Günter the grasshopper (Trapani, Sicily - Sardinia)

 

After the picturesque beauty of Siracusa, the Western Sicilian town of Trapani was something of a let down.

The town may perhaps be lovely on another day, but after two long day/nights with little sleep, we probably weren’t as receptive to its charms as we could have been. It didn’t help that there’s a slight underlying smell of sewage in the air.. and that within an hour of anchoring, the local port police had (albeit politely) moved us along.

We hadn’t planned to stay long regardless, Trapani is just the launch point to set off on our next hop over to Sardinia.

We headed ashore to fill our Jerry cans with diesel - which turned out to be a significantly longer journey than expected. The outboard ran out of fuel (petrol) on the way.. luckily the diesel stop also has a petrol pump on his jetty... not so luckily the engine also needs 2 stroke oil mixed in to make it go - which they didn’t have. What was supposed to be a quick trip into town, became a long frustrating traipse hunting for oil. After a stiflingly hot hour or so we eventually stumbled on a fishing tackle shop which had some in stock. From there, next stop the Port Authority to have our paper work stamped. Their offices were quite a way away at the other end of town. Arriving there we discovered that they close to the public except for certain times of the week ...which we missed.

Oh well - Sardinia is also Italian, so we should be able to do our paperwork there.

Chez having had enough of walking in the sauna like conditions, waited on the quay, while I retraced our steps, picked up the tender, topped up the oil and went to collect her.

After an early night, we upped anchor from Trapani at 4:30am

I’m writing this at close to midnight on the same day.. and we have had, what we both agree is our best sail so far - which is saying something after 3 years on the water. Perfect wind for 18 hours solid, sails set and barely adjusted all day, and a following sea pushing us along - Just glorious. ...and I’ve just seen a shooting star! A pretty good day all round really. Looking at the charts, we’ve passed over some whimsically named areas over the last few days:

‘Adventure Bank’

‘The Sicilian Channel’

‘The Tyrrhenian Sea’

and we’re just now heading for the mouthwateringly tempting ‘Carbonara Ridge’.

Along the way today we were again honoured by visits from a turtle and a playful pod of striped dolphins. Somewhat more unexpected visitors were;

a) A German warship who came within a mile.

and b) A big grasshopper, who we named Günter (Suspecting he may have jumped ship). He spent the day sitting on a winch staring out to sea, no doubt reconsidering some of his life’s choices.

Arrived in Sardinia, tired but glad to have had such a tremendous crossing - our best, longest and furthest distance sailed so far. First impressions here; lush rocky hills, lots of castles dotted around - almost one per hill where we are. Coming in, the whole area seems to be awash with small craft whizzing left right and centre - we later discover that the bay where we anchor is home to a marina that specialises in the day (or half day) hire of a variety of inflatable boats. It’s also school holidays here, and the whole of France and Italy seem to have headed to this one spot to spend their two weeks in the sun. The water and surrounding beaches are both packed with bodies with varying degrees of sunburn.

We anchor easily in clear water with a flat sand bottom, and once sure of our holding and position, I head to bed to catch up on some of my missed siestas. After a lazy first day here, we are entertained in the evening by the sounds of a local karaoke bar apparently exclusively tailored to tone deaf singers.

Next morning, having accumulated sufficient dirty washing to merit a trip to a launderette, we head ashore and track one down in the marina complex among the queues of people waiting for tripper boats.

A short walk behind the marina is a natural lagoon, we stroll there while waiting for the washing to finish. Chez had read of it's surprising inhabitants, and we were not disappointed, seeing a flock (?) of flamingos feeding in the shallow water. I didn’t actually know where flamingos call home, but was surprised to find out that Sardinia is on that list. Washing done - back to the boat to finish writing this.