Joy of Sailing: Easy Sailing after a long Pandemic Winter

As Corona Lockdown measures were relieved end of May 2021 and we had our two vaccinations, my brother Andreas and I decided to check on S/Y Sea of Joy and to try a first little cruise in the Northern Adriatic. So we arrived in Marina Stella by car from Austria with no interference or regulatory control on Wednesday, 26th May.

After intensive cleaning the boat internally and externally we checked navigation equipment and started the motor: everything worked fine at the first attempt. Perfectly happy we celebrated at Antica Osteria ai Tubi with large plates of crudi di mare.

Sunday 30th May we left Marina Stella, motored down Fiume Stella into Laguna di Marano at high tide with no problems in shallow Canale Cialisia, passed Faro Rosso in Lignano and sailed with moderate winds to Grado, were we moored in the town harbor. Strolling around the city we saw a lot of happy people enjoying fine spring weather and fresh air. We had an exceptional fish dinner at Ristorante Zeromiglia di Grado which is professionally operated by the Cooperativa Pescatori di Grado.

After buying some fresh sogliole from the cooperative's shop next day we left Grado with nice westerly winds and sailed into the port of Monfalcone, checked Banchina Lamiere for a mooring place in vain and finally anchored in our favorite place Bachino di Panzano west of busy Fincantieri shipyard. We fried slowly our sogliolas, enjoyed some Prosecco and spent a quiet night.

Next morning we motored to Duino with no wind, passed Grignano with famous Castello Miramare and continued to Trieste, where we moored in Marina San Giusto. We had a nice fish snack at the nearby Eataly, took a long walk through the busy city, had a nice aperitivo at Gran Malabar and completed the evening with a tasty classic Triestinian dinner at Trattoria Mara.

On Wednesday 2nd of June we crossed over into Slovenjia, bunkered diesel in Izola and anchored for two relaxing days in Strunjanski Zaliv, where we swam in clear waters and cooked a well-aged Bistecca Fiorentina with some potatoes.

Slight westerly winds took us slowly back to Lignano with no health-checks whatever. We crossed Laguna di Marano three hours before high tide and reached our permanent mooring place at Marina Stella. We spent some more days in the marina with some servicing, visiting exceptional Trattoria Alla Nave in Marano and Al Pescatore in Precenicco, and bought some Prosecco near Treviso at Vini Pavan wine cellars.
We drove back to Austria with no complications and an easy-going corona check after the border (a young soldier just asked us if we were vaccinated and we only had to nod). So up to date we can summarize, that we experienced rarely no Cornona-based constraints in the northern Adria and therefore expect a nice sailing summer.