H&A do the boat test
Heerenxvii
Mon 2 Aug 2010 20:10
A.
Leuca marina is full, completo, finito, basta!
So, we anchor, sand does not really hold the anchor, so, A double check by snorkeling and we conclude we are not safe. 10 meters more chain, solved. Our south neighbor does not notice their anchor is not holding, so A snorkels over to tell 'm, they let out more chain initially, but, 100 meters further away, they take the anchor back up and try again.
H goes through the tender-inflation-and-mount-theoutboard-engine procedure, by pumping 10 minutes full force. We leave the mothership and look where to go ashore in the marina, this proves difficult, that is time consuming, but 30 mins later we are walking the promenade of Leuca!
First we shop, then we drop, at the local Kebab shop. A has loads of dead meat in the panini, the others enjoy a vegetarian Kebab! Yummie :)
While G is frantically trying to score sigarettes, we slowly stroll back to the tender. Just a few boats are still at anchor, we board and deflate the tender, no sweat this time, compared to the sauna experience with H & S...
Kermis, I do not know how to describe a disco, live band and karaoke bar at 30 meters from our anchor place. According H these festivities took place until 1.39am, I was sleeping.
At 8am sharp we leave, straight sail to Crotone, about 70miles in a straight line. There is no such thing as a straight line when sailing, it all depends on the wind, we arrived at 6pm in Crotone harbor. Our expectations were low, as we past 4 oil drill sites, and ofcourse, the marina was full. We had a light conversation with a local Italilan about NOT getting alongside his ship, and then moved out to anchor.
If we would have been sharper, a sign could have been a dove landing repeatedly on our ship about 2/3rd of the trip in open waters, and rethinking a previous sailors experience with this marina, we would not have been stranded. Yes, my fault. A local guy way shouting and waving, but in Italian you kind of mis the intent it turned out. In full reverse we got loose, and tried the other side of the marina.
H would arrange fresh fish, so the bbq was very nice, with meat and vegetables ;)
Just finished the beers, over to cheap headdache bubble wine, ,yummie2!
Tomorrow we try again, Hopefully with H&A writing the 'guest blog'.