Well, we must have had a worse night on the boat, but I can’t remember
one. The boat rocked and bucked
back and forth all night and in the morning it was even worse. Not only that but the weather has
turned nasty. It is very dark and
cloudy and it clearly has been raining.
Not only that but on looking outside we find that one of our lines
snapped in the night! It was the
one acting as a spring on the port side of the boat. It was an old warp, but useful and we will find ourselves at
a loss without it.
We want to wait to see the boatman who helped us get in yesterday. Richard is convinced we have to pay him
for the night’s mooring. He
finally comes, and confirms there is nothing to pay and he refused to take a
tip for his help.
By now the weather is worse.
It is pouring with rain. I
am still worried about the anchor being fouled. So I am anxious not to go until there is someone about who
can help us if there is any problem.
The rain finally abates a bit, so we decide to set off. Next problem is that another of the
lines has been destroyed. It
nearly wore through on our own cleat.
So now we need two new lines.
Not exactly a free night after we take that expenditure into account!
We do get away without problem.
The anchor was well set, but came up without mishap. And in the drizzle we set out. We are both wearing our new light
rainwear. So we shall see how that
works.
The sea is bumpy, but I had to take a pill just to cope with our
mooring, so I am fine. The rain
comes and goes. At first there is no wind, and what little there is is on the
nose. So we are motoring. We go past the other 4 villages that
make up the cinque terre. They all
look very cute. After a while the
wind improves and goes up to 8 knots so we try to sail. But it is slow going and we go back to
motor. We change our plans several
times. We were just going to go to
the next port, Lerici, in the Gulf of Spezia. That was only ten miles
away. But we decide that even in
this rotten weather we can go further than that. We therefore travel on to
Viareggio. We know nothing about
the place, but it is a convenient stop, thirty five miles from our last port. And we are now in Tuscany!
As we approach Viareggio, the weather improves wonderfully. It is now sunny and quite warm. The
marina is very welcoming and has all necessary facilities. The harbour master is delightful. He explains to us that we don’t need a
pass key to the pontoon, because the locks are broken and we can just enter by
pushing a button on the inside of the lock. He just shrugs and says “you are in Italy”.
The marina is on the start of a canal which goes up into the town. We have a walk around the town and it
is really nice. It is the weekend,
so there are lots of people around and the town has a real buzz. There are elegant shops and lots of
stall selling anything from the usual junk to very interesting food
stuffs. We never really had any
lunch. All we managed was a cuppa
soup under way. So at one stall we
buy a Mozzarella in Carrozza.
Something I always wanted to try.
It is a breaded and deep fried sandwich with Mozzarella cheese. Very nice too.
We have looked in the Michelin guide and find that this town has 2 one
rosette restaurants. But they both
look very pricy and probably would be booked up on a Saturday night. So we decide instead to try to go a lesser ranked restaurant on the top
floor of an hotel with a lovely view over the sea. We book a table and then continue to look around the
town. We find a supermarket to
stock up on a few more things to have lunches and dinners on board, because we
are not sure where we will be in the next few days. We may be just at anchor in remote places.
Back to the boat with barely enough time to change and go out again. Dinner is much better than I
expected. The food is really
interesting. My desert is
described as bread, wine and sugar, and is that, but in the most interesting
way. I would love to have had the
recipe. Back to the boat, where I
just conk out. Too much weather,
food and booze I guess.
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