Cape Palinuro to Tropea 10-7-2007 to 12-7-2007

Lady Drake
Peter Drake
Thu 12 Jul 2007 12:03

Cape Palinuro to Tropea 10-7-2007 to 12-7-2007

 

Destination: 38:40.794N 15:54.249E – Distance Covered: 85nm.

 

Dear Blog,

 

Finally I covered some miles and headed South across the ‘Golfo di Policastro’ to Trope on 10th July.

 

It was a very calm day; in fact I had to motor the first 50 miles.  The wind was SE 1-2 for most of the way, hmmm, where was that NW 5-6 they forecasted?  I could see the warm front approaching which was the cause of the predicted stronger winds and then the wind veered in less then 10 minutes from SE to NW with some strong gusts to help propel me towards Tropea.

 

I arrived in Tropea about 20:30 totally tired but keen to see some of the town. After having some pizza at the restaurant 10 meters from my boat I set off for some late night exploration.  Almost the complete town is up about 150 steps with some fantastic views and well worth seeing.  The next day after making some repairs to the boat I went back to the town to see some more.  They had some clowns performing an act in the square and they were really good, the shops were also excellent,  everything is so much cheaper here than back from where I came.

 

I had to stay an extra day in Tropea due to the strong onshore winds; the marina boasts a new high wall after the other was destroyed in a storm when they were converting the old harbour into a marina.  The waves were breaking over the top of the wall so I think staying in the shelter of the harbour was a good thing.

 

The boat repairs were to the stack bag for my main sail, while I  was putting in the sail away in the high seas the zip parted company to the bag.  The elastic cord supporting the stack was also worn out so I bought some new, the only problem was that the shop only had bright pink cord so my boat is now very colourful J

 

The weather is much better now so off to tackle the Messina straight (the waterway between Sicily and the main land).

 

That’s all for now until my next update J