This has been a long and eventful
day. So much so that I am now
writing this entry on Friday. We
left Castellammare fairly early in the morning. We did not expect there to be any wind and Richard was not
even going to bother to take the covers off the mainsail. But after only half an hour or so the
wind got right up to 11knots. So
finally we could put both sails up and actually sail! It is great. We
have between 11 and 15 knots of wind and a pleasant sea. The only problem is that the wind is
not entirely in the right direction.
We have decided to go to Amalfi.
Richard has phoned one of the pontoon holders and reserved us a space,
so we don’t have to hurry.
Therefore we sail as close to the wind as we can, which in effect takes
us on a large tack nearly to Capri.
We are making good progress along the coast on this tack and Richard reckons
that we are only going about 1 mile out of our way. Each time we approach a new headland the wind shifts
in our favour. But after three
hours of nice sailing (we have been doing about 5 knots, not as good as earlier
in the season, probably because the hull has got dirty with weed on it) we have
to go about to head towards Amalfi.
At first we think the wind is just enough off the nose to make progress,
but it soon becomes clear that this is not the case. Tacking will take us far too long to get there, so in comes
the genoa and on goes the motor again.
I make us lunch under way. As we are clearing up the lunch things
we notice a very tall cumulous cloud ahead with a very black bottom. That is a typical thunder storm
cloud. As I watch it I can see the
rain coming out and I think I see a few lightning strikes. We are headed right towards it, so we
are getting prepared to get caught.
We take down the main, while it is still fairly calm. And we wait. After about two hours we think we have got away with
it. The cloud was going in the
same direction as us and perhaps a speed of just over what we were doing. Then it seems to have dissipated. Maybe we can get to Amalfi without
getting caught in rain.
Well we were not so lucky. The storm I saw was not the
problem. Another storm came up
from behind and half an hour out of port it started to rain. It really wasn’t so bad (the bimini
helps), but a shame it could not wait.
We get into port a little soggy. This port is another one with many
different people running different parts of the harbour. We are not sure who is the person we
have booked with. One man comes up
to us in a rib and is about to take us to his pontoon when he realizes the boat
behind us is waiting for him. He
directs us to someone else. We
telephone the person we booked with and find he is the same one the other man
directed us to. We are taken to a
berth on a wall just inside the harbour.
I am very unhappy about the berth.
It is a very high wall with a ledge sticking out. We cannot use our passerelle and
instead are given a long plank.
But the angle at which it must be is too frightening for me and I won’t
get off the boat. So eventually we
are moved to another pontoon, with the help of a nice young man who speaks some
English. This is better in that
the pontoon is low and we can use the passerelle. The problem with this is that it has no electricity. Also this whole harbour is
uncomfortable. It has no protection
from the open sea and is really nothing more that a deep bay. A swell is coming in all the time and
it is rocking all the boats about.
I am beginning to feel peculiar.
So I want to get off the boat.
Richard tells me to look up restaurants
here and low and behold I find a one Michelin star place. Richard suggests he books and then we
go off the boat to use the showers (which we are told are on the shore). He gets a reservation to the
restaurant, having found that it is not far from the boat. I am a bit surprised about that, but we
must have luck sometimes.
We go off to shower and discover that the
so called showers are nothing more than a rank of 3 shower heads in the open
air without any cubicles. I have
no idea how anyone is supposed to want to use them. So we shower on board and even with the rocking I am able to
put some makeup on.
Off we go to the town, which is
delightful. It is all little
houses and shops going along a valley and up a hill. We spot what I think is the restaurant easily, but Richard
says I have got the wrong place.
We have a nice walk around looking at what there is on offer and then
have a lovely dinner, if a bit large.
After two heavy courses they brought out a huge pot of fish soup made
with shellfish. I could only eat
about 2/3 of it!
So feeling a lot better we make our way
back to the boat. When we get
there we can see the passerelle is not set up properly. It is much too high up. We think the pontoon men have been
adjusting things. Richard just
manages to get on board and tries to lower the bridge. However when I get on it real disaster
strikes. The whole thing collapses
under me. The end attached to the
boat has come undone and the bridge is hanging vertically into the water. I am hanging on to two ropes which hold
it up and that is all that is stopping me from going in the water. I do not know how long I can hand on to
the ropes. Richard is trying to do
something with the bridge, but it seems like ages and nothing happens. Finally the ropes sway me towards the
boat and I am able to grab on to a rope on the pushpit and get myself on the
bathing platform, from where I can safely climb on to the boat. Neither Richard nor I understand how I
did that and why I didn’t fall in the water. I am safe, but the passerelle isn’t. When it came detached from the boat a
part that holds it in to the boat came out and went into the water. I thought about trying to grab it as it
fell, but that would have made me fall in. So we just watch it sink to the bottom. This is going to be a big problem,
because the passerelle is not secure without this piece and really cannot be
used. Another thing to worry
about.
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