La Spezia Town

Mor Toad / Moy Toad
David and Jocelyn Fawcett
Thu 4 Oct 2018 19:09
44:05.97N
9:40.76E

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After a very windy night and still blowing hard when we raised the anchor Tuesday morning 2/10 we set off for the marina in La Spezia .

Overnight we had dragged 20-30 m . And when I lifted the anchor not only was the chain very muddy but along with it came a snorkel, bits of plastic which unfortunately fell back into the sea and sank! Also fishing net, rope and wire which we managed to retrieve and dispose of onshore. The anchor also heavily caked in mud which washed off as we slowly motored out of the bay.

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All the way north to the marina it was blowing very strongly from the NE and white horses. Neither of us were looking forward to trying to tie up on the pontoon if the wind continued!

Fortunately once in side the large harbour walls things did settle down and after a failed attempt at contacting and communicating with one marina by radio or eventually telephone ( he no English me no Italian) we gave up and managed to contact the bigger newer plusher marina initially by phone and then radio. Yes no problem we have space so in we went and the maraniere came out to meet us and we followed into a pontoon past an unbelievable numbers of super yachts and motor boats definitely the poor relation!! Fortunately the wind had died and we managed to tie up (even managed better rope throwing) with a helpful guy onshore to catch and help us tie up.

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We were under time pressure as we had a previously arranged meeting with Andreas and Patti who live near Palma Reggio - Italian Oyster owners who we’d first met in Marsala Marina well over a year ago. They have now left their boat in Valencia. They arrived with a present of Parmesan cheese and said they were taking us to a fish restaurant they knew half an hours drive away. Well three starters the first 4 different raw fish, second octopus with blueberries followed by tempura prawns and celery and then main course of v large piece of yellowfish( same texture as cod) with courgette flowers. Just all so delicious along with the sparkling wine and their home made olive bread. We finally left at 4pm very full but it had been an amazing luncheon experience. A and P were well known by the people there and I believe it was a bespoke lunch. Just how fortunate we were. They came back to the boat with us for a cup of tea and for the men to discuss trials and tribulations of being a boat owner and what they each needed to do to improve their yachts. They are thinking of crossing The Atlantic so quite a lot of discussion had on our experience.

Once they had left we decided we needed to walk off our lunch, certainly didn’t need supper and we also needed to find the supermarket. The latter we failed to do bit the walk did us good and we got a feel for the town of La Spezia.

An early night as we had a lot to do the next day as our friends Steph and Andy were arriving in the afternoon to spend 3 nights on the boat with us.

So Wednesday morning saw several lots of washing done and hung out to dry and the sun was shining again which helped. We also needed to find the supermarket which we did but quite a trek. We’d hoped to get a taxi back but didn’t happen so I certainly wasn’t happy having had to carry quite a load back !!! After that had been put away the last lot of washing hung out we went and found some lunch not actually having had any breakfast.

S and A arrived about 3 and shortly afterwards we motored out of the marina to find an anchorage for the night.