Thursday, April 29, 2010

Captivity

Sibari, Italy--- We are ready to leave for Greece and showed the Marina the charts that Shirish has been working on showing the depths of the channel. Every morning and night, Shirish and one of the crew has gone out on the dingy with a borrowed depth finder to chart the progress of the Italian workers digging us free.

Sometimes he has gone out three times a day. The entire channel from the Locks to the sea is only about ¼ mile. The tricky part is only the last 500 yards with the opening being only about 40 yards wide. But he has a route that he believes can get us out.
He showed this to the Boat Yard manager and the Marina manager and was told no. No one leaves until the Harbor Master, in another town, who is in charge of several marinas (Sibari being his smallest) must officially declare the channel “open.”

Our hearts just dropped when we were told no. There is a weather window perfect for us to leave on Sunday. If we don’t, a front is coming through
and it will be another week or even two if more sand gets pushed back into the channel.

We are ready to go, held captive by the Italians telling us we can’t.


No comments: