July 2, 2006
As we planned to depart early Tuesday morning, June 5, for Sicily, we anchored for the night out in Arbatax Bay. We had expected to sail most of the way to Sicily with winds from the northeast, but the �god of the winds� decided differently. Instead we were granted northeast winds for only three hours. Then we lost our wind, and when it did return we were given light head winds oscillating between east and south, and so mostly motorsailed. During the night we saw, like we often do, phosphorescence from the plankton disturbed by our boat�s wake, but this night the size was larger than usual, almost the size of a small jellyfish. It was quite unusual.
We made landfall at San Vito Lo Capo in Sicily on Wednesday, June 7, having traveled 179 nautical miles in 35 hours. The Capo San Vito headland was impressive, a welcomed sight to our arrival in Sicily. We anchored for the night in the bay, but in the morning the anchorage became uncomfortable due to a change in wind direction, and so we moved on to Palermo, 36 nautical miles away. |
