Fickle Winds

All the vessels taking part in the Garibaldi Tall Ships Regatta are now en route to Genoa for the start on Thursday 8 April. The Dutch vessels Tecla and Astrid are continuing their private race with Tecla remaining in the lead.  

Janette Sluik on board Tecla reports that, “after a day of beautiful sailing, a sunset over the gulf of Lyon, a red almost full moon, the Astrid at the horizon, under full sail, life could not be better.” However she also reports that the wind has been playing tricks on them.

“The barometer is falling slowly with the wind sometimes SE Force 3 and sometimes a little more but not the 5 or 6 the forecasters have been saying,” reports Janette. “This morning there was a red sun and dolphins and we were sailing well looking forward to reaching Genoa tonight for a good sleep. Astrid has disappeared so we assume we have left her behind. 

“Then as the morning progressed so the clouds grew and got progressively blacker with winds SSE Force 4. Then, all of a sudden, just as we were sailing along the coast of Monaco, the land of Kings, Queens and movie stars, from where you often see pictures of beautiful people in bathing suits in the magazines, the wind dropped all the way to zero, then turned 360 degrees, stopped at SW Force 1 and then left us completely with a terribly cross sea.  I was forced to wake my son Gijs to help take the sails down, a hell of a job with new sails and took us more then an hour. Then the wind turned again, this time to the NNE Force 1 with a very cold air flow so we had to get the engine switched on. The new weather bulletin is forecasting southerly Force 4, turning NW Force 7 to 8 tonight. We hope they are wrong again!”

Both Astrid and Tecla are now in Genoa and already attracting small crowds. The city is gearing up to hold an excellent event and the population are looking forward to the rest of the ships arriving over the coming days.