We do set out today even though the weather is
not much different to yesterday.
As we leave the harbour we have a force 4 wind from behind and so we put
up the sails right away and turn off the engine! We have a long way to go, but we are moving nicely. The wind builds up to between 17-24
knots. We are doing 6 knots
through the water with the sails goose-winged on a poled out genoa. This is our first really good sail.
The only problem we have is despite all Richard’s
calculations, we have the tide against us. So for the first three hours we have an adverse tide of
nearly 2 knots! But we do well and
keep up sailing until after lunch, when again, without warning the wind just
dies. It was blowing a force 6 one minute and quarter of an hour later it is
down to 3 knots! So alas, the
engine has to go on again. As a
consolation, Mount Etna appears.
With these fluky winds we are not sure where we
should spend the night. The winds
have dropped, but what will they do next?
In the end we go to Taormina Bay.
It is very pretty and there is a rep from the Cruising Association here
who runs a mooring buoy concession.
So that is where we have wound up.
On a buoy in Taormina Bay.
Only have two problems. We
cannot be bother to blow up the dinghy so we are stuck on the boat (we visited
Taormina a few years ago). Second
problem, the sea is still very rolly and we are rocking about badly, which is
not great. We have been offered
the buoy for free tomorrow night, but we shall go on.
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