Back to boat life!
10th April 2024
I'm sitting on Libra, moored in Marina di Arbatax, listening to the wind howling in the distance. Ah, Mistral, I haven't missed you. As we won't be sailing anywhere this afternoon I thought I'd write a post to tell you how we got here.
My last post was back in September (2023). We had put the boat into the Cantieri Mulas boatyard for the winter but had to leave early before the boat was lifted from the water. This left everything in the hands of the yard. We had some concerns as the reviews on the Navily app were mixed but our experience was very different. Everyone was incredibly friendly and helpful, Maria Rosa in the office, Luca who dealt with all the paperwork, Leonardo and the other guys doing the hard work in the boatyard. Dealing with such great people made all the difference and they took great care of Libra over the winter.
Our early departure meant that the boat's winterising wasn't completed so that gave us the perfect excuse to come back a week or so later to check everything. We stayed on one of the boats in the marina, Lucrezia, which operates as a floating B&B. We had the whole boat to ourselves (she sleeps 8), very comfortable, a 60' motor cruiser, the opposite of sleek, light sailboat Libra. Breakfast at the marina café was included so we could drink our cappuccinos and watch the world go by before going to the boatyard to get Libra ready for the winter.
We flew back again in January with Viktor, this time staying at a small, privately run hotel, Sa Pasadina, about 5 minutes walk from the yard. It's absolutely lovely, big rooms, airy, great bathroom, very comfortable. Francesca, the young woman who runs it, is so helpful and accommodating. She provides a fantastic breakfast - fresh squeezed orange juice from her own trees, a choice of cooked or sweet breakfast, home made bread rolls and cakes, bean-to-cup coffee machine, it's inexpensive and really couldn't be better. She has a very cute Jack Russell, about 9 tortoises who live in the garden and a number of cats who come and go, such a homely place.
We came again in March, on the way back from visiting Igor's family. It was a mega road trip, with a detour to Venice and Pisa along the way.
The air in the boatyard gets very mucky. Whilst we've been in the marina we've seen the whole boatyard area wreathed in red dust, quite an uncanny sight, with the rest of the town unaffected. I washed the decks every day but the dust kept coming back. I also polished and sealed the hull so by the time we left it looked very pretty.
Finally, we got back here last week with a view to launching the boat. Vik was with us on driving duties and occasionally lending a hand with the heavy lifting.
I polished and scrubbed the boat to within an inch of its life, including a second coat of wax polish, while Igor did the more technical preparations for launching. Vik went home on Saturday after helping us put the mainsail on. It's something Igor and I could do by ourselves but having an extra pair of big strong hands makes a huge difference. Not to mention the pleasure of working with team spirit (not to be confused with Teen Spirit, Vik is much too mature!)
On Sunday morning we came to the boatyard for our final preparations before the launch on Monday, only to find that the gates were padlocked. Whilst neither Igor nor I are skinny (especially after a week of pizzas and oversized burgers) we worked out that if we were careful we could just about get through the vehicle gates to the yard. These were padlocked together with a chain, so if you pushed it as far open as it would go the gap was about a foot, with a similar ground clearance. Igor's technique was to lie on the floor and pass the gates over him, mine was to sort of twist and wiggle until I presented my smallest aspect to the gap. Thankfully nobody challenged us while we were doing our acrobatics.
It was dead calm so perfect conditions to hoist the foresail, the big sail at the front of the boat also known as a jib or a genoa (jibs and genoas are different but they can both be foresails. I'll spare you the details, you can ask google if you're curious). The first step is to put the sail on the deck and then you can feed the bolt rope at the front edge into the groove of the rotating foil.
Annoyingly the deck was wet from the overnight dew and the red dust was back. The sail is nearly new and gleaming white so I didn't want muck all over it. I had to clean the deck yet again. The sail was then put on the clean surface while Igor fed the bolt rope into the groove and I used a winch to hoist the jib halyard, lifting the sail with it. (For those who don't know, a halyard is a rope that's used to pull a sail up, as opposed to a sheet which controls the free corner of the sail and helps it hold its correct position).
Every so often I'd stop so that Igor could fix a batten into the sail. These give the sail a little more rigidity so its shape is most efficient when sailing. We put the sail up with no fuss or swearing whatsoever. We must be getting good at it!
I gave the decks a proper clean after this, with a special deck cleaner that lifts dirt and leaves a PTFE coating so that it is easier to clean. Hungry work, so for lunch we went to the Pescheria next to the harbour and had fritto misto. I've seen people eating it there before and always felt jealous. It was as good as I expected.
A paper bowl full of battered and deep fried seafood - prawns (at least two different varieties), squid, calamari rings, flat fish and small fish which I think are called occhioverde (Chlorophthalmus agassizi) because they have green eyes. They go white when you cook them. Delicious if you like fried small fish.
Everything was delicious. I resisted the urge to have a glass of white wine with it and had a Coke instead as there was still work to do.
The afternoon brought more cleaning, polishing all the stainless steel fittings on deck with baking soda. By the time I'd finished the boat was sparkling. The decks gleamed white, the metal caught the sun. You could see your face in the hull after the second coat of wax. All the boat needed now was to 'just add water'.
Launch date was Monday 8th. We were told that our time slot was 9.30 to 10.00am. Libra was finally launched at around 10.30.
The yard guys placed her in the launching crane and put sheets of closed cell plastic foam between the hull and the lifting strops to protect the paintwork. The boat was then carried to the water. Igor and I boarded the boat as the crane held her above the water and then we were gently lowered to the sea.
One of the guys took the front piece of protective foam away in a single movement. His colleague attempted to do the same at the aft...but it wouldn't budge. The plastic is very light so it floats and had stuck itself to the hull, which is much wider at the rear of the boat. We tried poking it with the boat hook and the broom. One of the yard men climbed down the walls of the launching bay to try and pull it from a better angle. Much discussion of the best way to do it, lots of things tried. I kept well out of it. Suddenly the blue foam was free, and so were we.
We motored away to the marina around the corner and were met by a couple of marineros who took our ropes and helped to secure us to the pontoon. Our passerelle, or gangplank, or, if you prefer, the bit of scaffolding board we bought in Southend to protect the sides of the boat from damage in the canals, was secured to make a bridge to the land. Since then we've been sorting things out and watching the weather.
Our next major step is to Sicily, which will be around a 24 hour sail. We are aiming to set off on the morning of Friday 12th. In the meantime I'll sit here, keep the boat clean and listen to the wailing of the Mistral.
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