DOLPHINS, RAINBOWS and SQUALLS – days 60 and 61

DOLPHINS, RAINBOWS and SQUALLS – 23 and 24 June, days 60 and 61

Saturday morning in the Porto della Grazie Marina at Roccella Ionica was beautiful. Unusually Anita woke early despite that we had taken a lovely walk of 3 km  each way in the moonlight to the town late on Friday evening, enjoying the pines, oleander, frogs, sounds of cicadas, and waves laping the beach. She went off for a run on the beach while I studied again the weather and decided tactics to move to the next sheltered place across the wide Bay of Squillace which has a reputation for squalls. We will go, motor the first ten miles along the coast then turning into the bay we can enjoy an East wind to sail north up the Bay. At the North coast we can then have the forecast east wind to sail to Le Castella.

There was a fiesta for schoolchildren who piled onto five volunteer boats to have an on the water experience. It was very festive. One boat was the lovely Lipari 40 catamaran built by Fontaine Pajot, and sailed by an Australia lady. What a lovely home. We can dream.

We prepared ourselves and boat and left the fuel dock at 11.45 having bought 10 more litres of petrol (two cans) at a massive 1.85 per litre. In Malta the price is 1.31.

At 7 am there was little wind of swell but leaving so late the sea and wind had built creating short waves which really slowed our progress. It took 3.5 hours to motor to the Point, instead of 2 hours which we could have done in calm sea. 

We were grateful for heavy rain which flattened the waves.
The tank was getting low and I thought we could clear the Punta Stilo, but off the town the motor stopped. The mainsail was up the whole time, reefed, but I opened a small amount of Genoa so Anita could steer away from the beach as I filled the tank. Being a new motor and tank I have to get used to the gauge. In flat water we motored more than an hour from the Low indicator, but in waves the flow stopped.

I don’t remember exactly when but the new rope of the lazy jacks snapped at it’s fourth outing. It looked flimsy compared to the old one whose outer layer was torn but core still good after 18 years. The Chandler in Malta recommended this rope for lazy jacks. The thin steel wires were flying around in the rigging wrapping themselves around things.

The East wind did not materialise until 17.30 by which time we had used a lot of petrol motor sailing.

Two small dolphins appeared briefly at the side of the boat. Anita was thrilled. She had never seen one close up. Later more came. You cannot appreciate the joy of the dolphin human connection until they come and play around the boat.

We sailed well and arrived as it was getting dark outside the marina of Catanzaro Lido so anchored close to the beach by the protective wall of the port. I could not see any other shelter along that north coast of the bay.

At 5am we woke and were soon motoring East enjoying a wonderful sunrise. The mountains to the west were covered in black clouds and we enjoyed seeing a rainbow. By 7 am we were sailing fast with Anita steering. As we came closer to Le Castella we saw one yacht motoring to the bay to the north of us and others anchored there. We turned to take the same shelter before the strong wind warning kicked in at 10.00.

I was worried about not being able to drop the mainsail as one of the blocks of the lazy jack system had found it’s way between mast and luff of the sail so I could not see how the sail could come down. As we approached the land the sea became more calm and wind less so we turned the boat into the wind and luckily the offending wire and block came out of the way and the sail came down. We anchored at 0900 and after cleaning up from two hard and wet sailing sessions relaxed.

 Later we anchored between fishing harbour and small leisure harbour of Le Castella, and enjoyed eating our pasta supper in the cockpit.