It seems that Italy is doing everything it can to stop us leaving. After weeks of good weather, we have now had a couple of days of rain and then strong winds. We put the instruments on while we were having lunch and saw gusts of more than 30 knots. Not earth shattering in themselves, but enough for us to prudently avoid making a long crossing of the Adriatic. The wind does not seem to have abated for days. Sometimes stronger, sometimes a bit less strong for a couple of minutes, but fundamentally just persisting day and night. The boat moves around on its mooring and even when we are trying to sleep, there are creaks and groans from the mooring lines and at times, noise from the halliards slapping against the mast. We had hoped to be able to leave on Friday or Saturday, but it was never going to be possible.
On Saturday we spent time studying the weather forecasts and the weather routing that our navigation systems propose. We compared Sunday with Monday, and eventually came to the conclusion that it had to be Monday. The winds will be stronger and from a slightly worse direction on Sunday and it seems likely to be an uncomfortable voyage. This decision having been made, we went to the marina office to say that we would leave early on Monday morning and we needed the Border Police to check us out. This proved to be a problem. They had stopped work for the day on Saturday, and were otherwise occupied on Sunday because there was a local election. Could we just come back after 8:00 on Monday. We explained that this was not possible because of the distance we had to travel and restrictions at the other end. Various favours were called in on our behalf, and eventually we were promised that someone would come to process our passports out of Schengen on Sunday at 17:00. This eventually happened, and a slightly grumpy policeman came and stamped us out. He left warning us that we had to leave overnight. We were mightily relived to have all of this completed and to be able to go. We just need the weather to conform to the forecasts now and we will be on our way. We had a celebratory last gelato.
We have spent the time exploring the town and stocking up on food etc. We will be on anchorages for the first few days in Croatia, and we don't know if we will be anywhere near a shop.
We expect to meet friends when we arrive and are looking forward to seeing them greatly. Just an early start and a long day ahead....
Miles 2022 - 795
Steve (and Tricia)
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