Treleavens' Travels

by Andrea Treleaven on 14 Jun 2005 Let’s set the scene entering Venice - a narrow canal and very busy; ocean liners, ferries, super yachts, small craft and lots of markers leading the way, but no such thing as port and starboard!

My eyes are popping out of my head so as not to miss anything, or should I say, miss everything. Anyway, Ian says take the wheel thinking he has to check the navigation charts and all we hear from the galley is cup of tea?? Strange how when something tricky, or maybe embarrassing is going to happen, it’s either ‘I need to go to the toilet’, or a cup of tea.

We don’t tie up to the poles - it’s too choppy and uncomfortable, but there’s a yacht club marina in view of Piazza San Marco and if someone is away and you talk sweetly, they will let you use someone’s berth - for a fee – naturally! We are lucky and stay four nights rafted to another yacht.

Being cheeky and with naivety on our side, we cross the Grand Canal in our rubber dinghy and join all the Gondoliers in the canal to see what happens.

To our surprise, it’s no problem and we join the queues of Gondolas up the canals and under the Rialto and The Bridge of Sighs. We hear a piano accordion playing ‘doing it my way’ at a wedding. We are taking photos of them and they are taking photos of us! It’s all very friendly and they couldn’t have been nicer to us, giving us directions which way to go. An afternoon we will never forget.

Venice is still romantic and we join the swarming tourists on a ferry for the night. The second night we are here, the square is flooded and this happens 250 days a year, due to sinking of the square and the invasion of the sea at high tide.

Parts of the city are now being drained and new piles and retaining walls put in, but it’s a big area and progress is slow. This is done by driving in steel piles around an area and then draining that area.

Penny has her car here, so we take a day trip inland to see Lake Garda and Verona. Romeo and Juliet’s balcony get a brief look, as the Italian shops this season are more interesting. We are not used to the fast highways and are very pleased to get back to the boat.

Pip and Geoff Lavis and Kevin Horne have joined us for three weeks. The day they arrived we had a weather change and it’s blowing from the north and is 20 degrees.

Repeating our experience up the canals, we must look very silly crossing the Grand Canal, the freeboard is nil and giving way to huge ships, it’s a wet experience, but once in the canals, it’s great once again.

We have 220 nautical miles to our first stop to the outermost island off Croatia Vis and will cross back to Brindisi, Italy, from here.

All rugged up and looking like we are about to enter the Sydney Hobart. It’s cold, but with wind on our aft quarter, we are on the fast highway south down the Adriatic. A lot of texting from mobiles is going on, a few lies are told, but all we get back is ‘B**tards’.

Komiza on Vis is a delightful fishing port and obviously very popular with the charter yachts as they squeeze us in. Only opened to the public since 1989, the island is unspoilt with very clear water.

We manage a very fresh swim and dinner ashore of grilled scampi. At the next table are a group of Aussies from Melbourne, including Barry Jones the politician, also here on a charter yacht.

During the night the Bora blows 50 knots and thankfully we are tied up to the village wall with all the charter yachts. Next morning nothing keeps Geoff, Kevin and Ian in port and the only yacht to pull out is us.

On the horizon it looks ugly and breaking, but we reef down and sail on – it’s only 160 miles to go. I just keep taking my sea pills, but Pip loves this stuff.

A mishap with the dinghy and with the call ‘all hands on deck,’ we retrieve the dinghy and outboard. Luckily, only the fuel tank and oars are gone.

With not a lot of sleep that night and the auto pilot working very hard, Cadiz sailed very well in the lumpy sea, but thankfully we are going with the wind not against it.

Getting closer to Brindisi Italy, at night, we are back in the shipping lanes. Geoff, Pip and Kevin have a quick lesson on the Radar and make sure we are not on any collision course.

After a very rough night we come around the corner into the calm waters of Brindisi Harbour at 0600 hours to the start of the 100 mile Brindisi - Corfu Yacht race. A fleet of 60 yachts from modern 80 footers to cruising 30 footers will have a fast ride in the tough conditions we had just experienced.

A day to provision and a welcome lunch ashore of Puglia ear pasta with seafood, washed down with a cold beer and local wine.

No time to enjoy the countryside, as we are off again before night fall to catch the last of this front from the north, to get us around the heel and under the sole of the boot into the Ionian Sea. The wind is turning to the south in a few days and that doesn’t suit us. Hopefully hot weather from the African coast will come with this wind.

Sicily here we come, 250 miles and now a very pleasant motor-sail to Taormina Sicily, taking two nights and one day.

Time to catch up on sleep, read and eat. Local produce is at its best and we are enjoying olive bread made with whole olives, gorgonzola that just melts in the mouth, cherry tomatoes that are like bunches of grapes and yes, wines at $5.00 a bottle! So much for Geoff saying he didn’t drink at sea!!

We have sailed 620 miles, had the company of lots of dolphins and coming into the coast of Sicily at day break - a perfect view of snow capped, smoking Mount Etna.

Amore!