18. Lazy days and Dodging Hydrofoils

                        18.  Having a lazy day and dodging Hydrofoils

When cruising the Italian west coast and islands nearby, you have to keep a close watch for the passenger hydrofoils which you mainly see in Southern Italy.

The hydrofoils get up on their foils as soon as they leave the harbour and travel at 34.7 knots or 40 mph. They keep on their course no matter what. One can be leaving an island while another one arrives. Fortunately we have AIS which indicates the speed and direction of the ship and gives you a calculation of CPA (Closest Point of Approach) and the TPCA (Time for Closest Point of Approach). For example, the CPA maybe 1 nautical mile and the TPCA maybe 7 minutes so the nearest it will come to you is one mile and this will occur in 7 minutes. Comforting to say the least but these ships can change course so you have to keep a close eye when you see one in the distance. They do not stay long in the distance!!

I wonder what chance these two fishermen would have

                                                           

                                          Lazy day

               Someone asked what do we eat?  Well here is an example of lunch on the 

                boat.