Floriana

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Thanksgiving on the Floriana was a typical holiday as it would be at home on land. Flori cooked and baked pie. while Claudio hung around and waited for the meal to be served (well, actually he steered while waiting!).

Felice Giorno del Ringraziamento a tutti. Niente cambia…le tradizioni sono tradizioni. E come avremmo festeggiato questa festa nazionale a casa, cosi’ abbiamo fatto a bordo …..Flori che cucinava e Claudio, invece di attendere la sua cena spaparacchiato sul divano, navigava.

The only difference this year was that Claudio and Flori ate Thanksgiving dinner underway instead of sitting at our dining table!

Anche se lo spirito della festa e’ stato lo stesso, quest’anno abbiamo mangiato mentre navigavamo anziche’ a tavola.

The baked rigatoni and the sweet butternut squash were delicious, and we enjoyed them as we passed lovely little islands, inhabited and uninhabited, and surrounded by playing dolphins.

La pasta al forno e la zucca al burro erano deliziosi, e ci siamo divertiti a mangiare mentre passavamo incantevoli isolette, abitate e disabitate, e circondate da delfini che giocavano.

We decided to have the pecan pie later on, once we had docked at Vero Beach City Marina. But for the first time since we left New York, we had an encounter with a nasty and arrogant catamaran owner!

Avevamo deciso di avere il dolce di noci più tardi nel pomeriggio, una volta attraccati a Vero Beach City Marina. Ma per la prima volta dopo tante migliua e tanti porti, veniamo alle prese con un proprietario di un catamarano al quanto invadente e arrogante!

Floriana had a paid reservation at the Vero Beach City Marina, unfortunately at the fuel dock because it was the only open spot available for Thanksgiving Day. We were told that the fuel dock was not very big and that we would have to be gone by 8 a.m. the next morning. No problem.

La Floriana si assicura il giorno prima posto in banchina al Vero Beach City Marina. Purtroppo l’unico posto disponibile per quel giorno era la banchina dei rifornimenti diesel, che avremmo dovuto lasciare puntualmente la mattina dopo alle ore 8,00 secondo il propreitario del marina. E finqui’ tutto ok.

Much to our surprise, when we got to the fuel dock, there was a 40′ catamaran tied up. Luckily the owners were on the dock, and we explained that we were told by the marina to dock there for the night. The gentleman raised his arms in a gesture that said, “oh well…” and then proceeded to tell us that he called ahead this morning but there was no answer (on Thanksgiving Day…really?) and that now that he was there, where would we like him to go? We explained that we paid for the use of the fuel dock for an overnight stay….a fuel dock that was maybe 65/70 feet long from end to end and could not safely house two boats of our sidimensions Again, his answer was to raise his arms in surrender.

A nostra sorpesa, quando approcciamo il suddetto posto, lo troviamo occupato da un catamarano di circa 12 metri. Avvistando il proprietario del catamarano, gli spieghiamo che quel posto in banchina ci era stato assegnato e leggittimamente visto che avevamo pagato in anticipo. Il signore a quel punto alza le braccia come per dire “cosa ci posso fare, ormai sono qui”! Precisando che la banchina era di circa 18 metri e non di piu’, tentiamo di nuovo di spiegare che le due barche non possono attraccare insieme senza causare problemi per la navigazione. Di nuovo il signore non vuol sentir raggione.

Since we did not have a choice, we docked anyway but with the bow of our boat protruding into the canal about 15 feet. Again, and for the third time, I tried to show him that our bow, being that far forward, was a liability for any boats trying to get into the canal to their slip…especially on Thanksgiving when boats were out for the day and would be coming back to their slips in the early evening…. especially if some had had a little too much to drink. He didn’t seem to care. That’s when my New York came through….I explained (loudly) that if anyone hit our bow, I would hold him personally liable. Then I began to take pictures of the situation so I could document the position of his boat and mine.

Non avendo scelta, decidiamo di attraccare anche noi sulla banchina davanti al catamarano. Come previsto, la nostra barca di 13 metri sporge pericolosamente di 4/5 metri dentro un canale di navigazione. Costatando il fatto, il proprietario del catamarano si ostina a non prendere azione! A quel punto, la mia tempra forgiata nel Bronx, esce fuori….Con toni al quanto decisi, informo il signore che qualsiasi incidente fosse causato da questa situazione lo avrei ritenuto personalmente responsabile. Correlavo tutta l’animata discussione con successive foto che peronavano la mia causa.

The boats were so close together that their bowsprit and our arch were less than two feet away from each other.

Notate la distanza tra la nostra poppa e la sua prua.

At approximately 5:30/6:00 p.m., a boat rental company was towing one of its boats that apparently had lost power. They came down the canal that was in front of our bow. While under tow with a long line, the boat being towed swung wide and barely missed the anchor on our bow! If Claudio had not been there to yell out of the impending hit, they would have swung right into the bow. The catamaran’s owner saw all this happen and a few minutes later decided he would go out and anchor his boat. The lesson here: nobody believes something can go wrong…. until it does.

Puntualmente alle 17,30/18,00 si presenta la pericolosa occasione dell’incidente! Una barca data in charter viene rimorchiata risalendo quel canale davanti a noi dove la nostra pruasporge per un terzo la larghezza del canale. L’imbarcazione rimorchiata passo’ in maniera veramente pericolosa, a pochi centimetri dalla nostra ancora posizionata a prua. Claudio prevendendo l’imminente disastro, si precipita urlando di fare attenzione a quell’insidia!

A quel punto, il proprietario del catamarano assistendo alla scena decide di staccarsi dalla banchina e andare altrove. La lezione finale e’ che nessuno crede che possa succedere qualcosa di brutto finche’ non accade veramente!

We had our dessert and slept peacefully all night (boy was it hot!).

Piu’ tardi abbiamo gustato il nostro dessert e quella notte abbiamo dormito tranquillamente (ragazzi che caldo!).