We're here!
13 December 2009 | Msida, Malta
John
We ended up leaving Termini Imerese at 0430hrs, the wind was a force 3 and the swell was still large enough to take the wind out the sails when rolling, not plesant for Shearwater or us; so to find a more comfortable point of sail we motored out to sea, also hoping to find more wind. By 0800 we were back under sail doing a pleasing 7.5 knots downwind riding the waves, close to the Aeolian Islands. Uh oh we were entering the Aeolian Triangle, an area where, and I quote, "an uncommen lot of local bad weather is encountered". Pah! we said, the sun was shining, Betsy was helming, the islands are picturesque,(and actively volcanic we read later, Damn, sailed straight past something worth visiting), and the wind was steady. Liz took the early watch, clever girl. By now I should realise she knows. Wether she knows she knows I don't know, but she definately knows, and invaireably she gets it right. I had a few hours kip in the afternoon and Liz had stayed on watch. At 1700hrs it was my turn. All went well, day turned to dusk, dusk to night, and at 2222hrs we had nearly made it out the triangle............ To quote from one of Queens' classic songs, Bohemian Rapsody; "Thunderbolt and lightening,very very frightening be". Well when you're in a giant lightening conductor on open water with a storm passing directly overhead it certianly makes you nervous when Zeus uses you for target practise (as you know Steve!!). Fortunately I ducked a lot and he missed. Maybe next time..... So it was then, that in full wets and lifejacket, we followed boldly in the wake of Odysseus to face Scilla and Charybdis in the Messina Strait. No worries, I'd been given the nod back in Cagliari on how to get through without disturbing them, thanks Gary, it worked. I did, however, have a game of chicken with a warship entering the strait; it was dark, he had right of way and a bigger gun, I lost. Towards the end of the strait, past Mt Etna, one of the ledgendry squalls came down a mountain and Shearwater left the strait at 8+ knots into the Ionian Sea and.. flat calm, nothing, nada, rien, ziltchamundo. That was the last time the sails were of any use for 138 miles. Donk was reactivated sails were furled. Liz came back on watch at 0330hrs; having done 13hrs continuous before going off watch she'd slept through the lot; even the Thunder!!! See what I mean, she knows! Unfortunatly Betsy is rubbish when motoring (must fix the clutch on the electric autohelm) so manual steering is required. By the time Liz woke me at 0830hrs the sun was up and she was casual as you like, reading a book, drinking coffee (or was it G&T?) dead on course; women and their multi-tasking! We considered anchoring for a while as our eta was 0330hrs, yet again arriving in the dark; however, after much debate and a lack of suitable anchorages we decided just to ease back off the gas and go slower, easy. We passed the southern tip of Sicily just after dusk and, as expected, we were "fishing the trough". It was the swell coming from the west, made by the gales we had avoided by going round the east of Sicily. With no wind to stablise us Rock 'n' Roll barely describes the motion, slap 'n' wap maybe... still, only 60 miles of it, or about 12hrs, main down lash the boom off we go! It's quite a busy shipping lane but is too large for a TSS (Traffic Seperation System) and we got mentioned on the VHF as various captains worked out how to pass each other without running us over. I thank them all for the courtesy they give to us amatures in our rag 'n' stick toys. We were able to sail (motor) pretty much straight across without having to alter course. By dawn (lovely girl) the swell had reduced to a comfortable wallow, Liz spotted what appeared to be a parcel floating, so we did man overboard hoping to increase our collection of items gathered from the sea. (which still dosen't include any fish, except the flying fish, but they flew aboard themselves & that dosen't count) Guess what, another variation on the theme "unlikely designs for your lobster pot marker". I went off watch dissapointed and Liz watched the spectacular awakening of another day. We had to radio the port when 10 miles from Malta and Liz, always the angel, stopped so I could have my full 3hr sleep before calling in. Call made we started in and we could see yachts sailing, sure enough 8 miles out there was enough wind so we unfurlled the genoa to see if we could remember how to use it. Like riding a bike, all came back after a few attempts!! We sailed triumphantly into the harbour.... well more like drifted, lost the wind,turned on donk and pretended to sail in triumphantly, we reckon we got away with it. There was no room at the customs berth and no answer from the marina; so Liz hailed a yacht and got us an excellent berth semi rafted on the end of the pontoon, like Kite, best view in the marina. 1200hrs we were tied up, 1300hrs everything top and bottomside was cleaned and tidied and we were sat in the sun enjoying several large scotches, we're getting good at this. Good health & seasons greetings to all. Picture....... Liz multi-tasking.