Another early start and this time I was determined we would leave. There was a 10 knot breeze blowing us towards the harbour wall that threatened to cause us trouble as we needed to allow time for the lazy line which was holding the bow off the wall to sink before I engaged gear. Last time we were in this situation we had held on to the boat next door using our jousting pole of a boat hook but this wasn't an option today. In the end it went surprisingly well and we were soon on our way, out of the harbour and into the swell.
I was actually rather pleased that we had waited a day as the swell was rather noticeable and although it wasn't a real problem for us, any bigger and things may have been uncomfortable. The kids were up relatively early too, however they very quickly decided returning to bed was a smart move with all the rocking and rolling. AJ, having a renewed enthusiasm for Harry Potter since Leonie's visit grabbed the iPad with the library download app on his way back down. A while later I went to check on the kids and found them taking it in turns to read to each other, however it wasn't much longer before AJ was on deck looking a little green. It doesn't seem to matter how many times I tell them they still try to read and watch the iPad when it's rolly.
After a handful of ginger biscuits and the strategic placing of a bucket things were looking up and I did some mental arithmetic with AJ. Esmé meanwhile was down below watching Bill Nye the Science guy talk about Space, one of the YouTube videos I downloaded whilst we had great wifi at Agropoli. However it wasn't long before she twigged that we had ginger biscuits out and was suddenly feeling a bit seasick herself. We put the times tables songs on the iPad, and blasted them out of our Bluetooth speaker. As it often does, the music distracted them enough to forget about the bucket and enjoy singing.
The journey seemed to pass quickly and with the swell dying down AJ went back to Harry Potter.
I contacted the marina at Camerota and let them know we'd arrive at 1pm but would go to the fuel pontoon first, and then we enjoyed the view as we closed into the town.
It was a little shallow on the way in but as East Coast sailors, we weren't phased. On to the fuel pontoon where yet again the nozzle was too big for Laurin so we had to use a funnel. 60 litres later we were done so tried to contact the marina guy again. I was under the impression he was on his way but after waiting a while Patrick thought maybe the "30" he mentioned wasn't 30Euros but 30 minutes. After an hour had passed Patrick went for walk but found out nothing other than there was a coastguards door with closed until 4pm written on it. He also said the toilets and showers were closed. I then went to look for a grocery shop but was unsuccessful. 4pm came and went and the Marina guys phone went straight to answerphone. We began to resent the idea that he may now turn up and request payment when we hadn't even been able to leave the boat unattended for a family walk. In the end Patrick took the kids for a walk to the beach while I got on with preparing dinner. After a while a fishing boat came to get fuel so I walked Laurin back a little. When the Fuel Guy turned up I told him we had been trying to contact the marina guy... he said to try VHF at which point I asked if we could stay the night on the fuel pontoon. His English wasn't much better than my non existent Italian however he pointed at the sign on the wall that said he opened at 7am. I told him we would leave at 6am, gave him a beer and we were all good!
So, another early dinner, trying to get kids to bed early so that we can too get an early night ready for another early start, however the boatyard has started lifting boats out in the dark! Still, it's a free night so we can't complain.
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