Chioggia to Ravenna, 15-16 June 2024

To sail from Chioggia to Ravenna, we need to go around the Po delta, a 52 nm ride heading South-East for the first part, then South-West for the last part. Following the passage of a low-pressure system during our stay in Venice, we are currently experiencing a regime of solar winds alternating between land breezes in the morning and sea breezes in the afternoon. 

In order to take advantage of the best winds, we decide to set off at two in the morning, at the start of the land breeze, which should blow us easily to the south-east. And indeed the breeze picks up, between 8 and 10 m/s, and we are making between 8 and 9 knots downwind under spinnaker. We end up dropping the spinnaker as the boat becomes increasingly unstable as the land breeze builds. 

After gybing as we pass the Po delta, we continue south-west towards Ravenna. And that's when the genoa halyard breaks...

But the problems had started earlier when, making a solo start from the Chioggia marina between the piles with a crosswind, the bow thruster swallowed some debris that was lying around in the marina, with the result that you can see in the photo below. Luckily I had a spare pair of propellers. So we anchored in the outer port of Ravenna to change the starboard propeller. Not the easiest job, as the propeller is very tightly attached below the waterline...

To come back to the genoa halyard breakage, I was worried that it might be due to a tear that would require stitching work. And to my great delight, it's only a swivel that has come loose from its shackle, and all I have to do is replace it. You can see how much force it took to twist a shackle like that!

In any case, it took two trips to the top of the mast to replace it, hoist the genoa, put everything back in place and furl it again.

A monkey in the rigging. Not even scared!

View from Belisama deck in the Ravenna Yacht Club facing the canal getting out at sea... 

It's all done now, and we're going to enjoy Ravenna like real tourists tomorrow!

In Ravenna, 150 nm since we left Pula

Here we are now, excited about discovering the 11 World Unesco sites in the city of Ravenna, which was the capital of the capital of the Western Roman Empire in the 4th century!