There are several sailing schools dotted about the Lago di Como and yesterday and today their pupils got an excellent illustration of the fickleness of this beautiful lake’s winds. When we learned a few years ago, in the summer, we sailed with the morning Tivano, a north-easterly wind, blowing from the Valtellina, and always turned back to port in the early afternoon as the southerly wind, the Breva, got going (considered too violently moody for learners). Yesterday, as I jogged past one of the schools, the yachts and dinghies were rigged and their pupils were ready and waiting to head out into the lake for a morning’s fun with the Tivano. But at nine-fifteen another, much stronger, northerly wind, the Ventone, suddenly blew up. This blows from the Val Chiavenna and is lusty and gusty. The pupils waited to see if it would blow itself out, but it didn’t, and so down came all the sails again. Three or four dinghies ventured out and promptly capsized. By eleven the lake was completely empty. Indeed, the Ventone kept going until about one o’clock this morning and the lake was like the North Sea, with big waves crashing against the coast (picture). This morning, on the other hand, the lake was as calm as a mill pond and there was so little wind that the classes could only get out on the lake towards midday, when the Breva started up. Perhaps experienced sailors know what’s going on but for the rest of us the fickleness of the winds is one of life’s lessons…
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