A Storm off Tropea


Sailing up the Calabrian coast we were hit by our first really bad squall off the fashionable resort of Tropea.  One minute we were motor sailing in a moderate breeze and the next the wind was literally screaming through the rigging with rain stinging our faces.  Instinctively we got the sails down fast and started to motor further offshore.  It lasted about two hours during which we bucked up and down in a very short and uncomfortable sea, continually drenched with cold rainwater and occasionally lashed by warm seawater as the fifty-knot winds whipped the top off a wave and smacked it in our faces.  During the squall and its aftermath we were actually approached by two Italian Coastguard Search and Rescue boats to check that we were OK.

That day we stopped at Vibo Valentia where we chilled out for a few days and hired a car to explore the Calabrian hinterland.

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