Cinque Terre

Friday 17 August


Departing the Arno River at 1130H we cannot believe our luck after motoring for a while to find we are having yet another gorgeous sail for part of the 32 NM to Le Grazie anchorage near to La Spezia.  

The boat is so well balanced that for one hour and twenty minutes we sail on the wind in very flat calm seas and light breezes 15-18 knots with no hands on the wheel.  Yes SY Matelot sails herself in these conditions and by 1800 we are dropping the anchor in the muddy bottom of Le Grazie anchorage.  

Our investigations ashore soon reveal that all the boat trips are quite expensive but we can catch the train to the Cinque Terre from La Spezia and there is a bus from nearby which will take us there.

Porto Venere over the hill from here is a cute little touristy town which we enjoy visiting.  Its hot and sticky though - very very hot.

Its a relief after a while to jump on the bus and ride back to the boat for a refreshing swim.

The next morning we are out of bed at 6 am, lunches made and ashore waiting for the bus shortly after 7am.  It does not come for quite a while so obviously the timetable does not apply.  but we eventually find ourselves on the 0830 train from La Spezia which travels mostly under tunnels through the hills to the coast where we get a glimpse of each of the five villages and the rugged coastline as we pass through them before diving back underground again and on to the next one.   

Finally we alight at Monterosso al Mare.  We plan to walk the 3km to Vernazza, the longest distance between the villages so after a quick explore of this little village, off we go.

It is the longest climb uphill past the beach umbrellas and the sensible people already cooling off in the crystal clear waters.  

We feel fit and ready for anything, but we have to push hard to make the running up and over the vertical cliff faces and yet further upwards past vineyards planted on the mountain side. 

The views are spectacular as around each corner and over each rise a new vista unfolds for us.  Looking back at Monterosso we can see how far we have climbed already and we have only just started.



 We arrive gasping into Vernazza and throw ourselves off the pier along with hundreds of others, then douse ourselves with a hose of fresh water afterwards.

A sweet fresh peach goes down a treat

Damage from the flooding of last winter is very evident in places.


The track to the next village of Corniglia is closed due to flooding and this is all the excuse we need to catch the train.  We are tired and now it is really hot.  

Swimmers fall into the sea to cool off

Earlier we were walking in the shade but now the sun is beating down on the walking tracks and we elect to go by train now, throwing ourselves into the sea at every opportunity.

 A fresh water hose is the most popular item at this swimming point.

That's Richard just climbing out of the sea at the end of the jetty.

Disaster strikes when Richard realises that he has been pick pocketed on the train and our telephone is stolen.  Fortunately they do not get his wallet - or Pippy's.  

This takes the shine off the day a little though and combined with heat exhaustion, we drift through the lovely village of Manarola, missing Riomaggiore altogether because the train stops in the tunnel and we do not realise we should get off.



Its been a fabulous day and we arrive back on the boat absolutely satisfied that we have been to the Cinque Terre.  What great memories we will have of this day.

Monday 20 August

We make a hasty exit from Le Grazia because Pippy takes the stolen sim card details to the Tabbachi ashore and attempts to cancel it, but the shop keeper misunderstands what she wants, grabs the card from her and promptly rings up more credit on the phone then demands she pay 10 Euro.  She says 'no I did not ask you to do that', horrified that yesterday's robber now has an additional bonus on the phone.

He blocks her exit from the store and says 'pay up'.  He pushes Pippy around, she pushes back and says 'get out of my way...please' then walks away down the street with him yelling obscenities at her and everyone staring.  

She calmly walks back to the dinghy (heart pounding), jumps in and guns it (backwards at first by mistake!), then in the right direction back to the boat.  

Following on from which we have an impromptu but wonderful afternoon and overnight passage to Elba where we are currently anchored...whew.  The cruising life is not dull!

Florence and Pisa from the Sea...Sailing up the Arno River

The Arno River goes all the way to Florence and we have heard that it is possible to sail up this river for at least two miles and that there are some very nice marinas along the river edge.   

Pisa is close by and Florence is an hour away by train.

There is a bar (not the kind that serves drinks) at the entrance and the pilot book is not a good place to go for instructions, as it is several years old and bars are ever changing.  We do know that it is shallow at the entrance and grounding is a very high possibility unless extreme care is taken.

Fishing nets are hanging in the air at the entrance to the river

SV Rio Luna have told us they have been in here this summer (They went in the front way as are more shallow draft than us) and also we have specific recent information from a local sailor who we have met at Cala di Medici on how to get in safely past the bar.  
 
Our instructions are to keep going north past the river mouth, taking care of all the fishing buoys which are sprouting from the water there like a field of asparagus.  Stay out from and parallel to the coast until you are level with the third mole you can see coming out from the shore, then make straight for the coast and turn again to starboard when you can see the church steeple through the gap in the mole on the northern side of the entrance to the Arno River.  Proceed to make your entrance through the gap in the mole lining up with the steeple as you go.

We follow the instructions to the letter and are in 3-4 metres of water right up until we are just about passing through the gap when it shallows out to 2.1m.   Quite a few local boats are coming and going through this gap, so we are re-assured that we have our instructions correct.  But this is a bit of a hairy moment as we need 2 metres underneath.  However, we are soon over the shallow part and proceed across the river to the south side and turn to motor upstream, searching for Arnovecchio Marina 2 miles inland.

There are lots of nets hanging over the river.
We soon find Arnovecchio Marina and its not long before we are parked right in the haulout bay and can look around us at wild ponies, ducklings and corn fields.

It is idyllic and peaceful with adequate facilities and very helpful people.  We are more than comfortable leaving the boat here while we go and explore, first Pisa, then Florence.

 

The bus stop is right at the gate

 Capn Buck likes the Leaning Tower...

Here we stay for the next 3 days of hectic activity as we make the most of our proximity to Pisa and also to the beautiful city of Florence.

Its lovely coming home in the evening to the river and the quiet. 

We meet two New Zealand backpackers on the train home one evening and regret not inviting them back to stay on the boat. 




There is so much to see, - graphiti and street scenes capture our imagination too....

Richard goes all arty...

Thank you Florence we love you....

All cultured out, after 3 days we head north for La Spezia, and on our bucket list this time is the Cinque Terre.

Loss of Volvo Folding Propeller! That should have been the end of it....

This little yacht stays with us for a few hours but he is motoring

Here is our report of what happens next:

On Saturday 4 August we depart Elba Island at 1000H bound for Arno Vecchio Marina in the Arno River, near Pisa. We plan to anchor at Castiglioncello overnight approximately three quarters of the way to our final destination.

Wind is SE 10-15 knots and we enjoy a really pleasant sail for 7 hours. We are feeling very positive and enjoying the day. The boat is going well and the wind holds until we are west of the lighthouse at the outside end of the reef at Vada 7 miles from our destination. 

Richard turns the engine on and engages forward gear.  He instantly reports that the propellor does not feel right and puts it back into neutral.  His comment is “It feels as though the propellor does not fully open”.  We have a discussion about one of us going over the side to inspect the propellor, but as we have the dinghy tied across the back of the stern and it will take some time to get it off, we decide to try going into gear again.  This time everything seems to be normal and we proceed to motor the final 7 miles to our destination.

On arrival we drop anchor and proceed to reverse backwards in a normal anchoring manouvre.  We reverse approximately 20 metres and lay out the chain.  Richard has the engine in neutral by the time the chain is laid out and then puts it into reverse again to set the anchor.  There is a big ‘thump‘ much louder than when the blades normally open and then no response to reverse gear.  On going over the side to inspect the propeller it is obvious that it has come off - gone.  The empty drive shaft is all that remains.

We immediately take a note of our long and lat position.  We call up Cala de Medici Marina Ormeggiatore who are incredibly kind to us and very efficient and send a diver out immediately to search for the propellor.  Unfortunately the sun is low in the sky at this time and the search is abandoned.  We decide to stay on anchor for the night to enable the diver to search again the next day, but have to be towed into the marina at 2300H because the wind comes up and we find ourselves on a lee shore with sea state building.  The sea becomes short and very choppy and we are most uncomfortable and concerned for the boat. Its all a bit tense for a while there until we are safely inside the marina thanks to Riccardo the Ormeggiatore.  

Prop is found all in one piece!  Pietro our Hero!

The next day at midday we return to the long and lat position with the same diver, Pietro and are incredibly lucky that he is able to retrieve the anchor within minutes of going over the side.

Prop parts cleaned up ready for re-attachment

We are hugely relieved that we have the propellor back and to discover that all the parts are intact.  We proceed with plans to haul out and have it reinstalled on the shaft.  Naturally we are keen to understand what caused it to come off.  Initially all the blame appears to lie with the design of the 'nut' and washer which screws on to the end of the shaft.  The nut is round, when the Volvo diagram we have shows a hexagonal nut which is held in place by a lock washer and two grub screws which go through the side of the hub.  Our research leads us to discover that Volvo do not provide this nut with a shaft fitted propeller.  It is the responsibility of the manufacturer of the shaft to provide a proper nut which fits the shaft provided.  The shafts apparently come in many different sizes.  So.  Although we have purchased in 2008 a brand new shaft and a brand new propeller and had them both fitted by a Volvo Agent in Isola, Slovenia by the name of Felix Yachting, we are now in a marina in Italy paying Euro 106 per day for the pleasure and will have to haul out during peak season and pay Euro 500 for one hour in the slings to have our lost and found prop refitted. 
  

Prop hub showing nut in place

We take a couple of days to research all this properly and to try and have a proper nut sent to us to re-install the shaft with, but the local Volvo people send us the wrong size and the wrong part.  We are stuck with the nut we have (.... not talking about Richard or Pippy) and take all our parts to Livorno to visit a highly recommended Volvo engineer who takes one look and suggests we ditch the washer and just screw the grub screws into the side of the nut.  It makes sense... we like it.
  

Nut on left with grub screws lined up and washer

We haul out on Wednesday.  The first thing we notice after the bare looking shaft, is the new chip out of the rudder leading edge.  Obviously the prop has slammed into the rudder on its way to the bottom.  We watch attentatively as the prop is re-installed.  Every move is checked, every screw is installed with 'lock-tight'.   Once everything is in place and just before we are about to re-launch and almost as an afterthought, the engineer grabs the rudder and wriggles it.  To our surprise he reports movement in the bearings.  We had the rudder and bearings overhauled by the same company in Isola and have not had any symptoms of problems with the bearings since then, nor should we.  We continue with launch and return under our own power to our berth.  The prop appears to be working just fine.   

That should have been the end of it.  

Our costs so far:  Euro 700 for haulout and prop re-installation, Marina fees Euro 530,Tow to haulout E50, Diver E100.

Later, on leaving the marina and increasing the revs to 1800, we are experiencing extreme vibration.  Something is definitely not right.  So back we go for another expensive overnight and a diagnosis that our engine is some way out of alignment.  

It is not until this point that we start to connect the incident 7 miles off the coast when the prop did not feel right when we first turned the engine on.  Something wrapped around the prop would have possibly caused the misalignment of the engine, and the feeling Richard described as a sense that the prop did not open properly.  Another Euro 120 plus Euro 90 marina fees and we are out of there the next day with everything apparently functioning normally.   

That should have been the end of it too...

Unfortunately for us, it is not the end of it as we continue onwards on our summer cruising and some days later on our first off the wind sail, we experience considerable vibration from the rudder, enough to eventually cause us concern about the safety of the boat.  More about that later.

Elba Island

View from our anchorage Gulf de Pinarellu, Corsica

Its strange how we are always ready to leave a place despite having enjoyed it hugely.  Today is no different as we sail away from the La Maddalena Islands towards Corsica, with the island of Elba firmly in our sights, the anticipation of discovering a new place, seeing new things and hopefully having safe and enjoyable sailing.  It is such a good thing that we do not know in advance what the future will bring.  In this case both good and bad is lying in wait for us in big doses.  Some of the bad will stay with us for quite a while...

We have been having trouble with our genoa furler occasionally jamming, mostly when we desperately need to get it in quickly.  We bring the sail down on the deck and closely inspect the parts.  It appears that the top of the halyard is very twisted and hardened from spending its life at the top of the mast, so we immerse it in a bucket of fresh water and leave it for 24 hours.  This appears to soften it quite a lot and we are able to get the twist out of it.  The other issue is the halyard guide which is supposed to stop it from jamming.  This has some decent grooves worn in it from constant use, so that is put on the list for replacement when we can.  Richard sprays it with lubricant and we rehoist the sail.   This appears to sort out the problem of jamming for now.

Tuscan morning

After over-nighting on Corsica in Gulf de Pinarellu the passage to Elba is wind on and off, but mostly off.  At one point though we do have 30 knots, for around half an hour, accompanied by some rain.  We motor all but 2.5 hours of the 13 hour passage, sailing the last half hour into an anchorage in the south of Elba Island - Golfo Della Lacona.

So here begins our Elba Island experience.  We are definitely in Tuscany.  Gone are the dry rocky wind-tortured hills and foliage of Corsica and the Madalena Islands.  The shore appears to be positively verdant, the green foliage accented along the shore with bright blue beach umbrellas, the water crystal clear and inviting.  It is just a bit rolly for comfort and a struggle to prepare a meal on board with the galley dancing around all over the place.  Some people are never satisfied!

Happy campers adorn the forest nearby

Wishing to find a more settled anchorage, we sail on around the island to the lovely sheltered anchorage of Porto Azzuro and explore the small township.  It is to be a brief stop though because we connect on email to some friends from Marina di Ragusa who are anchored at Porto de Campo on the southern side.  The breeze is just right to sail off the anchor and out of the harbour, scaring the crew on a large two masted vessel on the way as they think we are going to t-bone their boat, but of course we tack away in plenty of time. (...inches to spare! Besides, they are bigger than us!)


We are around in Campo fairly quickly to Mike's surprise on SY Rio Luna "Gosh you were quick!".  He knows how to get on well with Richard!

It is a lovely anchorage, if a little crowded, but we enjoy ourselves very much having a nice relaxed time for a couple of days.

Michael is very scathing about the state of Pippy's basil plant, and Justin gets a good breeze to try out the wind surfer.  Water starts are on the agenda for a while...Capn Buck gives a few pointers to Justin on how to do the water starts but it takes a bit of practice.

Fancy pedallos in this part of the world.

We get together and swap stories of our cruising to date.  Rio Luna have already been further north, into the Arno River in fact, and it is from this encounter that we get the idea we would like to go there too.  It is close to Pisa and to Florence.  Sounds like we have a plan forming.  Soon it is time to say farewell as Rio Luna head on south.  They are planning to be back in Marina di Ragusa before the end of September. 

The bald head just popped in as Richard clicked!

Matelot is pretty happy at anchor here at Campo, but parts further north beckon us and also we have not yet seen the island.

So back to Porto Azzuro we go, leave the boat on anchor where we are sure she will be quite safe, then catch a local bus around the island to visit the tourist attractions.

Top of the list is the country residence of Napolean Bonaparte.  Pretty impressive and set in lovely gardens.


We are lucky and it is market day in Ferraio so we are able to stock up on some market fresh produce while we wait for the bus.



The lighthouse at Portoferraio provides us with an opportunity to look at the view further north.

Then its on to Cavo on the North Eastern corner of Elba Island to check out the anchorage and the very grand looking residences lining the shore.

The bus takes us all over the island and we arrive back on board Matelot tired but happy that we have had a lovely day out.


But already we are keen to move onwards.  The Arno River, Pisa and Florence are beckoning to us.  So is fate....  We plan our passage for the next day.