on passage Sicily
Off again
Mark+Barbara
Sat 28 Aug 2010 18:19
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38:57.790N 09:45.601E
15TH August
Set sail at 08.25 am for a night passage to
Sicily.Calm sea and F3/4 predicted.Had a great sail until early morning
when wind dropped and we decided to drop main.Unfortunately the top of the
Halyard had twisted and the Main would not come down,luckily little wind at the
time and headed for Islo Egadie and the small island of Levanzo, where we were
hoping to anchor in the bay and Mark would go up in the Bosuns chair and free
the sail.On reaching the bay the wind picked up to 20 knts and the harbour was
quite full ,so little room for us to maneuver with a full sail,decided to head
for Trampani instaed on the mainland.Arrived really tired and frustrated as the
wind showed no sign of abating.Were hopinf to use the mooring buoys but another
English yacht at anchor signaled to us that they were not safe and had not been
serviced for several years!!Just our luck.Anchored and had something to eat
whilst we waited until things calmed down,unfortunately the wind just kept
building its strength so Mark had no choice but to go up the mast before we
encountered any sail damage.
Eventually got the sail down and at last around
6pm were able to get some sleep.
Alas this was not to be, around 12 midnight we were
awoken by flashing blue lights and a visit from the Coast Guard asking us to
move as we were in the way of a Fireworks Display!!! We spoke in no uncertain
terms of the lateness of the warning as we had arrived around 2pm!!The Coast
Guard was most apologetic and said they would escort us to a safe haven and that
we could reanchor in the same position after the display.
Well we decided that we may as well make the most
of it and cracked open a bottle of "sparkling"and settled down to enjoy the
fireworks.
Around 3am after reanchoring we were able to get
some rest.
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