Reggio Calabria – Roccella Ionica

Last Leg in Italy

For our final leg in Italy, we decided to embark on a night passage once again. Since Lukas didn't have to work, we could plan this comfortably during the week. We chose to head to Roccella Ionica as our last port in Italy before leaving for Greece.

29th - 30th August 2023: Reggio Calabria > Roccella Ionica While others go for after-work drinks, we go sailing. At 5 p.m., we prepared for the last leg in Italy. After a rainy, cloudy start, we had a surprisingly clear and bright night - the full moon was imminent. We motored for the first hour to distance ourselves from the container ships, then hoisted the sails and turned off the engine. With about 5 knots of speed, we sailed into the night. By 8 p.m., we decided to reef the genoa as the wind was picking up to 22 knots.

 

Our return to full sails an hour later didn't last long, as ten minutes later we reefed again. With wind speeds ranging from 5 to 22 knots, it wasn't exactly consistent. Unfortunately, we had to motor for most of the night with only the mainsail, as the wind occasionally died down too much.

 

We reached our destination port of Roccella Ionica at 7 a.m., much earlier than planned. Therefore, we decided to continue sailing leisurely to arrive only by midday. However, our leisurely sailing plans were thwarted when at 10 a.m., just as we were about to head towards the harbor, the light wind turned into 35 knots directly from the front. The waves also unexpectedly increased. We hadn't anticipated this. The wind was too strong for our genoa, so we decided not to set it and we didn't have a storm sail. Instead of tacking against the wind under sail, we motored against it at 1-2 knots.

 

An hour later, the wind calmed somewhat to 16-24 knots. After 76.5 NM, we reached our destination, the Marina Roccella Ionica Porto delle Grazie.