ROSE IN A STORM
Hello Edgar. A big storm has hit Porto Carlo Riva. Lots of damage. I don’t know about Rose yet. I will report back in the morning.”
This is the text message I received when I woke up on the morning of October 30, 2018 in my hotel in Sydney. We had just come back from a charter holiday on a sailing catamaran in the gorgeous Whitsunday islands and planned to spend another two weeks touring Australia before returning home.
The message was from Maurillio, an Italian friend who takes care of my Ferretti 530 for me. It’s berthed in Porto Carlo Riva marina in the town of Rapallo, Italy. I didn’t give his words too much thought and carried on with our plans for a day on Bondi beach.
As the day went on, however, my message box exploded with worrisome news and pictures of the catastrophe that had taken place; the coastline around Rapallo had suffered severe damage and Porto Carlo Riva marina had taken a direct hit. The outer wall protecting the pontoons had collapsed under a monster 8m wave, leaving the marina and its 400 boats completely unprotected from the raging seas. On the internet I found video footage and photographs of the disaster unfolding and after a long
