I did it again...

The second day sailing was SO much better than the first.  Hands down.

For starters I didn’t feel like dying.  That is always a good thing when making a comparison. 

The waves were not bad at all.  We were looking at maybe 1-2 ft swells, but they were just that, swells, not waves.  It made a huge difference.  We still had to motor sail because there wasn’t enough wind to actually move the boat at a decent pace and we are sailing to a schedule, not just for the sake of sailing.  But we managed to get the jib and the mainsail up to catch some wind and increase the speed by a knot or two.

Our initial destination was Circeo which was about 20 miles south of Nettuno.  About a 4 and a half hour sail.  We took our time leaving and got out by 11.  So we arrived at Circeo and radioed in to see if they had any open spots, negative.  The harbor was full and there weren’t any close anchorages.  So we pulled out the Italian Waters Guide and picked the next big harbor on the path south – Gaeta.  It was another 20 or so miles which would mean we probably would be going in at night.  Not an ideal situation in an unknown port with a rookie crew, but we didn’t have many choices. 

The sail there was just an extension of the one we had had so far.  It got to the point where I was actually able to get out a book and read some.  We took naps, ate peanut butter sandwiches, and watched as the Italian coast floated by.

As the sun began to go down we had the best view of the sunset anyone could ask for and saw as the stars began to rise in the sky.  Up to this point it was a really exceptional day.

This was when the swells started to get a little bit bigger.  It wasn’t unbearable, but it made trying to figure out where the opening to the port was a little bit harder because when you look through the binoculars and the boat is bouncing it’s not easy to find a fixed point.

Gaeta is located in an inlet cut out of the side of Italy.  In theory there is a series of buoys and lights telling boats where they can and cannot go.  In reality, these lights did exist, but so did an entire city of lights behind and around them.   That and cliffs of land that jut out into the water that weren’t lit at all.  It was scary.  We were all standing on deck looking out for boats, rocks, and anything else that may jump out in front of the boat.  At the same time consulting the map in the book to see what type of enterance we were looking for and what lights would direct us there.  The book said it was a military port and a big area for mussel farms and to be aware of the unlit farms located in the inlet.  (We saw nothing of the sort while going in.  It wasn’t until the next day when we were looking out at the water that we saw what kind of disaster could’ve been our fate) 

We managed to find the lighthouse and the castle that wasn’t lit real well, but that presented itself as a giant land mass to go around and to enter the inlet.  Where we got confused was the actual entrance to the breakwater and port that we were aiming for.  There was an indication of a red light that blinked every 3 seconds with coordinates.  So we set the gps/auto pilot to those coordinates to at least get us near where we were supposed to be.  What we didn’t realized until we were practically on top of it was the coordinates were for one light while the actual opening to the break water was located to the extreme right.  There was some sort of barrier set up around the military base that is located right next to the port and the red light we were headed for was on the interior of this barrier.  I have no idea what it was made of.  It looked like giant stone cylinders, but it floated.  Pretty scary stuff to be headed for in the dark.

These are the floating things during the day when we can see them... I still have NO idea what they are.

This is what it looked like at night... and those lights weren't on the floating things they were on the rock barrier that they were looped around.

Another day shot of where we were coming in.  The black boat was anchored out there and all we saw was the light at the top of the mast.

This is what it looked like at night.  The light is there... and the surrounding lights are visible too...

We finally realized where the red and green lights of entry were and slowly crept through the opening to the break water.  The next obstacle was to find an opening in the marina.  We had called many times, but the guy on the radio, we found out later, didn’t speak English so he didn’t respond.  John spotted a somewhat empty dock at the far right end of the marina and we figured we’d tie up there and figure the rest out in the morning.

This was a lot easier said than done.  The boat has no bow thrusters.  I think I’ve mentioned this before so we have no control when we go in reverse.  We were lucky in the sense that there were no boats close to us so we could back up and when the wind started to push us one way we weren’t at risk of running into anyone.  The problem with this was that we couldn’t line up enough to back into the dock.  Dad was trying everything and he eventually got us back there where a really nice guy from the boat next to where we were headed was waiting with the bow line to hand to us and to help us dock.  John grabbed the line with the boat hook and was in the process of moving it to the bow and somehow it got dropped into the water and got tangled in the propeller.  This is bad.  It’s bad for the boat, it’s bad for docking.  The neighbor was soon accompanied by another person from that boat and they were able to tie off the stern to the dock.  This is all a blur to me at this point.  There were people yelling in Italian, English, and to do a million different things.  I remember he handed me the other bow line and I managed to tie off the front of the boat with mud and who knows what else all over my arms and legs.  Dad got the side of the boat tied off to serve as a make shift bow line that was in the propeller and the boat was secure.  The docking was a mess.  I can’t explain everything that happened or in what order.  There is no way because it was a blur.  I can’t express enough how grateful we are that the guy on the other boat jumped over to help and that he knew what to do enough that he could supervise the back and help us while Dad was making sure we didn’t run into anything.  Out of nowhere the night watch guy for the marina showed up and didn’t speak a lick of English so we had to explain where the other bow line went in broken Italian and sign language.  We went with him and got signed in thinking we would be in trouble and he would charge us for the “damage” but no he just wanted to make it official that we were staying there and showed us where the bathroom was.

These are the lights we were looking into when we were looking for the entrance of the breakwater... anyone see the red or green light that shows an opening?

When we got back to the boat we went over and thanked the people at the other boat profusely.  It turns out they are from Argentina and are on roughly the same path Dad and I are taking down the coast of Italy.  They were so nice and the entire family came off the boat to meet the crazy Americans.  I made a joke saying we hoped they enjoyed the entertainment and we made sure they knew that we weren’t completely incompetent but that it is a new crew and things are done very differently here than in America as far as docking is concerned.  In a country that contains so many churches and when people are so friendly and helpful you can’t help but to think that someone out there is watching over you and has your back.

They recommended a great family run restaurant that we discovered made excellent, fresh pizza and who were, yet again, super friendly to the salty and mud covered Americans walking through the doors at 10pm. 

John and Dad spent this morning diving under the boat to cut the rope off of the propeller.  We are sitting ducks without it and they wanted to make sure no serious damage was done.  Sure enough it was just a super tight rope and eventually was cut off.  When Jenny was looking for some sort of dive shop she ran into a woman on a boat who spoke English and informed us that there is a 2000 euro fine for being in the water at the marina.  Luckily most of the work was done already and we were far enough away from the main area of the marina that nobody that saw us seemed to mind a whole lot… also we are super lucky that no damage was done to the prop or anything else it was attached to.  We should be all green to continue on our path to the south of Italy.

This was John grabbing the knife in order to go back down and cut the lines off of the prop.  Dad made a trip down too.  If you have never been to a marina, that water is less than clean.  The prop is about 4ft under, but you have to work and hold your breath at the same time... not an easy task.