When i was a kid, and omg in the moment i write this i think.. i sound like my father!,
we used to spend our summer vacation on our sailboat.
yeah it sounds cool, but believe me for a young girl, spending 3 or 4 weeks on a boat with few water, no real shower, no refrigerator, no tv, no phone..
well it was kind of harsh.
but, of course, growing up you start reconsidering things
and you realize how lucky you were..
the stories to tell about those summers are so many and so crazy that i might just keep them for me.

all the arriving to the harbors at night time, preferably with new moon (the preferably is sarcastic..),
the days without having the possibility to take a decent shower..,
the time we found our self with no gas, or not batteries, or no gas for cooking..
those days of tempest and strong winds. the small tornado in greece, the doubling of capes in croatia with no lighthouses working.
the sudden bad weather in Ponza rushing to Chiaia di luna,
meeting people from all over the world,
the most transparent water on earth,
the most polluted as well,
the relic in greece,
the infinite walks in the cities where we were staying to get food at some supermarket,
those moments of fight, and those moments of good laughter with my family.
the days when we were sailing in open sea with no wind, or with too much.. for days, with no one around, no GPS, completely depending on the LOG and on the communication with other boats,
the rescues of boats got trapped somewhere, or without gas,
the sunburnt, the long baths in the water,
the torture of doing custom everywhere,
the adventures undertaken in tunisia, in greece, to just go around and visit the places in the most rustic and genuine way
the cockroach everywhere in tunisia, also on our tables..
the weird bug that fell in my father's tshirt in yugoslavia when he was eating a fish soup that turned out to be fish broth
the wonderful landscapes in yugoslavia, when it was still yugoslavia.
quanta pallina.. quanta pallina..
Hvar, dubrovnik, before the war,
and the same places after the war, with scars everywhere in shape of bulletts holes in the walls and museums reminding us tourists what that country went tru,
or driving towards plivitcke forest , the most amazing place, with graveyards full of crosses on both sides of the street.
and then the nature, the wonderful nature that just surrounds you.
night skies are not just the same anymore once you have been in open sea with no moon and no light anywhere, looking at the milky way,
white, big, lucent, as you can't even imagine,
only after that vision you understand why is named like that.
the earth, that becomes bigger and bigger and you feel warmer and warmer air coming from there, like a warm breath, as you get closer.
the craziness of the lights of the cities that often blind you and it takes forever to find the lighthouses of the harbor, and it is like a game, the ending game of the transfer, gathering out and looking for those tiny red and green lights. ù
before starting the approaching and all the mess that can be hidden in that last part of the journey..
find the spot, be careful of the depth, scream the depth every tot seconds, ready with the ropes, put the gummy things around the boat, ready with the anchor, estimates where to throw it, depending on the wind, depending on the spot, depending on the depth, depending on how much you are my father.. :)
and then, ready... START!
and after 10 minute you are on the land.. but when you go on the ground you still feel like being on a rocking chair, and you are all salty, and tired, and smelly perhaps.. but you don't care, and just go somewhere to get some food.
and then,
the sea, so wonderful and dangerous. so calm and crazy, so slow and fast, so sudden that always reminds you of how small humans are, and how you always have to be ready for anything, that you are never completely safe.
and then the animals around.
waiting for the seagulls to show up when you are sailing for days,
as a signal of land closer and closer,
the turtles, so nice,
the dolphins, those magic creatures that suddenly are all around you, especially when you are sailing, and you just want to scream, but you learned after all those years that you have to be quite or they will be scared. and they are there like playing with your boat jumping so close to the prow, and then suddenly they leave you alone again.
and the whales...

Ok so the reason why i tried to summarize all my 22 years of sailing adventures in a post :)
is because i was reading this article that was saying how whale watching is lately a huge business and so..
the memory of that time, perhaps the only one , that we were sailing in the "stretto di messina" (Messina channel) and finally we were going pretty decent, being downstream
and not like once that we were completey stuck because of the being against flow in the middle of the channel in front of the 2 harbors from which the big connecting ferry boats depart.. with 2 huge of them coming towards us...
as i was saying...
that time, it was hot and sunny, and i was lying in the shadow of the sail, and suddenly i hear like a huge breath.
i turn my head and i see a looooooooooong "fish"..
just few meters, seriously few, away from the boat,
there were only few centimeters of it out of the water,
just coming out to breathe, and then the tail while it was diving again deep.

just one of the wonderful memories i had the luck to live, just one of many more.

chiara