Chasing Zephyrs
Written by Pieter Jan on Oct 22, 2019 — 2 min read
From: Capo Calava, Sicily, Italy
To: Tusa, Sicily, Italy
We left Capo Calava in the slightest of breezes, barely enough to keep the sails filled.
According to the grib(a small file that contains weather predictions) predictions, we needed to go north 10 miles, almost to the Aeolian islands, to find better wind. We tried sailing there. We had to beat into the wind anyway, completely contrary to the grib predictions.
After a few hours, it was clear that the predictions were off for today. The wind fell away to nothing. I saw a patch of wind in the distance, but when we arrived there, the patch had disappeared. We went left, the calm followed. We went right, the wind died. The whole day long, we went all over the place, to no avail. The glassy spot of no wind seemed to escort us wherever we went.
The kids didn’t mind. They were playing in the sail locker. I left it open in case I needed sails.
Admitting defeat, we motored over to Tusa in the evening. It had a nice slowly sloping bottom, usually indicating good sandy holding ground. We dropped anchor, installed the bridle and switched off the engines.
The wind instantly picked up to 15 knots.