Baia Raparata to Porto Pozzo to Cala Gavetta



Matt and Mrina working on the main sail furler.

 On the way from Raparata to Porto Pozzo we decided to unfurl the mainsail, but had forgotten we had tied a heavy line to the furling line -- and got it hopelessly tangled with about 1/3 of the mainsail out. Luckily there was virtually no wind and for the next three hours, Marina and I disassembled the mainsail furler, cut away the trapped line and rethreaded a new line that we had brought for that purpose anyway .... so we arrived at Porto Pozzo having spent several hours doing an impromptu repair.

 

Cockpit activities on the way...


Porto Pozzo is a very protected anchorage -- we dropped a hook and the kids and Marina headed to shore -- only to come back saying that they had encountered some weirdo at the dock that said they couldn't leave the dinghy there ... then they went shopping but there wasn't anything to buy -- so we turned on the generator and watched the Hangover -- for about the 30th time ... still funny, & the music is the bomb.

Heavy weather is on its way so it's time to find a marina for some shelter. Marina chose a place in La Maddalena at a marina called Cala Gavetta. We had a reasonably calm night and then the wind hit in the morning. Marina and I were sitting on deck in the morning and decided to fold up the Bimini (the sun cover that starts to rattle too much at 25 knots of wind). We were getting ready to go and I asked Marina -- are we dragging the anchor? She didn't think so because our neighbour was pulling up his anchor -- but then we realized that ... holy cow we are dragging our anchor -- and in about another hour we would be on the rocks on the other side -- "mud and weed -- suspect holding" it said in the pilot book -- maybe we should heed the advice a little more. We were just talking over breakfast how much we love the extra heavy chain on Tara and how we've had no problems anchoring when others really struggle -- hubris is a dangerous thing.

Marina and Ross



Anyway, no harm no foul -- except now it's blowing 30knots and we're heading downwind at 8+ knots with a half a jib out. We're continuing to bucket along when I realize that we'll have a number of new speed records on Tara as the new GPS updates speed every second instead of every 6 seconds -- so the 10.8knot record will fall soon enough. We pulled into Cala Gavetta in 25-30 knots of breeze -- tied up to the gas dock and spent a few hundred Euro -- at 1.78 Euro/liter for diesel -- don't complain about gas prices at home.




M & M & J

  The Ormeggiatore got us a place between a couple of 55 footers ... it took me a bit of a runway, once missed approach but we greased it without hitting either side, the back or running anything over ... docking a 50 footer in 25+ knots isn't for the feint of heart.


Cala Gavetta Marina