Fiumicino, Italy 41° 44.832 N 012° 15.496 E
Bonifacio, Corsica, France 41°23’N 09°08’.8E
Today is the day we depart.
My day started with working on the Fiat. I had put an epoxy mixture on the rear bumper on Friday and now it was ready to sand and paint. Miraculously, the mixture cured hard enough to sand. Of which I sanded and shaped it and painted it with a tiny little paintbrush and that was that. It worked!
The departure from the marina went well considering the size of the vessel. The guys from the yard came out to move the boat that was side-tied to us and stayed on the dock waving until we had turned around and headed down the river toward the fuel dock and eventually the Tyrrhenian Sea.
We spent about an hour and a half at the fuel dock taking on fuel. This vessel holds about 300 gallons and we took on about 500 liters. All I know is that the fuel went in and we moved on.
We planned to arrive at our destination of Bonifacio, Corsica at daylight and our 1:15 pm departure today could not have been at a better time for that. We anticipated calm seas the entire leg and it was actually flat, calm. So calm it was bordering on surreal. We immediately fell into a watch schedule of 3 hours on during the 9 pm to 9 am period and then 2-hour watches from 9 am to 9 pm. It worked out really well. The watch schedule is designed to move forward 1 hour each day so we each will get to see sunrises and sunsets. The sky was brilliant with stars. The Milky Way was clearly visible and falling stars seemed to be on a regular schedule. Venus rose bright in the southwest soon after sunset but disappeared quickly as true to its nature. Mars rose in the east and was obvious to spot because of its red nature. It too was brilliant in color and shine. John said that he saw it set at dawn when we were approaching Bonifacio.
On a side note, a German guy owned the boat that was tied behind us. We did not think much of him as he was the guy that complained to the management that he did not like the way the night watchman would sing on his rounds. I thought it sounded great! Well, it turns out the boat he now owns he sailed on when he was a kid with the previous owner, his grandfather. He spent months trying to locate the boat and he bought it. It has many years of neglect and will take about $240,000 USD to restore.
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