A passage at sea - without incident!

From Naxos and Mount Etna on the east coast of Sicily we sailed down to the large city of Catana to meet Tim who was coming out for the weekend – and oh what a weekend! Tim was hoping for a last bit of sunshine; what he got was a belly full of rain – but sailing is never without its dose of excitement!

The rain started just as we reached Catana on Friday and dropped anchor. Unhappy with the exposure of the anchorage we found a place against a rather ragged but well protected piece of unused sea wall in the harbour. Tim arrived at 11.30 pm after a long drive from Palermo. After an excellent Sicilian lunch out on Saturday the weather perked up and the wind was blowing. We set off south to give Tim a sail – and caught our first  fish since the Atlantic coast of France – and this time we landed it! It was a Bonito, from the tuna/mackeral family and half way between in size.

Our stop for the night was in the little river at Brucoli, an interesting little place which served up its own challenges. It was narrow – and shallow! Now shallow in the med is bad. There is a tide here but it is only a few inches in the river so getting stuck on the bottom is a really bad thing. I nosed slowly in, eyes glued to the depth gauge. 1.6m, 1.4 m – we draw 1m – then gently ground to a halt. Fortunately a local fisherman waved to us and indicated that we should come right into the left bank, within 5’ of his boat. Rock ‘n’ no Roll is 22’ wide – this was tight. I later realised that the depth gauge is in the left hull and was indicating 1.4m, it was the right hull that touched bottom! Still, if you touch gently enough two powerful engines will get you off, second time lucky and we tied up alongside a fishing boat.

We went ashore for a walk on Sunday morning then slipped the ropes to try our luck on the way out. Taking no chances I sent Tim out in the dinghy with a pole to find the channel. We still managed to touch bottom again but were soon clear and back at sea for a good sail and another Bonito!

Back on our wall in Catana the weather started to deteriorate and it lashed down with rain once again. Although we were in bed at 11, at midnight we were up on deck as 30 knot winds added to the torrential rain – I decided I wanted more ropes securing us – just in case! It was an old ships wharf so the only securing points were huge bollards that were too far apart for me to secure anything except the bow and stern and even those were 10’ from the boat. As we had no breast lines to hold us in, the wall was now 6’ away as we were pushed off by the wind. Hanging off the already heavily loaded stern line, driving the boat forward brought the bow into the wall. Tim waited, fully suited and booted against the rain, ready to step ashore when I got him close enough. I had a knife by my side in case the stern line broke; we would have to cut the bow line to get away quickly and prevent being swung round pushing the offshore bow into the wall. Happily the knife wasn’t needed, Tim got ashore and we doubled up the ropes then retired to bed listening to the rain bounce off the decks and the wind howling in the rigging.

The following morning, having emptied it only the previous morning, we had a staggering 2” of rain water in the dinghy!

We had done what we wanted to do on the east coast of Sicily. The weather was going to be bad for a while so we decided to head for Greece where the sun is shining and the boat will spend the winter. We will do the south and west of Sicily on our way back out of the Med.

The forecast was good for the 250 mile passage along the boot of Italy. A bit of rain but 15 knots of wind on our beam if I headed 30 miles further out to sea would make it a fast passage if a little more distance. A conservative estimate would

have us in Corfu around lunch time on Wednesday, 2 days and 2 nights at sea. 

This photo is my chart plotter, a maritime sat nav, showing our little boat at about the half way point in our passage.

We did get the predicted rain on passage!

Further out to sea I was hoping to catch tuna so I had bought some heavier tackle having lost 2 lines on our previous passage. 35kg breaking strain should do it. Nope – 2 bites, 2 broken lines – unfortunately they were both hand lines and have no ‘give’ like a rod does when the fish strikes and a big thrashing fish can create some serious shock load – evidently more than 35kg. I think its time I talked to someone who knows how to do this! Melanie and I did land a 30lb tuna many years ago on a hand line, I guess we had stronger gear!

We had a rather unpleasant rough sea for the first 24 hours from the big wind the previous day. I had hoped to leave a day later to let is settle down but the wind was good only for two days. Reading is a problem in rough conditions because of sea sickness. 

I have some magic specs which do help when conditions are marginal. I set too on a jigsaw to pass the hours!

At 5am on Wednesday we dropped anchor off the little island of Nisoi Othoni, 10 miles north west of Corfu and slid between the sheets. Passage complete - WITHOUT INCIDENT!!

We woke up to a light breeze and glorious sunshine - marvellous - swimming however remains a challenge for me!