SICILY – 31 OCTOBER 2007

Buongiorno

We arrived in Sicily 4 days ago and are staying in the Portorosa Marina and Resort approximately 11 miles west of Milazzo on the north coast. It obviously is a popular place in the summer with dozens of very nice one storied holiday apartments in the complex scattered around the canals, but is currently very deserted for the winter period! However the upside is that they could accommodate us for the next 3 weeks or so, as there are only two appropriate marinas on this coast which provide sufficient shelter from the winter weather!

Fortunately there is also a Hilton Hotel in the complex which for the first time is staying open for the winter and this is where we go to process our email. There are no wifi systems to tap into from the boat or in fact anywhere within walking distance. The nearest town that provides internet is 11 kms away. There is limited public transport close by so we will be grateful for our motorbikes!!

In the first week since leaving Ischia two weeks ago, this time with our friend Maurie Hill on board, we travelled back to Capri and Positano, Amalfi and then to Salerno. Unfortunately the weather was not kind to us so we couldn’t get off the boat along the Amalfi coast so we missed seeing Amalfi which was a little disappointing. Fortunately we had visited Capri and Positano in our first week in Italy so we were grateful for that.

We headed for Salerno only to get shelter from a low fast on our tail but the two marinas in the harbour couldn’t accommodate us so we ended up anchoring in a little bay outside the harbour for 3 days while the cyclonic low passed over us. Apart from the weather turning rather cold (snow on the mountains close by) and wet, we were quite comfortable and safe on anchor even from the strong gusts that plagued us for a day or so! We watched a few movies during the course of our bunkering down which was fun and relaxing. After a )couple of days we took the dinghy ashore and had lunch in a quiet little town not far from where we anchored – a nice change!

We then left early hours of the morning and headed south to Tropea around 80 miles away. We arrived there the early hours of the following day in calm and warmer weather and tied up to the fuel dock to wait for the marina office to open. Tropea is a very attractive hill top medieval village and well worth a visit. 250 steep steps from base to the piazza. A labyrinth of cart width lanes and alleys. Despite being winter time, there were still plenty of bars and restaurants still open and we thoroughly enjoyed sitting outside soaking up the atmosphere of this place while enjoying a few wines and two excellent restaurant meals!

One of the days our friend Maurie hired a car for the day and we drove to Pizzo (coastal medieval) and then headed inland into the Mountains through a few villages and back to Tropea. It was an enjoyable day seeing a bit of the countryside by car and stopping off for lunch of course!

It was only a further 60 n. miles from Tropea to Portorosa Marina, Sicily which was a very pleasant day trip.

Maurie left us yesterday to tour around Sicily a little before heading back to Australia on Saturday. His last night with us he took us to an excellent restaurant close by and we had a fun time. So now after a full on month of visitors, we are back to just the two of us for a while. However there are a couple of lots of our friends from England whom are planning visits so we will be looking forward to seeing them!!

So our plans are to do a little exploring over the next week or so from where we are by car to Palermo and then head south down the Messina Straits along the coast especially stopping at Taormina and Siracusa and then head the last leg to Malta at the beginning of December where we will be until Spring.

Travelling around a place like Sicily in winter will I am sure have its challenges but nothing we cannot overcome.

Ciao The Jolly Rogers

ISCHIA, BAY OF NAPLES – OCTOBER 2007

Buongiorno,

After 5 days at sea from Mallorca we arrived in Ischia which is an island in the Bay of Naples, on Friday 28 October. Overall we had a reasonably quick passage with the wind in the right direction which we were most grateful for, given that our journey from Gibraltar had been a rather onerous passage with the easterly winds!

We tied up in the Porto of Ischia which is a quaint attractive little port but extremely lively and busy with many ferry services to Napoli and other islands. Most importantly it is very sheltered! Our parking spot is only a hop, skip and a jump to many little restaurants along the waterfront and many shops close by. Our last 24 hours at sea from Sardinia, was to say the least d…. uncomfortable, a combination of wind from behind and on the quarter which was good, as opposed to easterlies, however the wind speed increased substantially which made the boat sway from side to side. At one point, at
cocktail hour of course, Terry had noticed that the starboard davit holding the dinghy was out of alignment. Thankfully with very swift action in difficult conditions, Terry attached the mizzen halyard and two other lines to the sinking davit, the dinghy was saved from falling into the sea, probably taking part of the transom with it!! As you can imagine we were very pleased to sail into the Port of Ischia as we had not managed to get much sleep, with the combination of the conditions and the general traffic of cruise ships as well as fishing boats.

Sister Melva and her husband, Brian, plus friends Errol and Sarah McKenzie all arrived within two to three hours of us arriving in Port so we had to quickly turn our passage boat into a cruising boat. Despite feeling a little on the tired side it wasn’t too long before we were enjoying a few drinks and good company sitting in the cockpit celebrating our arrival in Italy. Whilst we were having a drink we were visited by one of the restaurateurs from along the waterfront, Antonio Fiore, who was looking for a little custom for his restaurant. He was a very polite gentleman and of course we took his card! To our surprise, a little while later, one of his staff appeared with a very nice pizza, with his compliments – excellent marketing we thought! Naturally we went to his restaurant which has superb food. It was a fun and relaxing night and most enjoyable to be with family and friends, who we may add had been waiting days for us to arrive. We had already missed another sister and some other friends!

The next day after a wander around the town, bought a few goodies and then we headed off toward Capri. Unfortunately we couldn’t anchor there because of the wind direction and anchored in a little bay on the Sorrento peninsula.

We woke up to yet, another good day weather wise and we headed down the Amalfi Coast towards Positano with the sounds of Dean Martin’s ‘Amore’ – ‘in Napoli’etc etc!!!! It was Terry’s birthday and the setting couldn’t have been better!!! After a little welcome margarita on our approach to Positano we went ashore for a wander around and little lunch at the top of the town overlooking the bay – just fabulous!

Next morning Melva and Brian disembarked to return to Roma and NZ. For a ‘post birthday celebration’ for Terry; Errol, Sarah, Terry and I went to a hotel called San Pietro just 2 kms south of Positano by water taxi for lunch! Terry and I had been there 10 years ago and we had a photo taken on the same seat looking across the bay of Positano and down on Alpha Crucis – just a magic day and fun to share it with Errol and Sarah!

Later that day we sailed back to Capri and anchored overnight. Again it was a treat to go back there and have a wander around, as we had stayed there on that same trip 10 years
before. It is certainly a way more commercialised now but still has a good feeling. We even went up to the hotel we had stayed at, Punta Tragara, and were able to look down a long way to our lovely Alpha Crucis anchored below. We reminisced that when we were staying there that we would sit on the balcony having a drink at sunset looking down over the bay at the boats anchored below and say ‘wouldn’t it be amazing to bring our boat here’!!!!! And we have!!!!
We dropped Errol and Sarah off the next day back at Ischia – what relaxing fun days we had with both Errol and Sarah and Melva and Brian.

Then we had to prepare for our next lot of visitors, Nicole and the grandchildren’s who were arriving the next day. Early the next morning we caught the Ferry across to Naples and taxi to the airport, very excited, to greet them and take them back to Ischia.

The last 6 days with Nicole and the children we have spend some time at anchor and some days in the Port of Ischia enjoying the environment and the ever lasting fabulous weather. The children or our ‘little people’ have settled in well and Nicole is patiently getting Amy and Daniel’s confidence to swim off the back of boat. Little Sophie (7 months) enjoys her own forward cabin sharing it with the washing machine and freezer. In fact she didn’t sleep very well a couple of nights ago as I had left the freezer off – must light that light humming!!
Nicole’s husband David, arrived yesterday (from seeing the All Backs lose to the French in Wales – very disappointed) and we hope to take them to the Amalfi Coast as well, but will be dependent on weather of course. They will leave us next week and then we have our friend Maurie Hill from Australia joining us on our way South to Scilly.

We also had a couple of visitors yesterday from Melbourne, our friends Peter and Nina Riella. They popped up from Calb, where they have been staying with family for a couple of weeks, and stayed overnight. It was a very long journey for them just to see us, and we were most grateful they made the effort as we had a wonderful evening with them, preceded by drinking some home made wine they brought with them from a member of their Italian family – delicious!!! They speak fluent Italian so Peter was able to help Terry find a machine shop and sort out the damaged davit which required reinforcing and welding. The repaired structure has just been delivered to us here at the dock and it looks good!

So it has certainly been full on with visitors – all good fun!! It is wonderful to be finally in the Mediterranean which in our minds was our final destination, but with lots to see whilst we are here.

Ciao
The Jolly Rogers