Around the world with twenty kilos of parmesan cheese. “This is our retirement.”

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Happy Easter sailors! This year we want to wish you a simple way, with a good sailing story. Because when the health emergency is over, it will be even better to go out on your boat! And maybe finally embark on an adventure you have always dreamed of. Like Vittorio and Silvano’s, which we told you about in the Sailing Newspaper a few years ago.

AROUND THE WORLD WITH 20 KILOS OF PARMESAN CHEESE

Twenty kilos of vacuum-packed Parmesan cheese, fifteen liters of balsamic vinegar from Modena (“I make it myself, let me be clear. In keeping with tradition”), tortellini galore, 250 bottles of wine. It looks like the shopping list of an Emilian trattoria.

Instead, it was part of the galley of the Amel Super Maramu Festina Lente, with which the Modenese Vittorio Setti (the vinegar is thanks to him) and Silvano Sighinolfi set sail on a two-year circumnavigation of the world from 2013 to 2015, which now 70-year-old Vittorio (Silvano is two years younger) has recounted in the book “My round-the-world sailing at 68 years old-it can be done!“.

Vittorio Setti, left, and Silvano Sighinolfi at the ARC awards ceremony.

The two have known each other since they were teenagers: “We were classmates in high school, both attending Industrial Technical Institute,” says Vittorio. An important specialization, which not only helped them in their work (Setti heads the oldest hardware store in Modena), but also proved crucial in their adventure: “On board we know how to put our hands everywhere“, Silvano explains, “nine out of ten jobs were done by us. I am more cut out for electronics, Vittorio understands better about engines and of course DIY.”

Two very old friends with complementary skills, united by a passion for sailing and with a desire to explore the world typical of kids-these are the key ingredients that enabled both of them to realize a common dream.

Vittorio has some to tell about his past: “In my youth I practiced swimming, model airplane, and flying. At the age of eleven I took my first steps on an old wooden ‘passera,’ a dinghy that the legendary Ferrari driver Dorino Serafini, a native of Pesaro and a friend of my father’s, used to go fishing. Around the age of 20 in Lignano Sabbiadoro I participated in two sailing courses, on Flying Junior and similar dinghies: they were old-fashioned lessons, the board was the sand on the beach! The next year I was already an assistant instructor.” The seed of sailing was planted: “So many things I have done! But, I would like to point out, I also worked a lot.”

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Silvano with a nice dolphinfish in the Atlantic

Next, Setti enters the world of bulb boats., he will be the owner of several boats but it is only one that bewitches him, a Sparkman & Stephens Swan 38 that he has jealously guarded throughout his racing career (40 years between the buoys with his brother) and has now passed on to his son. Meanwhile, Vittorio explores the Mediterranean far and wide and, in part, tires of it: “No more vacations to Corsica, Sardinia, Croatia and Greece. I wanted to put my nose beyond the Pillars of Hercules.”

That’s where lifelong friend Silvano, now retired after many years in the advertising world, comes in. Sighinolfi has been passionate about the sea since a young age; in addition to sailing in Milano Marittima, he became interested in scuba diving. In 2000 he became the owner of a Dufour 38 and set off to cruise the Croatian coast and Greece, and in 2007 he had his first ocean experience by taking part in the ARC (annual transatlantic race from the Canary Islands to Saint Lucia in the Caribbean) aboard a British boat, and he too realized how much the Mediterranean ‘clutches’ him.

Once he sold his business, he asked Vittorio to share the adventure of adventures. Around the world sailing, in two, slowly. So much for the life of pensioners in slippers! Setti thinks about it and in no time comes the yes. Their respective families will have to get over it: the two over-60s are adamant.

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The 42,000-mile tour completed by Festina Lente.

The idea is to take part in the ARC, reach the Caribbean and from there begin the round-the-world journey proper, from east to west, enrolling in the World ARC (very few Italians decide to embark on this splendid ‘flotilla’ circumnavigation of the globe, roughly a year and a half long).

Festina Lente, Amel Super Maramu of 2003

Okay, but what boat? “After some resistance from Vittorio, who was leaning toward a Hallberg Rassy-style boat,” says Silvano, “I managed to convince him to buy a 2003 Super Maramu. In my opinion it was the right boat for two ‘old men around the world’ like us.” “Aesthetically it’s not the best,” Vittorio points out, “but it’s safe and for two non-first-time sailors intent on shooting 40,000 miles of sailing, it’s perfect. In fact, now that I’ve tested it I can say it: it’s the only choice!”

The two pick up the boat in Gallipoli., they renamed it ‘Festina Lente’ (Latin for ‘hasten slowly’: a motto attributed to the Emperor Augustus by the Latin writer Suetonius: “Without delay but with caution,” explains Sighinolfi, “just like the way we sail) and brought it to La Spezia for preparation work.

Festina Lente is an Amel Super Maramu: 16 meters long, it is 4.60 wide with a draft of 2.05.
A boat renowned for its comfort and safety, at the mainstays it has its patented system of thrusters and tangons that allow a double genoa (or a genoa and “ballooner”) to be hoisted, both of which can be rolled onto the forestay. An ideal solution for round-the-world sailings, which, statistically, are mostly accomplished at the carriers.

“It took more than a year to set it up in the best possible way,” Silvano recounts. Gps, plotter, new navigation electronics. We then installed a furling foresail, dual autopilot and radar, AIS and SSB radio with Pactor modem.” Thanks to the help of two friends from La Spezia, Fabrizio and Pier, who maniacally take care of the preparation, the award-winning Setti-Sighinolfi firm is ready for the adventure and casts off its moorings from La Spezia on August 11, 2013.

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The two, despite being an already ‘broken-in’ couple, are beginning to get acquainted with life on the boat
and its rules, watchkeeping, and meals. A stop in the Balearic Islands, then Gibraltar, Madeira and the Canary Islands. From here the two, in the company of doctor friend Mario Bianchi, cross the starting line of the ARC.

“We did well,” says Vittorio, “the Super Maramu, with its double tangon system, is a boat that holds the course perfectly and is able to sail great at portals and even flush stern. Where other boats on paper that were better performers had to heel to create the apparent wind, we were able to stay lower and gain on VMG. We finished fourth, after 19 days and two hours. Upon arrival, on almost every boat we saw oilskins spread out to dry in the sun. We never wore oilskins, even with waves sweeping the deck and entering the cockpit. Credit to the watertight awning we had installed and a boat that was turning out really well.”

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Vittorio and Silvano sailing with the “carbonera,” central spi ideal for ketch-rigged boats

Once in the Caribbean, in Saint Lucia, the real business begins: Vittorio and Silvano took part in the World ARC, in January 2014, after a Christmas spent between St. Lucia, Bequia and Tobago Cay: “We were the only crew, of the 38 registered, to be composed of two people, including 68 and 66 years old,” Sighinolfi recalls.

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The first leg brings Festina Lente to the San Blas Islands.
(“You’re still in the Atlantic but you feel like you’re in the Pacific. Magnificent”), then it’s on to the Panama Strait.By the way, how does the crossing take place? “a local advisor came on board,” Silvano further explains, “who stayed on board the whole way to check that the operations were running smoothly. ‘Packages’ of three boats were formed, we were alongside NDS Darwin, a large catamaran of Argentine friends: you advance through the channel inside the locks and as the water rises, by means of lines stopped ashore you try to keep the package in the middle of the channel.

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The crossing of Panama

We spent the night at the buoy in Gatun Lake. and in the morning at dawn we set out again to cross the lake and after about thirty miles, among canals amid lush vegetation, we arrived at the Miraflores Locks and from there after passing under the famous, old bridge of the Americas, we flowed into the second ocean.”

In front of Panama City, the two stock up for the crossing to the Galapagos, where “time seemed to stand still. We met sea lions, penguins, turtles, we even swam with sharks!” After this paradise, Vittorio and Silvano set course for the Marquesas Islands on a non-stop 3,000-mile crossing. After 17 days of sailing (about 180 miles a day, thanks to a steady 20-knot slack wind) they arrive at Hiva Oa.

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A young sea lion specimen rests on Festina Lente in the Galapagos

“We understood why artists like Gauguin and Jacques Brel decided to spend a good part of their lives there.”, says Vittorio, “they are islands still far from mass tourism and contain incomparable natural beauty. It would take years to visit the entire archipelago. The people are fantastic: every time we went ashore someone would pop up and offer us fruit of all kinds, coconuts, mangoes, papayas, bananas.”

In the following months Festina Lente sailed to discover Bora Bora, Tuamotu, Fiji, Tahiti. “We were particularly impressed by the wild atoll of Suwarrow, the northernmost island of the Kooks archipelago: the island is deserted but a certain Tom Neale lived there for five years like a modern-day Robinson Crusoe,” Sighinolfi recalls. “Another incredible place is Tanna, in the Vanuatu archipelago, where the hospitality and generosity of the people is off the charts.

worldThen it is the turn of the Australian coast and the Great Barrier. In Mackay Festina Lente is searched by Australian police for drugs, weapons, seeds, vegetables, and anything else deemed dangerous to biodiversity: “They seized two frozen Modenese salami from us!” From Darwin the two sail to Bali, then the Cocos Islands (“marvelous Cocos Keeling, with its multicolored waters), Mauritius, Reunion and Richards Bay, South Africa: “The toughest leg by far is from Reunion to Durban, because of the changing and sudden wind and sea conditions and the strong currents that change direction without precise rules.”


In January 2015, after having had time to fall in love with South Africa, Vittorio and Silvano left again for St. Helena
, then landed in Salvador De Bahia right during carnival. To “rest” after the Brazilian holidays, the two find peace on the pristine island of Fernando De Noronha. Then off to Fortaleza and the last leg towards Grenada and Saint Lucia, where they close the World ARC on April 3, 2015.

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Arrival in spice

But it didn’t end there: after Easter in Bequia, route to the Bahamas, then the Bemudas to the Azores: “A challenging crossing, with winds of 30 to 45 knots. God bless the waterproof awning!“, recounts Vittorio. From Gibraltar, the two returned to La Spezia, where they entered port on July 11, 2015, after one year and eleven months at sea, 42,000 miles at sea, three oceans and 23 flags of respect changed.

“We never slaughtered each other on board, apart from a few physiological ‘flips’. We were friends, now we are even more friends. In addition, Silvano is a great chef: we had only three sandwiches in two years, even with sea force 7 he was at the stove. His noodles with meat sauce are the best of psychotropic drugs, in the boat you just can’t get mad at him,” Vittorio concludes. Who, at the age of 70, has let us know that he now has the yearning for the Mediterranean back.

Instead, Silvano plans to embark on a world tour again, “this time, however, without being tied to an event such as the World ARC, which we have taken advantage of to work out all the bureaucratic ‘wrinkles’ but which, in fact, takes place on a time constraint.” But Vittorio laughingly ‘guffaws’ at him, “Silvano, what if you leave alone and then they can’t find you? I don’t want to risk losing a friend!”

Eugene Ruocco

 

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