18 October 2023 - Otranto

We have found that the most stressful times are when we have to be in a certain place by a certain date, usually because of travel plans.  We try to give ourselves some slack in our planning, to fit around the weather, but sometimes doesn’t work out as you would hope.  The weather over the next 3 or 4 days gets worse daily, and we know that our son has to fly home at the weekend, from Italy.  Therefore we have to make the best choice possible about when to cross the Adriatic.  The answer was today, although we knew that initially, we would experience unpleasant conditions and strong winds.

We were up before it was light and left the marina at daybreak.  We could see that the sea state further out was very choppy, so we chose to stow all of the mooring gear and set the sails while we were still in the shelter of the island.  We were glad we did.  As soon as we were out of the lee, it was decidedly rough. We had left Chris asleep below, but he came on deck shortly afterwards, woken by the motion of the boat.

The waves were enough to almost completely stop the boat at times and we then had to build speed only to be stopped again, time after time. Eventually we reached deeper water, where the waves were smaller, and we started to make better progress.

During the day the wind eased and we ended up with all sail set and having a very pleasant sail.  It was one of those days when the wind drops to 12 knots, the boat speed falls to 6 knots and you feel becalmed. These conditions would be desirable on any other day, but feel pedestrian after what we had experienced.

The miles clicked down and eventually we could see our destination, Otranto at the south east tip of Italy.  We have been here a couple of times before and knew that it was safe to anchor in the harbour area, so long as the winds were not too strong and from the north,  which they were not forecast to be.  With huge relief we arrived and set the anchor.

It was certainly the hardest day of sailing this year, and probably for longer than that. We ate and were all in bed before 9:00, exhausted.

Miles today             57  

Miles in 2023      1238

Steve (and Tricia) 

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