Pitufa.at

While we were anchored in Vulcano’s Porto di Levante to seek shelter from gusty westerly winds (up to 35 knots), we met Aylin and Goeran from Cantana 3, a Hallberg Rassy 35 under Swedish flag (www.cantana3.com). Those two are the first real cruisers we have met since our departure. Goeran made a 6-year circumnavigation starting in 1993 and currently they are exploring Italy. It was… Continue reading »

The wind has been blowing from the west (that’s where we want to go) with 20-30 knots for some days now, so we spend more time than planned at Vulcano.

On the island of Salina with its green hills and colorful old houses in the town, we’ve finally discovered the charm of Sicilly. Never mind the rolling anchorage…

The Liparian islands are spectacular islands with smoking volcanoes, steep black cliffs and many coves. Today we take a look at the town of Lipari. The facades are touristy, but the houses behind crumbling away…

The Strait of Messina proved to be a difficult leg: strong currents, fallwinds, strong headwinds, high waves between Taormina and the entry of the strait. As soon as we left this witches cauldron we were becalmed again.

was not that easy…

Yesterday found us still south of Italy. Because of the calm weather it’s taken us a full week to sail from Dubrovnik to Taormina! We celebrated my birthday yesterday by floating around in completely calm waters, sweating, cleaning up the mess in our fuel storage locker (one of the cans seems to leak, but we still don’t know which one) and waiting for wind. Not… Continue reading »

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After sailing with an average speed of less than 2 kn for a couple of days, we unpacked and repaired our blister (a light-wind sail) today and experienced sailing again. However, with no wind at all, also a blister cannot do magic and so we are just drifting around again now. It’s incredibly hot, the boat is rolling, the sails are flapping and we have… Continue reading »

finally…

After the leisurely bay-hopping down the Croatian coast, our trip to Sicily feels like the first real cruising and we’ve quickly got into the rhythm of night watches. With the lovely warm weather we have they’re not tiring, as the watch can play with Leeloo, read a book or watch the impressive night sky. We’ve had very light winds till now, making only 100 nm… Continue reading »

Today we cleared out from CRO in Dubrovnik. Our course is towards the strait of Otranto and then towards Sicily. At the moment a very light wind is carrying us southwards. This entry has been sent via HF radio

Our last stop here in Croatia is Dubrovnik. We’ll do some shopping here, the laundry, organise some things and then head towards Sicily. Unfortunately our kindle was weaker than Christian’s elbow, so we won’t be able to report as regularly as before.

Each lonely anchorage seems even more beautiful than the last one. Today’s resembles a Norwegan Fjord

We had a quick smooth sail to beautiful Korcula, but the anchorage here requires strong nerves – like the parking lot of a shopping centre one day before xmas…