A tale of the unexpected!

Marita3
Mark & Helen Syrett
Sun 26 May 2013 17:19
38:07.350N 13:22.246E
Last night we reported that we were on passage to Sardinia. We are now holed up in Palermo at the western end of Sicily.
Our passage plan was to leave Milazzo at about 1100, sail through the night and if conditions were untenable then to to divert into Palermo. The grib files, from about four different sources, said that the wind would be light during Saturday, increasing early Sunday morning and then reducing to a light variable on Sunday afternoon. All went well until about 0300 when the wind increased from the forecasted 15 knots to about 25 knots and then more. The sea became very rough so that by 0500 when it became lighter the sea was frothing and we were making very slow progress about 15 miles off Palermo. We had problems getting a grib file over the iridium so by 0730 when we were really pitching and rolling we took the decision to go into Palermo---an interesting exercise going from large seas just off the bow to large seas on the beam. Five hours later we reached the calm of a well sheltered Palermo harbour although the wind still continued to howl! The latest grib files still show a falling wind speed.
The auto pilot is still not fully functional because we discovered that when we switched it on it made the GPS/waypoint instrument fail and loose position. That was overcome by disconnecting the NMEA input and output connections but now the autopilot over compensates and the wheel spins feverishly so we are only using it for short periods at a time eg a visit to to the heads---unfortunately Billy in Falmouth, the expert in such matters (electronics that is), has gone away on a weeks holiday.
BUT we have had a consolation prize---on Saturday afternoon we both saw a swirl of water about 50 metres off the port beam. We thought it was a dolphin but as we looked over towards the swirl a swordfish rose majestically out of the water with its long sword leading the way. A fantastic sight but unfortunately not captured on camera. Later in the afternoon we saw a large pink flesh object in the water and went over to investigate hoping that it was not a human body---it was in fact a dead mammal of some kind, probably a small whale, about three metres long and one and a half metres wide lying on it's side. Presumably the casualty of a fishing fleet. At least the swordfish escaped the harpoons.

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