We had planned to stay in Savona today. On that basis we got up late, showered and breakfasted and did
a bit of shopping. That was a
minor disaster. I noticed that the
local little supermarket sold caffeine free Coke, so R went out to buy it. Only when he bought 24 cans of the
stuff did we realise it wasn’t diet Coke.
So now I have all these cans I don’t want to drink. Richard says he’ll drink them. I don’t remember ever seeing full sugar
caffeine free Coke before. We live
and learn.
As we are deciding what to do in town we look at the weather and get a
bit of a shock. The sea is
predicted to get quite rough over the next two or three days (despite week
winds). They are predicting swells
of up to three meters! – caused apparently by gales somewhere nesr Corsica. We don’t really want to be in Savona,
sweet as it is, for that length of time, so we decide to leave at once for Genova,
where there will be more to do if we are weather bound.
So we pay up (very reasonable place - do recommend it) and ask them to
open the bridge at noon for us to leave.
The weather is odd. When we
start out it is hot and sunny with no wind. Then clouds start to build up and at one stage we really
thought we were going to get rained on.
A huge rain cloud was just over the land, but it never got to the
sea. The wind was mainly on the
beam and built up to a force 4, so we did quite a lot of sailing.
The journey took the four and a half hours we expected. We had to put the engine on to get into
harbour as the wind was right behind and had gone down to a force 2. By this time the sea had started to
build a bit and was getting quite rolly so that we were not keen to take the
sails down at sea. Richard decided
we could do it in port. But the
problem is that this is a very big commercial port with a lot of ships coming
in and out. As we came in it
seemed very quiet with nothing moving in or out, but as we took the main down
we had to go into the main channel and then one large liner started leaving and
one started to come in. We really
weren’t in the way of either but the water police came up to us and told us off
saying that we had to stay right to the northern edge of the channel, both
arriving and leaving.
It is a complicated harbour and I had trouble finding the port where we
had reserved as space - Marina Porto Antico (the old port). Richard, of course,
had the benefit of the navigation instruments and had read the pilot book
avidly and knew exactly where he was going. Despite my
worst fears we finally found it without getting into any more trouble and are
directed into a perfectly good mooring.
We hope this will be convenient, as it is all supposed to be close to
the old town.
There are a few more technical oddities going on. First big surprise of the day was that
the fuel gauge has finally moved off full! So it is working up to a point, but we know we have used at
least a third of the tank and it is showing us as three quarters full. So we still have to watch the engine
hours and make sure we fill up in good time.
The next peculiarity is my Nike Band. It is supposed to only record real physical effort. When I first got it I found that it
showed I was exercising even if I just moved my arms about. In fact it seemed to think I did a lot
if I just did the ironing! They
improved that, but now it is recording big numbers when the sea is rocky. So the other day when I got seasick it
showed that I reached fuel of 6900 (as opposed to my goal of 2500) even though
I spent most of the day on the bed!
Today it did much the same, so now I have exceeded my goal by 1500! Perhaps I shouldn’t take much notice of
it.
Finally we are finding that the electricity in these Italian marinas has
reversed polarity. Luckily Richard
was warned about this and has a plug which tells us if the polarity reverses
and he has a special socket to use to put it right. Has just done that now.
Now all I have to do is find a launderette. We are overrun with dirty laundry.
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