Ciao.
Since my last post I have travelled around the Tuscan Islands of Elba, Giglio and Gionnutri, then down the mainland coast to Rome, where I said goodbye to Simo, Ben and Painkiller, and hello to Gary and Greece.
The Tuscan Islands were amazing! Beautiful little outcrops of land dotted around the coastline of western Italy, where there were plentiful little anchorages in isolated coves off picturesque white beaches. The main issue and noteworthy event to mention during my time on Elba, was the unexpected storm that blew over with horizontal rain, hail and winds of up to 70 knots! We were luckily moored safely in Portoferrio, however a number of other vessels were not so lucky; two boats sank and one big triple-master was washed ashore. One Aussie couple we met, who had sailed all the way from Adelaide over the past 8 years, rode out the storm in a nearby bay and at 4am had another boat smash into them after their anchor snapped causing extensive damage. They didn’t see the boat in the morning (after they heard the captain in tears on the VHF making continuous mayday calls) and as such were forced to pay for all the repairs themselves, which included a lost dingy, snapped anchor, and the destruction of their lifelines. The coastguard later told us of another disaster where a yacht anchored just north of Portoferrio sank and the captain was blown in his liferaft 20 nautical miles out to see where he was rescued two days later.
After departing Portoferrio we sailed to the southern side of Elba, then over to mainland Italy during which time we didn’t set foot on land for 3 consecutive days (serious case of sea legs when we finally took our first steps in a marina in southern Tuscany. However as this marina was full we quickly got back on the boat and set off again for another of the Tuscan Islands further south (Gionnuttri) to anchor for the night. During this 2 hour journey, while consuming a number of Peronis, Ben’s stubby holder rolled overboard. He instinctively dived over, only to realise that he was listening to his ipod at the time, and as such it was destroyed due to water damage. Quite humerous to Simo and I, Ben saw the funny side of it a few minutes later while enjoying another beer in his much loved and now wet stubby holder.
Upon reaching Gionnuttri, we anchored in a calm bay and settled down for the night, only to be woken up at 5am by a howling wind and large swell driving us within a couple of metres of the nearby rocks! So we pulled up anchor and sailed back to mainland Italy all over again! This journey was much more pleasant than earlier anticipated as the winds became favourable, the weather cleared up, and we were accompanied by a large pod of dolphins who rode the bow with us for a few moments before they disappeared over the horizon as quickly as they came.
We finally reached Fumiccino (Rome) a few days later after favourable tail winds allowed us to ‘goose-wing’ down the coast at up to 8 knots and under faultless blue skies, calm seas and temperature in the high twenties. A brilliant last day of sailing! We celebrated the end of our journey, from Marseille to Rome, with a well-earned shower and a few (too many) beers on a pub-crawl.
The morning after I packed up my things, strapped on my backpack and headed away from the boys and Painkiller to spend my first night on land in over a month! What a trip it was – simply amazing! Life can’t get much more cruisier than living on a boat and sailing the Med. I’m going to miss so many things about that life - the constant creaking of the old boat, my tiny coffin-berth bed, the old ‘dump and pump’, constantly smashing my legs on the winches and hitting my head on the boom, pulling up anchor at 4am, and failing to not even once catch a fish! What a crewman I was – lucky the other boys knew what they were doing!
Cheers.
Matt.
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