May 6^th

The winds had pretty inconsequential in the morning – barely approaching 5 knots but all the weather and wind reports forecast a comfortable 15 knots in a useful direction for the next 3 days and then some if we left in the mid afternoon.
We left at the marina at 3.30.

Bob was very happy taking the helm and sure enough there was 14 knots of wind – to start.

“Wooh!  Where did this come from!”

Within 30 minutes all had changed. We we now seeing 25 – 35 knot winds and 1to 1½ meter waves. What is it with the wind predictions in this region?

It was no problem for the boat. We were well reefed and we were making 7.5 knots, close hauled with hardly any sail. (The look on Cathy’s face said it all. We assured Cathy we would not normally set out in winds like this. This was now where near to  the conditions the boat is designed for.).  Four hours later the sea had calmed and the winds had subsided to 11 knots.

We had just sailed past the southern approach to the Messina Straits. 

We were a little disappointed that our pilot books didn’t adequately describe the weather  and sea patterns around this Strait.

We settled into our allotted watches for the next few days. We have found that with 3 watch crew a 3 hour watch shift works well.  The next 8 hours were a mixture of sailing and motoring -  our nice weatherman had forecast no need for any motoring for the whole sail  -  grrrrrrrr! 

There was a lot commercial traffic going to and fro between Greece and Sicily so we needed to be extra vigilant.  Not quite as busy as the English Channel but close.

..would we manage to catch anything. Would we eat tonight?

The next morning we set out the new fishing line.
Nothing all day.  
We sat down for early evening snacks in the sunset and then John shouted!! 
“A fish!  Quick!  A fish!”

Sure enough the line was taut. There was clearly a monster on the end! What do we do now!
“Find the fish knife Les!!  “Get the gaffer ready” 

Bob & John had a great time hauling in this 300lb going on 7lb fish. Unfortunately the guys didn’t need to use the ‘gaffer’.  Cathy took photos of this momentous occasion.  Now the dirty deed had to be done. Knife ready, fish flapping around, Cathy & Les looked away. 
All done.

It turns out that we had caught a ‘Little Tuna’.  Our ‘Tuna Expert’ from the chandlery in Riposto had been right!
John set about filleting the fish near the deck drain. 

Bob and John had a wonderful tuna supper - the first “Timeless caught fish ever! ..and it was a Tuna.
Cathy and Les were still a little bit green from the previous swell.
They were assured it was their loss!

We decided not to put out any more fishing line as we had enough fish for the next three days.

The rest of our trip was still a mixture of sailing and motoring.
So frustrating. We are used to pretty good weather forecasts in the western European area.

“Gosh! It’s really drinking water Les!”

Apart from checking the Watermaker worked when we took delivery of ‘Timeless’ we hadn’t found the need to use it as yet. In fact to keep it in good condition we had ‘pickled it’ as they say. We were now moving into the Greek and Turkish waters. We had heard stories about the quality and availability of the water on some of the islands. For this reason we decided to re-prime and de-pickle it now. This way we could be sure that if there was going to be a problem with the system we would be in good time to fix it before we really needed to use it later in the year. This would be the last major boat system to be put into service.  You can only use these systems when you are 10 miles out from shore (to avoid bacteria) and when the generator is turned ON. Then, after priming the system it needs about an hour to flush through the pickling chemicals before pure water is produced ready for the tanks. The Watermaker is specified to produce 100 liters an hour in the right conditions.
It was a bit of a non-event. Water was indeed produced in such quantity that we could have had a bath in it!
We filled up just one tank – just in case (if you get my meaning!)

We sighted land!