Photos
Richard is a happy chap behind the wheel as we leave Isola Marina
Amee and Ben's surprise meeting!
Lunch en route
We arrive and how on earth did we get in there...?
Farewell Lizzie and Ross... until next time!
Amee pays us a visit with her friend Ebs (Ebony) and we eat on board while the storm rages
Amee and Pippy having a good time in Venice the next day
...
We decide we are leaving for Venice on Thursday 7 August.
Lizzie and Ross are running out of time and must get to Sicily for their departure back to NZ. We really want to do the passage to Venice with them. We are feeling disappointed that the refit on Matelot has taken so long that we have not had any cruising time. These friends have been so supportive and flexible and so happy to just be having the experience in Isola, but we want to do this special event with them.
This is to be the first of many learning curves to come for us. We learn we must be ready for plans to change at the last minute, because we can only do what the boat will do and we will have to be honest to visiting friends and family and communicate that things can change or be not quite as expected!
The last 24 hours before our departure are manic...!
We discover the new C-Map card we have purchased for the chart plotter does not work. Eventually we discover we are on an older system and have to buy 2 cards instead of the one. They are E250 each and several trips to Porto Roz!
Felix presents his final account, but we have to send funds from NZ and it takes 48 hours. Richard eventually negotiates to leave our new sails with him as security. Richard and Ross get up at 6am on 7 Aug and refit the old sails ready for our passage.
Pippy develops a "periodontic?" abscess and has it treated in Isola on the eve of our departure. It makes her quite unwell and she cannot believe she has no injection to numb it before being dealt with. She has always been such a baby at the dentist, cannot believe she is desperate enough to submit to almost anything!
We have a new Simrad RD68 VHF on board, with a distress button - and nobody has told us it had to be sent to Simrad and personalised with a new "MMSI code". It is not until we are some way into our passage that we discover our VHF only works on Ch 16. We had assumed it worked on every channel. (Pippy had discovered the on board manual was in German so had downloaded the English version on her computer). After frantically turning it on and reading the English manual through, we discover the source of the problem! Being out on the water with a partially working VHF is not a good idea, but we continue on anyway - under motor because there is no wind!
Matelot performs well and Richard is supremely happy as we motor along at 2250 rpms, making 7.7 knots. We leave Isola around 10.30 am and have an uneventful sunny and calm day, seeing Venice appear on the horizon around 4pm. We arrive at the entrance at 5.30pm and motor past the Lido on our port side, sharing the channel with several ferries and ships heading out in the opposite direction. There is a massive construction area a short way in which is the project under way to protect Venice from South Easterly gales and frequent flooding. It all looks very industrial at this stage.
We are booked in to Vento di Venezia, a delightful private boating club attached to a hotel on the Island of Certosa, at the recommendation of our Marina in Isola. We can see Venice in the distance when we arrive at the island. We cannot believe the narrow channel we have to navigate into and the even narrower space which Richard must reverse Matelot in to. This is his first go at reversing the boat so he is understandably cautious. However it all goes perfectly (except for slightly rounding off the finger) and we are soon safely berthed stern-to as instructed by the marinara. However he has got his English words mixed up and it appears we should have gone bow in. We are jammed up against a massive house boat and we are not going to attempt to turn the boat around now.
This is to be the first of many learning curves to come for us. We learn we must be ready for plans to change at the last minute, because we can only do what the boat will do and we will have to be honest to visiting friends and family and communicate that things can change or be not quite as expected!
The last 24 hours before our departure are manic...!
We discover the new C-Map card we have purchased for the chart plotter does not work. Eventually we discover we are on an older system and have to buy 2 cards instead of the one. They are E250 each and several trips to Porto Roz!
Felix presents his final account, but we have to send funds from NZ and it takes 48 hours. Richard eventually negotiates to leave our new sails with him as security. Richard and Ross get up at 6am on 7 Aug and refit the old sails ready for our passage.
Pippy develops a "periodontic?" abscess and has it treated in Isola on the eve of our departure. It makes her quite unwell and she cannot believe she has no injection to numb it before being dealt with. She has always been such a baby at the dentist, cannot believe she is desperate enough to submit to almost anything!
We have a new Simrad RD68 VHF on board, with a distress button - and nobody has told us it had to be sent to Simrad and personalised with a new "MMSI code". It is not until we are some way into our passage that we discover our VHF only works on Ch 16. We had assumed it worked on every channel. (Pippy had discovered the on board manual was in German so had downloaded the English version on her computer). After frantically turning it on and reading the English manual through, we discover the source of the problem! Being out on the water with a partially working VHF is not a good idea, but we continue on anyway - under motor because there is no wind!
Matelot performs well and Richard is supremely happy as we motor along at 2250 rpms, making 7.7 knots. We leave Isola around 10.30 am and have an uneventful sunny and calm day, seeing Venice appear on the horizon around 4pm. We arrive at the entrance at 5.30pm and motor past the Lido on our port side, sharing the channel with several ferries and ships heading out in the opposite direction. There is a massive construction area a short way in which is the project under way to protect Venice from South Easterly gales and frequent flooding. It all looks very industrial at this stage.
We are booked in to Vento di Venezia, a delightful private boating club attached to a hotel on the Island of Certosa, at the recommendation of our Marina in Isola. We can see Venice in the distance when we arrive at the island. We cannot believe the narrow channel we have to navigate into and the even narrower space which Richard must reverse Matelot in to. This is his first go at reversing the boat so he is understandably cautious. However it all goes perfectly (except for slightly rounding off the finger) and we are soon safely berthed stern-to as instructed by the marinara. However he has got his English words mixed up and it appears we should have gone bow in. We are jammed up against a massive house boat and we are not going to attempt to turn the boat around now.
It slowly dawns on us that we are having a bit of an anti climax moment. The highlight of sailing into Venice has not really happened as we are still some distance away - 1 hour by ferry - and the last ferry goes at 8pm! It is now 7pm, so we are not going anywhere tonight. We are all exhausted and by the time check in formalities have been completed, we turn in for an early night.
Before we know it Lizzie and Ross are packed on we are on the ferry the next morning on our way into Venice. Our ferry goes around the outside, so we have not yet seen the Grand Canal as we land at Ferrovia and say our goodbyes to our friends.
Before we know it Lizzie and Ross are packed on we are on the ferry the next morning on our way into Venice. Our ferry goes around the outside, so we have not yet seen the Grand Canal as we land at Ferrovia and say our goodbyes to our friends.
We are expecting Amee to arrive on the train from Nice at 8pm so plan to spend the day exploring, and trying to take in the sights everywhere - what an amazing place - but by 2pm we are concerned by the gathering dark clouds and spots of rain. We have left all the hatches open on the boat. Richard goes back to rescue the boat but is too late and we are flooded, with wet bedding, stove etc. That was a huge mistake and we are on another learning curve. Never leave the hatches open when you go for the day!
Pippy spends the remaining time in the city tracking down a marine books store called Mare di Carte (translation: Sea of Paper), as we are still desperately in need of an Adriatic Pilot Book. Success at last with this wonderful store and we are able to purchase the Adriatic, Italian Waters and Greek Pilot books, plus all the charts we are likely to need for a while. Christina who runs the store is incredibly helpful about everything we need to know and just a delightful person to meet. We will add the website of this store to this blog for anyone interested.
Amee duly arrives after an 8 hour trip from Nice. Amazingly she and Richard's son Ben (who have never met) have been introduced to each other in Ibiza as they are in the same group of people holidaying there. How small is the world really? They send us this wonderful photo to surprise us! We return to Certosa Island with Amee's huge pink suitcase and find Richard still trying to dry out the boat. As night falls, we are treated to a massive show of lightning over Venice and it is not long before we are in the middle of a raging storm which goes on for several hours of high winds and driving rain. Amee is a little unsure, but her friend Ebs shows no sign of nervousness.
2 comments:
So many photos and lots of news; feel as if I am there.........almost!
Its time you had a holiday and had a few days doing nothing!!
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