Cagliari

 Palermo

29 Dec
We set off early with the forecast  calling for winds  up to 20kts,  swell of up to 2m, for the first 6 hours and then for 10kts and 1-2m waves a period of wind of up to 25kts overnight and then 10kts till Cagliari.. So we set off.... After about 1.5 hours, the forecast proved to be rather optimistic, the boat got washed twice, properly, the waves were almost always 2m and larger, they were a bit further apart, so the boat didn't get slammed that much. After this grrrrrrreat start I pulled the plug and we headed back.. Another night in Palermo...  Nino and Marissa stopped by to say hi since we were still there. We checked the weather and it looked much better for the following day so it made sense to stay...

30 Dec
We set off at 0630, hopefully for the last time..

Ciao Palermo

 The sea was a lot calmer than the previous day with a much more optimistic forecast and so we continued and were treated to yet another awesome sunrise...

 The wind was a nice 15kts on a close reach, with the waves long and about 1m, and we were making good speed in the direction of Sardinia..

Doing about 7.5kts on a close reach

After about 1.5 hours we had covered more useful distance than the previous day and we were a lot happier with the progress and the general sea state and wind...  That was to change, after about 5 hours, the waves had built up and the wind changed, so we were beating, or more accurately, we were getting beaten by the sea and whipped by wind.. Every now and again the boat would get slammed by a wave and water would wash over the decks and to add to the joy, we were treated to the odd short wave and the boat would slam into the sea(Sideshow bob cringe!!!)..  After about 6 hours of this grrrrrrrrrrrrrreat progress, the skipper was feeding the fishes and looking somewhat green around the gills - fortunately the scopalamine patch had been put in place, but not soon enough... As the water washed over the boat, I could see it pouring into the inside of the boat - the companionway was closed, but the washboard wasn't in place... The boat would get washed at the middle of the wave, as we crested, the wave the water had reached the companionway and the boat would be inclined downwards, so water would work it's way inside... I didn't think too much of this...

The sea and wind continued to school us till about 18h00 that night, then the wind died down and the waves were only 1-2m but a bit further apart and we didn't slam too often.. Dinner that evening was a brief affair as neither the skipper, nor the first mate had much of an appetite, owing to our generosity in feeding the fishes... The forecast for the night had the winds picking up to 20kts, so we put two reefs in place. Evelyn had the first watch, with instructions of should the wind pick up above 20 - I should be woken up...  When I awoke at 0000 for my shift, I was told the winds were now dying down to 20 - the previous two hours, they had been in mid 20s with gusts of up to 30kts.. Evelyn had decided I needed the rest and so she was exposed to a Strong breeze at night.... Trial by fire..

Later that night/morning, the bilge pump started running almost every 5 minutes( for a couple of seconds) for about 2 hours ...  I took a look at the bilges, and initially there was about 2cm of water... I checked all seacocks and nothing, the only thing I could think of was the repair we had done was not quite as good as I though as I didn't imagine that much water had come in from the companionway. The bilge pump did stop running after about 2 hours or so and the bilge looked dry....

After an uneventful rest of the night, water in the bilge not withstanding, and after some good sleep, the winds had calmed down and were now only 10-15, against us with the waves now mostly 1m with the occasional triplets of 2m and change... By lunch time we had both re-acquired our sea legs and lunch was in order. Dinner called for a braai of veges and Spadinas we had bought in Palermo.. As we now were under motor, the boat was levelish, the bilge pump started going off again, reinforcing my fears..

The rest of the trip was rather uneventful and had us arriving at Cagliari at about 12h00, on the 2 Dec, we went over to the fuel dock and were told that they were awaiting fuel, we were welcome to stay there till it arrived.. At about 15h00, it did arrive so we filled up and went over the marina, docked, trip done!

 

Ciao Cagliari

This trip was supposed to be 180NM - we were obliged to take the scenic route, it took us 239NM, over ground, over water we covered 290NM..  It was supposed to be a 1.5 day trip, instead it turned out to be a hard 2.5 day's trip.. The water in the bilge had me initially fearing the worst - I would need to put the boat on the hard again to re-fix the keel..  This was slowly dispelled, as the amount of water I was removing was decreasing every time and by the time we had docked, and ready for dinner, there was virtually no water in the bilge..  

That night we had our last pizza in Italy and after a good night's sleep we were ready to tackle the next stage...