Into the Lagoon

Sometimes we dream of doing things, and sometimes, we feel a certain pride in actually accomplishing our dreams. Sailing into the Venezia Lagoon ticked both boxes for me. Over two years ago, I remember reading a blog wherein the author had sailed into the lagoon and anchored just off the small island town of Burano. At the time, I thought this sounded like a great thing to do. Marinas are very expensive in Venice, and the thought that we could just sail into one of the most famous and illustrious tourist locations and anchor there caught my imagination. The idea never went away, so this year, we planned to sail up the whole length of the Adriatic coast and into the Venezia Lagoon, and anchor at Burano.

Our departure point, at Marina Lido di Jesolo.

Burano, from the vantage point of Pavlov's anchorage

Spit, tied up in the inner canal that runs through Burano.

Thats just what we did, and I've been feeling a sense of pride at our achievement. It's really no big deal, but there are very few cruising boats up here, most are local Italian boats. The boats that are here are all in marina's, we've seen no sailing boats anchoring out in the lagoon. For practice, we tried anchoring out in the lagoon behind Lignano Sabbiadoro, which is the southern most port in the Grado  Laguna. This was easy, as there was heaps of room and we could just swing at anchor. We only had to make sure we'd calculated the depths right, as there is about a 1.2 metre tidal range, and we were anchoring in water only a little over 2.5 metres. The only down side was an absolute plague of mosquitos. Their dying bodies stained the teak deck for days! Emboldened, we headed south to the Venezian lagoon, stopping off at Lido di Jesolo on the way. Here the challenge was to learn how to use the front mooring poles instead of lazy lines or anchoring. Megan found this particularly challenging as she had to thread two forward lines through distant rings on the poles, miles apart, simultaneously! while being imprecated by the skipper!

Pavlov, from the canal running across Burano

Burano is famed for its gaily coloured buildings

A couple of swishy Vaporetto's ( Venezian taxi's) on the Burano ferry port

Burano was a bit more difficult. First we had to master anchoring by the bow and stern, as the canals are quite narrow. Our stern anchor is a huge hernia inducing 35 kg Danforth, along with 10m of chain and hefty 24mm rode. We learned how to drop back on our main anchor rode to about double our scope depth, drop the stern anchor and then pull forward on the bower anchor. However, we didn't quite figure on what to do when wind and current were perpendicular, or how to get the rear anchor out when you can't drop back on the main to relieve the strain. Steep learning curve, I'm now determined to buy a light weight Fortress anchor for the stern after poo-pooing Megan's desire for one.... but we did manage. Our best time now is about 30 minutes to weigh the stern anchor, including sweating the chain out with rolling hitched lines to multiple winches! We also had our first storm, and managed to re-anchor the boat just before the thunderstorm gusts hit the boat. The gusts had dragged our vessel into perilously shallow water, so we had to find a deeper hole, which unfortunately was more central in the channel. We were worried about being run over the whole night!

Burano mask shop

The leaning church tower

Another canal photo

However, we prevailed, and can now number stern anchoring and pile mooring among our accomplishments. Megan, as chief crew is feeling particularly proud. We spent two days pottering around Burano, and caught the ferry into Venice for our first foray.

Ferry ride to Venice

Building ruins, just metres from the edge of the navigable canal.

Ferry dock at Murano, a few stops before Venice

Walled villa enroute to Venice

Our first view of a canal entrance.

We made the mistake of thinking we could walk around Venice. Then we noticed that every second person was staring perplexedly at a map. There are no straight lines in Venice, streets and lanes twist and turn without rhythm or reason. I just love cities that have no motorised transport, but Venice is not really designed for pedestrian traffic either. We learned that, and bought a multi-day ferry pass which is the bee's knees in Venice. But on our first day, we slogged from Saint Marco to Rialto and back to the ferry, totally exhausting ourselves.

Mummified monk in a crypt in the church

Italian masters everywhere

A screen printing workshop

Venetian vegetable stand

Elaborate masks

A parked gondolier.

Its hard to describe Venice, it's totally unique. It is 145 small mud islands stitched together by canals and small bridges. Its impossibly beautiful buildings are perched on wooden piles driven into the mud that are slowly subsiding into the sea. It has had untold wealth poured into it by the hugely successful Venetian kingdom which dominated this end of the planet after the fall of the Byzantine empire. It is whimsy, fantasy and light held together by singing gondoliers who perform their balletic magic for millions of tourists each year. Venice has a throb similar to that produced by an overdose of Viagra, with nowhere to expend its energy. It is full to bursting with tourists that made me want to develop agoraphobia, so I could justify running screaming from them all. It is full of art and culture and beauty, with some of the most gorgeous architecture I've ever seen. We've been marvelling at Venetian architecture ever since I fell in love with a Venetian lighthouse on Methoni in the Peleponnese. We've seen so many forts and outposts in our coastal wandering through Greece, Albania, Montenegro and Croatia, and now we are here at the source. Everything has style, the Venetian boats are so unique... long and narrow and impossibly powerful. If my description of Venice seems to be going in a zillion different directions, then I've managed to describe how I feel.

Not your average front door

A gaggle of gondoliers

The Doge's Palace

The square at Santo Marco

Same square, other side

After exhausting ourselves, we caught the ferry home and paddled through ferocious chop back to our little anchorage. After a rest day spent gently wandering around Burano, we headed to Murano, another small island only 2 nm from Venice. Here we anchored out again. The traffic in the canals is tremendous and highly varied. At times, Pavlov has been surrounded by 2 man rowing gondoliers, old time lanteen-rigged sailing skiffs, kayakers, incredibly fast vaporettos, ferries of every description, garbage barges and just about any contraption capable of floating in the shallow depths. We feel blessed with Pavlov's shallow 1.6 m draft.

It's raining

A museum of the treasures looted by Napoleon

The Venetian Lion

Statuary

An ordinary ceiling in Venice

Magical whimsy and fantasy

We were fascinated watching the gondoliers. They are organised into Mafia like packs, with pit bosses controlling the flow. Tourists pay about 80 Euro for a 30 minute tour, so they are earning good money. Your gondolier rower can sing for you, but you have to pay him extra. With a flick of a single oar, or a cunningly placed foot shoving off a building, they guide these precarious tippy craft through exceedingly narrow canals filled with an astonishing assortment of marine traffic. It brought to mind the rickshaws operating in perilous traffic in Calcutta.

Boarding passengers

Two abreast

Lining up

Negotiating the Grand Canal

The Grand Canal

Rialto Bridge under repair

We plan to relocate to a marina just off Venice, the Marina Veneto Venezia. Anchoring out in the Laguna has been an experience, and allowed us to see Murano and Burano up close. But its hard work and we want to be a bit closer. So our next report should be from the lap of luxury! An Italian marina. Ciao for now.