Nightly Joyride

From: Tusa, Sicily, Italy
To: Sferracavallo, Sicily, Italy

Tusa looked nice at night, and even nicer in the morning, with its quaint little castle overlooking the bay. They also have no less than 15 garbage containers right on the beach, which is a plus in my book. There was no wind, so we were thinking about having lunch in the restaurant underneath the castle. First I took out the garbage.

When I came back to the boat, the wind had picked up to the perfect 15 knots. Screw lunch, we’re going sailing! We hoisted the spi and were off at 7 knots. I very much enjoyed that for the full 5 minutes it lasted. Vite & Rêves sailed straight into a dead calm. The same dead calm as the day before, I recognized it. It was lurking all night behind the cape.

Undeterred, we ignored it. We pretended there was no dead calm. We didn’t chase patches of wind. And it worked! Sulking, the calm buggered off. The rest of the day we peacefully sailed on, only dodging fishing boats now and again. I took a nap, expecting to do a night sail again.

Night fell. This time I was prepared better than yesterday. I said: “The wind will pick up after sunset, you’ll see.”

And did it ever. 12 knots as soon as the sun was under. We were just in time to furl the spinnaker(a large light sail that is used when the wind comes _from behind_ your boat). We hoisted the full main. The wind increased, first to 15 knots. Vite & Rêves woke up from her slumber. 20 kots, she started to be entertained. 25 with gusts to 30, she was flying. We were not used to this anymore after a week of very little wind. It was a little scary to be going this fast in the dark, but Vite & Rêves behaved so well and we trust her. We matched our all time speed record and blasted past Palermo.

Happy with our progress, we anchored in the very shallow harbor of Sferracavallo. Strange thing: it distinctly smelled like washing powder. Curious what it will look like during the day.