Trapani, Sicily, cancelled due to bad weather

Well our departure from Castellamare di Stabia (castle in the water in Stabia) which I discovered today was the home town of Al Capone, was eventful as nature took a sudden turn for the worst, as the Captain said ''It is November and you can expect this type of storms''. High winds and 4 meter waves (14 feet) with swells and rain makes for interesting navigation.

We sped out of port and right into the storm, the Captain put out the stabilizers which come as standard equipment on modern ships to mitigate the movement at sea. Nonetheless there is a gentle rocking and shaking, I slept through most of it. By 10 am we were approaching Trapani Port entrance in frightful weather, downpour, high winds and huge waves under dark skies.

Trapani afternoon stop in Port is cancelled due to bad weather, the Captain is quite concerned, we cannot enter port, a tanker ship in front of us is blocking the way unable to make it into Port. The weather in the next 8 hours is going to get much worse, expecting 10 meter waves (30 feet) and so the Captain has decided to make time by speeding along to Barcelona, where we can expect better weather. The Casino is open and so are the bars, so we are going to drink and sing shanties like the sailors on the good ship Pinafore.

Trapani has to be seen in good weather, lovely town but not in the rain.

We are now crossing in a loop to the North and then East of Spain trying to avoid the worst of the storm coming our way. We have been told not to go on the decks because the winds are very strong at 45 Km per hour and easily can cause injury by falling on wet deck surfaces. It is sunny now with a few clouds and 20 C. We have to occupy ourselvers with reading and other activities.

This evening Tuesday 5 November we are passing south of Sardegna and will continue North all night and day tomorrow towards Barcelona. We have picked up speed and it is very choppy, quite a few people suffer from motion sickness. The bad weather should end by 3pm tomorrow Wednesday 6 November.

Port entrance to Trapani, we are not getting any closer and turning around. 

The sea and high waves, impressive