Our last charter of the season found us back in The Aeolian Islands off the north coast of Sicily. Being the end of October the weather was always going to be a challenge especially as the Aeolian islands are all very exposed to both the waves and wind. In the end the weather could have been a lot worse although we were hit with squalls, thunder storms and even a water spout, but we did get a few hours most days when it did behave.
Sailing past Lipari on the way to Salina
One advantage of chartering a yacht is the flexibility it enjoys enabling us to just go sailing when the weather was nice, which could have been first thing in the morning or for a quick sail in the evening. In fact it was great to be able to play with the boat, leaving the tender behind and to just go out sailing. Concerto is an extremely well mannered yacht even when we got caught in a 25-30knot squall with a bit too much sail up. She very slowly headed up into the wind, nothing too exciting, which is exactly the type of manners you are looking for in a big safe cruising yacht. She is no slouch however and we saw 10 knots + on the log several times.
Approaching Panarea under sail
We had some fantastic sails to the islands of Vulcano, Lipari and Salina and also a “champagne” sailing day with blue skies, a slight sea and 20 knots of wind on the starboard aft quarter enabling us to broad reach at a steady 9.5-10 knots for two and a half hours before arriving at the island of Panarea.
Gordon