An update:

We have been in Cagliari, a large port on the south coast of Sardinia, for the past three days. We sailed here from the rugged, somewhat isolated Gulf of Teulada, 30 nautical miles to the west, to replenish our provisions, refuel, and service our quarter-century-old diesel engine, which worked (too) hard to push us through wide patches of windless sea during the 330-nautical-mile passage from Ibiza.

Despite a restful few days at anchor off the tiny port of Teulada, we were all tired, hungry for fresh food (there’s no fridge or freezer aboard Wrack), and impatient to get somewhere, as I wrote last time, where I might get some specialist medical care. As we sailed towards Cagliari, we decided not to head southwards to Sicily, as planned, but rather sail to Ostia, on the Italian mainland, a couple of hundred nautical miles north-nor’east, and spend a few weeks ashore in Rome.

Despite the purposefulness of our voyage east across the Western Mediterranean, our confidence and resilience are waning. The issues confronting us (old age, declining health, poverty, increasing regulation and monitoring of free passage and migration, and the inevitable, costly wear and tear on our floating home) are becoming more complex and difficult to resolve, our options fewer. In comparison, the uncertainty and risk of seafaring are nothing.

Now we are waiting for a window of three or four days of benign weather to sail into the Thyrrenian Sea. Our son, Finn, who has sailed with us for the past seven weeks, will not be with us. He is co-producing a series of events related to Paris Fashion Week and will fly there from Cagliari.

Reaching the Italian mainland will be a significant achievement for Given and me: 1070+ nautical miles from Tangier, Morocco, from where our Mediterranean voyage began, a year ago, 880 of those in the last two months. Our profound hope is that, after three years as sea-dwellers, we are getting closer to an end, to settlement ashore, to a different life.

Thank you all for helping us get this far.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/a-voyage-in-search-of-home