Hey Hey, what do you say... Let's go the other way!

Amaris sailing the Planet

41.59 north 011.38 East

Sailing 15 Knots in 25 knots of wind

Course over Ground 150 deg true

Shawn and I had a bright idea - Sail back to France and grab our new washing machine.  It is honestly a pain to find a laundromat ever other week or so.  Besides we didn't want to stop in France when our friend Sherrie comes out for a visit.  So, we left a message with the Outremer crew and headed north.  After a few days of heading north in decent winds, we learned that Outremer closes down for the month of August (with the rest of France so it turns out).  Not to worry, we had some great adventures heading north (including almost dying hiking up to that "not so exciting" castle that you may have read about in my earlier blog).  

As one of my more attractive traits, I seem to push a bit hard in most things in life.  On our way north, one of these pushes was running for nearly 20 hours and arriving just before dawn at Isle de Giglio.  Just before dawn meant we were approaching and anchoring in an unfamiliar harbor in the darkness (which i will also include that the Med has their aids to navigation exactly opposite to those of the US.  Suddenly it is Green to the right when returning...  This added stress of doing something in the dark that you know isn't a mistake, but seems to be putting the boat in jeopardy.)  As we were approaching the harbor, the harbor was surrounded by blinking lights that were not on the chart.  I confirmed our location and checked the mental note-"Don't worry Steven, all the light houses are correct, you confirmed your location with radar etc.  These are obviously beacons marking areas of the park/marina."  

I was further alarmed when i saw a red light about 100 meters in front of us - that was definitely not on the chart.  I slowed down, asked if i was seeing things and further questioned the surroundings.  Alarms started going off as either a red or green light at the entrance of a marina mark either a boat - or a beacon marking an entrance (and the other side of the light very much not an entrance - usually something bad, like a rock/rocks/beach).  Shawn and I were discussing the red light, which we then watched sink into the water from 5 feet to zero and below.  "Shawn", I said "let's get out of here - something isn't right."  As the words left my lips a large ping noise echoed through the hulls of the boat...  followed by 5-6 more.  Sonar.  Submarine?  What?  Leave-quickly.  And we did.  As the sun rose on the horizon we were safely around the corner in a pleasant anchorage where we spent the day (and hiked to that castle-obtaining a few blisters i may add along the way).

Now as we headed south we decided to give a relatively safe, but yet curious look at that same harbor in the daylight.  The entire entrance was blocked off with cranes, barges, and a wrecked cruise liner.  That was obviously not on the chart either.  Wonder who left that there?