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
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
posted by Alpha Crucis at 9:18 AM
1 Comments:
Dear Lois and Terry
Just read your updated blog and can see that you have been having a really quiet time - NOT!!! I feel worn out just reading it.
Let me tell you about my exciting day. As I was leaving home this morning to fly to Madrid, I got a call to say the office had been broken into. To cut a long story short, the Bast***ds had generally trashed the place and cut all cables for telephones, computers and internet. John has had a bevy of blokes up there repairing computers, windows, alarms, BT etc and amazingly they were back in action by end of the day. They stole 2 laptops (backups) and a chair from the Boardroom - der?? Police say they got "good forensics": blood where they cut themselves and they left an empty beer can too.
I have spent the day at Heathrow as original flight was delayed due to fog and just as we were ready to board, the crew "timed out" so flight was cancelled. Ever an optimist, I am booked on 17.35 which has been delayed until 19:10! If I can get there some time tonight, I will at least have a full day tomorrow to attend my appointments which will make it all worthwhile.
John's Dad is 93 on Saturday, so have to be back for that!
Needless to say I would rather be on Alpha Crucis in Amalfi Coast than here!!!
Lots of love
Faye
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