Brindabella
| Vessel Name: | Brindabella |
| Vessel Make/Model: | Najad 405 |
| Hailing Port: | Suffolk Yacht Harbour, UK |
| Crew: | Simon, Fiona and Daisy the dog! |
| About: | Simon and Fiona had Brindabella built in Sweden before she was launched in 2009. They sailed her from Sweden back to Suffolk in the UK. They are now exploring the Mediterranean. |
15 April 2024
Porto Santo Stefano
We had to leave Giannutri early the next morning as the wind direction changed and we would have been pushed onto the rocks. The weather was due to change. There was a Gale Force 7 with gusts forecast on the VHF radio, from the French Riviera and down across Corsica. It sounded like the Mistral. In the [...]
13 April 2024
Isola di Giannutri
We have now reached the island of Giannutri which is one of the Tuscan islands. It is wild and exposed. The island forms a natural crescent shape, shallow enough to anchor close to the shore, otherwise it is too deep. There is a little harbour where the ferry lands. We anchored quite close to some rocks, [...]
11 April 2024
Riva di Traiano
We motored round from Rome and the sea still had remnants of swell. Three and a half hours later, we reached the marina at Traiano. This is a large modern well protected marina with cafes, restaurants and chandleries.
09 April 2024
Porto di Roma
At 8.30am, we slipped our lines at Nettuno and headed towards the port of Rome. It was warm, but the air was muggy with little wind. On the VHF radio, we heard a Force 7 to 8 gale warning for Corsica, broadcast in Italian, French and English. Simon had already seen on the forecast an increase in swell [...]
08 April 2024
Nettuno
It was a calm day with a light wind, so we motorsailed from Ponza to the marina at Nettuno. We had been here last year and had to watch the depth at the marina entrance. In one patch the depth sounder recorded 2.7m, we draw 2.1m. On the approach to the marina, we prepared to tie up, alongside rather [...]
05 April 2024
Isola di Ponza
After a brief walk around Ventotene, we had breakfast in a café and bought a few food items in a little grocery shop. It was calm at sea, and we saw an army helicopter overhead, that did a fly by and circled the boat twice.
04 April 2024
Isola di Ventotene
After buying a few provisions, we left the island of Procida bound for the island of Ventotene.
02 April 2024
Isola di Procida
It took two and a half hours to motor out from Naples to Marina Grande on the island of Procida.
29 March 2024
Naples
Early in the morning, we were up walking Daisy and trying to decide whether to use Good Friday to travel to Naples. The forecast for the day was calm, but the following few days were going to be very windy. Simon had contacted Powerboat Marina in Santa Lucia, Naples and they replied that they had a berth [...]
Menorca – Addaya
The entrance to Port Addaya is a dog leg and both narrow and shallow. Although there was still quite a bit of swell at sea, it considerably reduced at the entrance. Once in the harbour, we anchored off the small port.
Addaya is a delightful cala with tree lined surrounding hills. It reminded us of the rivers in Brittany.
Trouble in paradise - Tuesday night we had a bad night! At 1am the anchor alarm went off indicating that we were dragging. The wind was blowing F7 and we were moving steadily towards another anchored yacht. We were quickly dressed and on deck, ready to fend off.
With the motor started, we ran forward and started to bring up the anchor. This was a considerable challenge with the screaming wind veering the boat towards the rocks. Once the anchor was up, we tried holding the yacht in position while we discussed what to do. This was impossible as the wind veered us off to one side every few minutes needing full speed ahead to reposition the boat within the small anchorage. Eventually, we turned and backed into the wind to hold station for a while. The only option was to try and anchor again. We did this but the mud was simply too soft and we were dragging again within 20 minutes.
Eventually, we went out into the channel and anchored between the channel buoys. This gave us more space and the mud was much harder. The anchor got hold first time and despite the wind veering the boat from side to side, we never moved an inch! By the time we got back to bed again it was 3:30am!
The forecast was similar for the following night, so we took the wise decision of moving into the very small marina in Addaya.
Thursday, we had a good walk around the peninsula and into the next bay. This is a really pretty location.
Time: 3:00 hours Miles: 15nm Total Time: 111:30 hours Total Miles: 640nm
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