To the Frozen North - Viareggio

We left Portoferraio early on the Wednesday morning heading for Livorno, from where we planned to visit Pisa and maybe Florence. Sailing wise, the trip was very uneventful, mainly because we only occasionally had the jib out to assist the engine. There were a few fishermen out and one or two other yachts but as we neared Livorno we could make out a very large Naval type vessel, on anchor. It turned out to be an American warship, and it seemed to us to be leaving in quite a hurry. We heard it confirming collision avoidance with a huge container ship as it departed and my thoughts turned to the American crew after yesterday's terrorist attacks.

Livorno turned out not to be a good place to stop for our trips inland. The marina was exceptionally uncomfortable due to the constant to and fro of tugs, containerships, cruise liners and fishing boats. It would have been more comfortable to anchor outside the breakwaters! It was also expensive, no electricity (it was broken) and on our brief trip into the town we both felt rather uneasy - possibly the roughest place we've visited since leaving Southampton. It was not difficult to make the decision to travel in further north to Viareggio.

Another early start but this time we had a fantastic sail, one of the best this year, twenty miles north. The engine was off within minutes of rounding the breakwater and wasn't put to work again until we approached the shallow entrance to Viareggio. We were wrapped up well against the chilly breeze but it was good to be sailing for a change. Some dolphins joined us briefly, and we reached 7 knots at one point, although 6 was more usual. As we turned into the entrance a number of "speedboats" were leaving. It turned out to be a European offshore Championship competition and we later enjoyed having a closer look at the weird and wonderful boat designs. There were a few British entries but we didn't find out who won!

The ormegatorri was very helpful, warning us that there was a big wind due the following night and assisting us from his dinghy with a double stern line. He seemed a bit concerned that we wanted to stay more than a couple of nights and warned us that he might have to move us to a different berth. The electricity worked, and the charges were half the price of Livorno so we were relieved to have made the trip. The pilot book explains all about the "upmarket" boatyards here and having seen them I can understand the eulogy. A pity it doesn't also mention how convenient it is to get the train to Pisa, Florence and Lucca! 

Viareggio is a holiday town. Even so, we liked it and some of the Art Deco buildings along the sea front are rather attractive. We watched the Italian Grand Prix in a bar having discovered that it was not really feasible to get to Monza and back in a day to see it live! The weather continued to be rather Autumnal, torrential rain, thunderstorms and even hail! It wasn't until Tuesday that we made our first trip inland, to Pisa. We made the mistake of making our second trip the following day, to Florence. It was raining on and off, we were tired from our previous day's outing and Florence turned out to be so busy and full of tourists and traffic that we decided to come back in the middle of winter when with a bit of luck the queues into the Ufizzi gallery won't be two hours long! 

Another British yacht arrived, and we spent two evenings with Karen and Ray off 'Pegasus' who have sailed as far as us in a third of the time! They are returning to Britain for winter, but we may see them again next summer as they plan to winter Pegasus near Rome and return in May next year to sail for another 6 months. Hopefully, soon, we will find some other live-aboards who plan to remain in Italy like us! The ormegatorri didn't move our berth, despite staying two weeks! We decided to head back to Elba, for further exploration there before moving back to the mainland to find a good berth for the winter.