The day of the sea trial has finally arrived
As we leave the pontoon we have one of our boatyard owners and his chief technician on board. They are being very thorough - checking things like the engine temperature as we progress through the trial.
We suspect not accidentally have we left at the time that the Brindisi - Corfu regatta is about to start. This is a 20-hour sailing race that goes from here to Greece. It’s a journey we’ve made a number of times. if we get the right crew, maybe we can do it one year. Anyway to the casual observer we look like we ARE part of the race. The race press boat comes by and takes our picture.
We change our plan. We have a good crew. We can join the race. Lori takes over at the helm and after a perfectly timed start we are on our way. Soon True Colors is living up to her name and leaving the rest of the fleet in her wake. We are good at this!!
“Wake up, Lori, wake up!” Lori’s daydream abruptly vanishes.
Back in reality, we thread our way through the gathering boats and out of the harbor. Massimo, the shipyard owner says “We can’t go back until all the race boats have cleared the harbor”. Sounds like an excuse for a jaunt to me! The wind is a nice 12-15 knots and from a perfect direction for a good sail. No-one demurs. The sails go up quickly and soon True Colors is doing between 7.5 and 9.5 knots is a sea that’s a little bit rolly.
We test all the major systems - chartplotter, autopilot, AIS, VHF and radar - and everything seems to be working fine. Indeed the whole trial only shows up a couple of minor things that need to be either fixed or completed. The boatyard and the specialists have done a really good job.
As always, there’s a complication. Our agent and friend, another Massimo, comes by to warn us about a change to (or changed interpretation of) the EU VAT rules on boats. The situation is fluid and unclear. “Fluid” and “unclear” are words that the maritime bureaucrats in Croatia (our next destination) are not at all comfortable with. They prefer strict rules and seem to like to fine you when you could conceivably be interpreted as having broken them. It is all part of their “Welcome to Croatia” program.
So Montenegro will be our new destination. Right next door to Croatia but as different as night and day. Friendly and helpful people who seem to enjoy their role as the newest country in the world.
The weather for the weekend looks a bit too windy and unpredictable to make for a comfortable crossing, so we plan to leave on Monday. This gives us a few days to relax and get all our final preparations made.
True Colors is spruced up and looking about as good as we can remember her doing. We have given her a new ensign to complete her ensemble.
This weekend it’s the first round of local elections in Italy. We don’t have TV on the boat so can’t really say what the ads look like and what the coverage is but it’s nice to see a more tangible election campaign. There are billboards everywhere with pictures of the candidates, flyers are under the windshield wipers of cars and there’s an open-air meeting in the town square.
It turns out we vaguely know one of the candidates - did I tell that Brindisi was a little town? He runs the wine store for the family vineyard from which we buy our wine. We hear this from his daughter who is also working in the wine store this summer. Opinion polls can’t be a big thing in these elections. We ask her if her dad will win and she says she has no idea.
Thinking about elections and candidates (and the problems we seem to have with these in the States) reminds me of a term we’ve heard used here a lot - “A serious person”. While this clearly means just what it says, it has a much deeper connotation It means “trustworthy”, “honorable”, “good to do business with”, “more aware of the broader picture than just self-interest”. And to be branded "not a serious person" is a major black mark on one's character.
Hopefully, these elections in Brindisi will elect “serious persons”. Maybe we could learn something from this perspective too.