Making Tracks

 There is not too much to say about Pisa - the big attraction is the tower that leans.  It is actually the bell tower for the Pisa Cathedral.

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Although you know that the tower leans, it is still odd to see.  Apparently, it started to lean fairly quickly due to a soft and unstable foundation that was unable to support the weight of the tower.  Over the years attempts have been made to reduce the lean.  And they have indeed reduced the lean to about 4 %.  

 

Pisa Cathedral

Of course, they cannot completely correct the tilt or they would have no "tourist attraction".  Italy has struck a compromise it seems - a little tilt so the masses come to see it, but not enough that it falls over.

Pisa

We walked around the town a bit, but really that bell tower is about it.  Other than that oddity, it is just a sleepy town.  Now that the winds have died down we will be making tracks to Trapani.  Sadly, because of the weather delay and our dawdling we will now have to miss some highlights.  I knew I had our itinerary too jam packed, with no days built in for weather.  I was just hoping that it would all work out.  There is so much to see and we like to roam around at a leisurely pace- so it doesn't always work out.  It is also a very long way from Montenegro to Gibraltar.  Someone from Montenegro shared this image of a map showing the Mediterranean Sea within the US.  It is great visual for understanding the size of the Med - its a large body of water!

Mediterranean in the US

 Later this year we are crossing the Atlantic again.  The time for crossing to the Caribbean is the winter, we are planning to leave Talaria in La Linea, Spain while we go home for our three month exile.  In October, we will return and prepare for the crossing.  However, the reality is that you start preparing months in advance for a big ocean crossing.  One of the items on our list is having our liferaft serviced.  The liferaft has to be serviced every five years, so we are due.  It has been difficult to get that arranged as there are not many places that service our brand of liferaft.  After much searching we found a place in Gibraltar that services our brand.  That was good news!  Unfortunately, it is difficult to reserve a berth in Gibraltar to get the work done.  And due to Brexit moving things and workers back and forth from the Spanish side to the British side is next to impossible.  Finally, after a couple attempts we were able to secure a spot in Gibraltar for one week.  Phew... just enough time to get a few things done over on the British side.  

 

Church is Pisa

 

Anytime we have had work completed by British folks we have always been happy.  They do quality work and often tend to perfectionism.  So in addition to the liferaft, we wanted to have the engine serviced and the rigging inspected.  In particular, we wanted an actual trained rigger to inspect our rigging and tune it.  Its a sad fact, that many people who have become dismasted or had some sort of rigging failure, had just had their rigging replaced!!  You think "how in the world can that happen", but we have heard and spoken with folks who have had that happen more than once.  The riggers make mistakes or aren't completely qualified or the rigging is not tuned properly... Regardless, the reason - we do not want to experience a catastrophic rigging failure in the middle of the Atantic Ocean!   Securing the berth in Gibraltar for the work was a stroke of good luck, but it also took away another week from our travel time.  No more dawdling - we will be on our way to Trapani soon and then off to Sardinia.