Sailing quickly from Pisa to Croatia - any advice?

[TPOZ3]

We are moving our 40ft cat from Pisa, down the west coast of Italy, through the Straits of Messina, round to Brindisi and finishing near Zadar. All in less than 3 weeks.

We are leaving mid April and need to arrive early May. We need to do it pretty much non-stop, due to time constraints. We need to be in Croatia for the summer.

Does anyone have any advice? Has anyone done this passage before?

[monte]

Yeah it's a nice sail. 3 weeks is probably just enough time to enjoy the sights at that time of year. The Italian waters pilot is handy for the trip. Mostly day sails if you like with one overnight from otranto to Montenegro or Dubrovnik. I'd probably plan to do more overnight sails and then spend more time on the Tuscan Islands, Elba, the pontines, Stromboli definitely try sail past the west coast in the dark. Spend about 2 weeks getting to Messina and another week on to Croatia from there.
Some details in our blog from last year
Www.sephinacat.blogspot.com

[TPOZ3]

Hi Monte, thanks for the tips. We do have the Italian waters pilot - I have heard it will be very useful. But we are not planning to stop in Italy until we get to near Messina. We plan to sail straight to Messina from Pisa in only a few days. I hope it is possible. Will definitely aim to sail past Stromboli in the dark.

Your blog is so cool - I can see your map - we are going almost the same route. How quick do you think we could be to Messina?
We are then continuing up to Bari and crossing over to Croatia for the summer.

[monte]

Well direct is 400M so plan on 3 days. Wind is predominantly effected my the mistral in May so should be aft of the beam all the way. Leave Stromboli to port if you can, the fireworks are in the NW side so not seen from the east. Some nice inexpensive marinas around the boot of Italy as well.

[chuckr]

We did a similar trip last year starting in Rome. We did a lot of stops along the way and had a great time.
Mid April you may want to watch the weather as the winds can pick up a lot and in Messia area get a bit ugly. I did pretty well across the boot of Italy as we made a stop in Scilla at the mouth of the Messia straits when we got hammered by some stiff winds. Take a mooring ball and just wait. We made 3 stops after that to Ortano then did a day sail over to Albania and then up the coast to Montenegro and Croatia.

For us just a bit early to get started. We will leave Tunisia in May for Sicily and the north coast thru the straits and back to Albania before heading to Greece for the summer.

[TPOZ3]

Thank you Chuckr for your tips - i wish we were going in May too, but perhaps we will get some good winds in April.
How do we find out about the tides in Messina? We were thinking about stopping in Scilla too, but it doesn't sound great!
Can we travel through messina anytime, or is first thing in the morning the best time?
It sounds like you have a great trip planned.

[monte]

Messina is covered in the Italian waters guide. Is sold my copy but you will want to time it for the tides. Watch out for the sailfish fisherman, lots of fun to see them catch them with harpoon but they will cut across your bow erratically when they spot one. It's not too busy and pretty easy to navigates you may need to check in on VHF to alert your intentions to pass through as well.

[Agility]

Keep alert going past Brindisi. A fast ferry gave us a good scare a while back.


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[chuckr]

Originally Posted by TPOZ3

Thank you Chuckr for your tips - i wish we were going in May too, but perhaps we will get some good winds in April.
How do we find out about the tides in Messina? We were thinking about stopping in Scilla too, but it doesn't sound great!
Can we travel through messina anytime, or is first thing in the morning the best time?
It sounds like you have a great trip planned.

We used the cruising but actually had a no wind day so motored it. By the way 2 days before we had winds of 30-35 no the nose. So for tides we had stopped at Scilla to get out of the winds and some of the nastiest seas we have ever been in. And Scilla was really a neat little town and we enjoyed it.

We went through in the morning as soon as we had light to make roccella
I think. You have to call straits control before entering to get permission. They saw us on AIS and called us but that is rare.

I am not on the boat but I believe in roccella you have to really hug the port side as as of Oct 2014 the middle and starboard had shoaled in.

It is a great trip so enjoy.

[monte]

Some details here
http://sephinacat.blogspot.com/2013/...fireworks.html