Well I have finally managed to put Mary back in the water and I think the plan is basically to find my way home. The distances here are too great and the contradiction between waiting out mistral and having to fighter 3 weeks holiday once a year has already had me sailing when I would have been better to spend the day in the bar. Today I ripped the block out of the yoke. Not too bad but I lost a placing clamp. I will have to lash the block to centre for the rest of the trip. Other than that I have had two days of motoring one storm that found me on a bouy and a lee shore. A weird point of education for me but before the mistral, a storm came through which I think dumped a pile of cold air in the asinari bay kicking up a south easily wind and therefore swell. For the evening I sat on dock hoping it would die down before I had to sleep. I would have been like trying to sleep in a washing machine. I guess it is one of those Mediterranean things. Now I know what they mean. Note to self, find a nice harbour and comfy bar before a mistral as the weather is unpredictable before it asserts itself.
9 thoughts on “Mary 2015”
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I arrived at arnovecchio yesterday after a good day on the foresail. They have lifted Mary out and she is now here to spend winter watching sunsets over the alps. I have to say that the Arno river is lovely neither Mediterranean Sea nor Pisa tourism but both are 10 minutes away. It almost has a bit of the broads in it. I will post photos
I spent last night on anchor but in the early morning the wind rose and the anchor alarm went off. I had enough chain out but that started a restless night of constant checking. A couple of other boats started relaying their anchor. But I figured I didn’t have anything in my path and the anchor would just be digging itself in. I also guess it would be travelling to the length of the chain. I woke this morning to poor visibility and a strong wind. This gave me a good crossing to the main land. But as the wind and swell increased I reefed more and more. I got the hebe-geebies about vada shoals and took all sail down. It took another boat to raise my sense of competition before I raised it again. Now I am in cala di madici marina having a beer and all is right with the world again. But it was a busy day wrestling with the tiler.
In Elba now motored all the way after getting a jump start this morning. The sea was high but not malicious but I am weaving a bit. This place is quite poncy. I did well at the mooring, backing into a space between two boats without touching. This comes after a hashed departure from compoloro where the wind was pushing me into a dead end. I basically nosed into some bow ropes to bring the nose to wind. But then got the keels caught. I eventually pushed off the anchor rollers of another boat to get the wind to pull the nose out and was away. Not sure what damage was done but my ego was in tatters. Although I did avoid physical contact with the other boats, if you don’t count the boat hook.
I had mixed weather reports but the captainerie, whilst dealing with a large “bateaux poubelle” that had sunk overnight, suggested staying another day until the weather settled. I am glad he did as it rained 10 minutes later and is muggy with little wind. The sea is still a little high. I also got to see the museum and citadel.
Sounds like its all coming together. Big hop coming up?
Glad you found a place for the winter.
I got the numbers in from Pisa it works out at about € 165 a month on the hard. But then it is in Pisa. On the mainland. So I am going to go with that. I spent two nights in maddelena and sorted out the keel boxes. I then powered over to rondinara. This is a lovely spot with a beach bar and good anchorage. There was a bit of a swell but nothing too bad. In the morning I swam ashore for coffee and croissant then started heading north. My friend had put his boat in the water after some issues. He was in compoloro. So as the weather was calm with a slight on shore breeze. I pushed on and arrived at 9pm bit dark and no lighting but to spend the sunset motoring along the coast in what is a very tuscany like scenery was lovely. To top it off I was joined by a dolphin though he scared at first as it was after sunset and he was probably enjoying the lights too. Today was a strong southerly so I took advantage to get to Bastia with a few scary moments and a surf action giving me some good speeds but when she turned to wind I figured it better to Reef the main. Shortly after I took the main down all together and spent the last hour and a half on the genoa. The problem single handing is you don’t even have time for photos. I bastia now moved in front of a tapas bar with a shower token
Oh, I am heading north and hope I can get a reasonable price for winter. If not I might need to borrow a trailer in a hurry.
From isola rossa I hauled to Puddu just south of maddelena to catch up with a friend. He had trouble getting his boat in the water so he and his crew were in turn crewing for somebody else. But all in all I spent the evening in good company including guitar sing alongs to all the Austrian favourites. Today I met a couple of Australians who had bought a boat in Germany (with all the mod cons) after spending most of their working lives diving and chartering on the Great Barrier Reef. Puts my snorkeling into perspective. This afternoon I pushed against a headwind to get to maddelena. There is a lively place that makes burgers with egg plant.
Trips far. Bosa to cala tramarigilo then stintinto through the frenalli passage and then up to cala d’oliva now I am in isola rossa.