Gaspardo leaned into the wind, perched on the bow of the Carroccia as it sailed south from Genoa and toward the Strait of Messina. It had already been a long day, and night had fallen, but with the improved rigging of this vessel, he knew that tacking from west to east and back again would be easy. In the months since he had been given command of this ship, he had come to admire her agility and speed. He knew that they would reach the north-eastern corner of Sicily by dawn.
Carroccia Alamanno da Costa walked up from behind and passed by the captain, stepping up to the bowsprit of the boat. He leaned into the wind as Gaspardo did, as the counter-clockwise spin of the wind pulled across the sails. His ship tacked back and forth, zig-zagging through the waters south of Genoa, cutting across
