of deck. We were able to retire to bed, happy that we would have a calm night.





Tricia (and Steve)

Distance today               8 miles

Total distance 2021:   406 miles

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