S/V Aphrodite

Anchored off the Cinque Terre area south of Portofino, gave us several days of calm seas and bright blue skies and we felt comfortable and confident anchored in the unprotected area.  About 2 am of our last night, the wind shifted and started to build.  By 7 am when we could see to move we were in steep chaotic seas.  We moved south about 20 miles to a large protected bay, La Spetzia, to find shelter.  We had trouble getting the hook to set and had to re-anchor about 3 times before setting.  The winds continued to build, along with driving rain so we set out GPS anchor marker so we could check during the night to make sure we were not dragging.  At 12:30am we were struck by another boat which had drug their anchor and apparently couldn’t get their engine to start.  We watched them for about half hour to see if they needed help, but in the driving rain we didn’t feeling like lowering the dink, unless they were in trouble.  We went to sleep planning on looking at the damage and talking to them in the morning.  Well, those blaggarts left without contacting us!  It took us several hours over 2 days just to patch the missing chunk of fiberglass.  The next night the wind continued to roar through the anchorage and we dragged our anchor again.  Luckily we were still awake and jumped to action in time to prevent us from drifting into a fish farm with lines, nets and traps!  Against driving rain, we upped anchor and made our way to another anchorage in the bay and spent the night checking our position.  The next day the winds and seas calmed, at least in the bay, so we took the dinghy into town for internet access.  While we were gone the winds came up again, gusting to 35 knots, and we had difficulty making our way back in the dinghy.  It was a long dinghy ride, and in the far distance we could see a boat sort of drifting out of the anchorage towards the open bay.  The closer we got the more it looked like Aphrodite, but we were pretty sure that it was not because there was a flag flapping in an area where we do not have a flag.  The boat was clearly drifting, but was being assisted by a boat which I first thought was the Italian navy since they are right here.  The closer we got the more she looked like Aphrodite.  Then we got close enough to see that the flapping flag was the fore sail which had started to come unwound and was flapping in the wind.

So, in fact, she did drag anchor again and started drifting towards the rocks along the shore.  Luckily there were two guys on a boat who noticed her dragging and they came to her rescue.  They tied her to a nearby mooring which kept her off the rocks and then called the Harbor Master for assistance.  The Harbor Master was in the process of towing her to their dock when we intercepted them.  Fortunately she did not hit another boat or the rocks and so did not sustain any serious damage.  Last night the wind continued to howl, gusting from different directions sending us sailing around, back and forth.  Needless to say, we did not sleep much last night either, but at least we did not drag or have to re-anchor.