Pitufa.at

Finally favourable easterly winds have arrived and we’re making good progress.

We left Sardinia on Wednesday with a promising weather forecast after we had to wait out a northwesterly gale that lasted for several days in Cagliary, but unfortunately, the wind died down soon (as usually…) and left us in a high swell, so we had to motor for the entire Thursday. Now we are waiting 60 nm off the coast of Algeria for an easterly breeze to carry us west. The destination of this passage remains open, it may be Almeria on the Spanish coast or Melilla, a Spanish enclave on the coast of Morocco.

Sardinia is great for daysailing. Today we’ve stopped by in Cagliari. Connected to someone’s home internet while waiting for the laundry to finish… Tomorrow some sightseeing.

Today we reached the southern tip of Sardinia after 175 nautical miles and 3 days. This leg has been quite nice, but it’s weird how Pitufa’s movements seem to be connected directly to the crew’s mood. Pitufa rolls in high seas while the wind dies down: crew frustrated—why are we doing this? Pitufa stays motionless and becalmed: Crew bored—we’ll never make it through the Med this way. Pitufa heels over in gusts that change directions constantly while lightning lights the sky: Crew insecure—how will we be doing on the Atlantic? Pitufa rushes ahead with 5 knots like on rails: Crew happy—sailing is pure bliss, have we ever doubted this?

Yesterday we spotted fish accompanying us. First 2 then 5 unidentified fish objects (wikipedia couldn’t really help, something between tuna and mackerel. Roughly 40 cm long, rather high, yellow backfins, dark vertical stripes) swam happily behind Pitufa, biting into the security line of the rudder of the hydrovane and generally having a good time. Our reaction “Wow, they’re so sweet, just look at the cute stripes on his tummy!” explains why we still haven’t bought fishing gear. Sooner or later we’ll have to develop bloodthirst while watching such fishies

We’ve dropped anchor in a bay next to a marina and a lot of tourism. The people lie on the sandy beach like sardinias

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 very interesting for us chatting with them about their experiences all over the world.

We left Vulcano on Tuesday 11:00am with a westerly breeze that lifted us conveniently over the still considerable swell. At least for the first 15 nautical miles. Then this breeze faded away and left us in the swell without any pressure in the sails. The rolling and pitching was so horrible that we were forced to use the engine for about 10 hours before arriving in Cefalu on Sicilly. Under engine Pitufa was a bit more stable again, but unfortunately the rumbling of the engine is so loud under deck, that the person off watch can’t find much sleep anyway… At last we could find some sleep in this anchorage well protected by a long breakwater.

Protected from all directions but east, we woke up to face easterly winds carrying already choppy whitecaps into the anchorage. The plan to go to town for some sightseeing and shopping had to be canceled. We lifted anchor and set course for the island of Ustica under full sail.

The 60 miles sailing to Ustica, an island 30 miles North of Palermo, was relatively easy. Except for about two hours at night when we were becalmed, we had favorable winds. First from the east, turning south. Then from the north, turning east again.
We arrived at Ustica in the morning and tied onto a buoy, which wasn’t a simple operation in the confused swell.

Now we hope for a few days of diving and exploring the island – if the wind is gracious enough to allow it , because there aren’t many protected anchorages around the island. A few metres away from shore it’s still 50 metres deep and almost the only possibility to stay is to tie to a buoy on the leeward side of the island (which changes constantly).

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 a single breeze tickled Italians toes… The highlight of the day was dinner. Munching two marvelous curries and sipping a bottle of sparkling wine, we forgot about the frustrations of the day.
During the night there were some fickle winds from different directions and we ended up motoring along for a while, because it’s just too dangerous to stand in the middle of the “Street of Messina” with freighters rushing by
Early in the morning the wind finally came and Pitufa flew under full sails clause-hauled towards Mount Etna.

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