Tue 4 Sep – Rome to the Tuscan Archipelago

Over the past few weeks we’ve been unlucky with the wind. Whenever we’ve wanted to sail there’s either been none at all, or it’s been coming from exactly where we’ve needed to go. After La Spezia we’ve been planning on visiting a few of the islands in the Tuscan Archipelago. First on the wish-list was Capraia, an island hosting a population of just 400 people.

It’s a 60 mile trip, due to take about 12 hours and I’d be dammed if we’d be motoring the whole way! 😀 Looking at the various weather forecasts over the past days it looked as though if we left at 03:00 this morning we’d pick up a nice westerly wind and arrive in daylight.With the alarm set for 01:30 we were up and out of the bay by 02:30 – tired but doing OK. Tom drew the short straw this time and was the one who upped anchor and ended up covered muddy clay.

We should have known better than to trust the forecast. The first few hours were a pleasant surprise. I was on watch from 03:00 until 06:00 and contrary to the forecast we had a nice wind from behind so until 05:00 we sailed under jib alone, until it died and we switched on the engine.

When Tom came on watch, the wind picked up and he had a gorgeous 3 hour sail and then when I reappeared at 09:00 it died completely, so on came the engine. Seeing a pattern? 🙂 For the rest of the day did pick up as forecast, however instead of coming from the west, it came from exactly where we were trying to sail – south. We tacked for a few hours then had to admit defeat, or risk arriving in the early hours of tomorrow morning. The last few hours were rather painful; very slow, bumpy and wet (it poured!) but at 18:00 we were safely anchored off Capraia in a lovely quiet bay enclosed by sheer green cliffs. It’s absolutely pitch black here, the darkest place we’ve been and it’s stunning apart now from a very loud Spaniard on the boat next door bellowing into his bloody phone. No amount of passive aggressive tutting or torch-waving is succeeding in making him stop! His voice is echoing around the bay, it’s ridiculous.

We saw some amazing clouds today – take a look at these!