The next morning everything was still burning and we needed to leave. The winds were forecast to be 15 knots from the west. Fabulous. Turns out they were in the 20’s, gusting into the 30’s, with 3 foot choppy seas (southerlies shifting to northwesterlies suddenly). At least it was a downwind run. We poled out a third of the jib and were easily making 6-8 knots.

We stopped in Cala di Mondello for the night along with several other boats, it was still blowing hard, so none of us were heading ashore, but at least we were protected from the swell. At least till morning that is. Swell managed to make its way around the point and it was time to go again….we watched the local firefighting planes circle and drop down into our bay to collect water as we were leaving. The smoke was still thick in the air.