We got up early with a view to leaving to go to another Tuscan island
called Isolo Del Giglio. All went
well initially. We went into town
and bought our bread and vongole clams and set off is bright sun. The wind turned out to be from behind
so we put up the genoa to do motor sailing. There was not enough wind to sail and get us to our
destination in good time, as we have to go just over 30 miles.
The pilot book said that there was a nice town on the island called
Giglio with a small harbour where we hoped to stay for at least one night and
perhaps more as we have so much time before we need to get to Rome.
I made a bit of a booboo organising food. I forgot we would be sailing through lunch and didn’t buy
anything suitable to eat under way.
Also the sea is very lumpy because of the high winds yesterday, so it is
not suitable just to slow down and do a knife and fork meal in the
cockpit. So we rush to get to port
to have a late lunch.
As we approach the port we are very confused. There is what looks like a huge building site just outside,
with cranes all over the place. When
we look closer it looks like all the equipment is around a boat that has
sunk. When we try to go in to the
harbour we are told to leave immediately and that there is no chance of getting
into the harbour before 5:30pm!
All of a sudden the penny drops.
This is the place where that Italian cruise liner the Costa Concordia
went down in 2012. They are still
salvaging it and it has obviously affected the port. It looked as if the place had been quite attractive but was
now spoiled by the wreck and related cranes and so on. So plan A will not work.
On our way to Giglio we had passed inside a slightly submerged rock and
were surprised that there was no marker to warn of its presence. It was reasonably well away from the
shore in water that was otherwise well over 20 metres deep. It was clearly marked on the chart but
it is unusual in Northern Europe to come across a rock like this without a
warning buoy or marker.
The next idea was to go to a bay just south of the town and anchor there
for the night. We get to the bay
and it is solid with boats. I
count nearly 40 and there were more that I could not see. Also the anchorage is very deep and to
get to the shallower part means getting close to the rocks, where we could come
to grief like the Costa Concordia. So we just stay for a late lunch and decide
to press on to the Italian mainland.
All day the sea has been very lumpy and it is getting worse. We are being rocked all over the
place. One problem is that there
is still swell from the high winds yesterday. The second problem is that the swell is coming for a
different direction to the wind, so there are waves coming across us in two
directions. I need my seasick
pills, but after taking them am fine.
Richard has put the main up and as the wind builds in the afternoon
decides we could have a nice sail in a force 4-5. So he tries to pull out the genoa and it is stuck. We don’t know why, but we can’t pull it
out, so we can’t properly sail.
Again we are motor sailing.
It has been a very frustrating day. We shall have to have the sail sorted out in the next
port. It may mean sending someone
up the mast! That won’t be me, by
the way.
We decide that after such an annoying day we need a treat. So we have one of our good bottles of
white Burgundy (Chassagne Montrachet) to go with my pasta vongole, which turns
out very nice. We shall go into
port sometime tomorrow.
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