THE ITALIAN JOB

Regular readers may recall that last year we wrote about the voyage from our home berth in Germany to Portugal and along the Spanish coast to the Balearics, France and Corsica. This year we are continuing our travels from Menton, France to Italy before heading south along the Ligurian coast to Sicily and beyond. Although we are only writing about this now, the voyage actually took place in 2019, long before any of us had even heard of the dreaded COVID-19.

Fourteen days before our scheduled departure, Azura is craned into the water in Menton. At best, 85% of the action points from last winter have been completed by the shipyard. Now the final spurt begins and bets are laid as to how many jobs will remain unfinished before we set sail. As we fire up the engines for departure, one of the shipyard workers is still frantically polishing away the last rust stains from the gel coat, while the manager himself is busy unscrewing the wrongly installed eyelets on the covers. But as soon as we are at sea, any lingering irritations are left in our wake as we settle into the happy rhythm of being back on the water once more. Our first day of cruising takes us across the border to Imperia, Italy. With a gentle breeze from astern and a cloudless blue sky overhead, the journey is pure bliss. We use the time to polish up our own