Italian Coast | fram's voyages

Italian Coast including Corsica and Elba

Log 10 August 2010

N 42 33.498 E 08 47.788

Calvi, Corsica

We arrived here on 9 August at 06.30 after a very quick crossing from St Tropez. We sailed 110 NM in 18 hours. The weather forecast for the next 24 hours said southwesterly winds, Beaufort 2-3 with gusts up to Beaufort 4-5, decreasing during the night to variable Beaufort 1-2. Sunny skies and about 30C. Leaving St Tropez Golf was a chore as all the boats were going out to the various beaches for the day, so the water was churned up properly. Huge motor cruisers, an old steamship with a gigantic English flag flying from the stern, 100 ft long schooners, ketches and even a 3 masted ship moved majestically through the golf. The motor cruisers have the most gruesome wake you ever saw. We would have to manouver the boat to take them almost head on to avoid sickening rolling and tossing. They always seem to steer too close to us and I might suspect them of sadism in watching how we are bounced around by their wake, except for the fact that they never look back to see the havoc they wreak. They seem to be completely oblivious, just standing there with that macho stance at the wheel feeling on top of the world with all the power of 2 giant engines racing under their feet.

We had to motor out of the golf as the wind was right on our nose from the East, but as soon as we got out of the golf and turned SE, the wind went over to SW and remained there for the crossing. At first the wind was about Beaufort 3, but as the afternoon wore on, it increased to Beaufort 4-5. This was all right with us as we were happy to be scudding along at such a good speed, 7 knots. But as it was on our starboard bow quarter, we leaned a good deal and this made it difficult to move about the boat. Figuring that the wind would die towards evening(as it always does on the coast) and wanting to cover as many miles as possible before it did, we decided to wait with dinner until it calmed down. But by 20.00 the wind was increasing rather than decreasing in strength so we reefed the mainsail, which cuts down our speed a bit but also makes the boat much easier to handle. Also brought up our life jackets, harnesses and foul weather jackets and overalls as it was getting chilly. I had already made dinner in the morning so just had to go down and heat it up. Just. It was no mean feat I can tell you. The boat, even though reefed, was heeled over 25 degrees and being knocked every now and again by big waves that were 2-3 meters high. So in order to keep my balance I had to wedge myself against the stairs with one foot up against the sofa and one arm holding the guard rail over the stove. The stove was on gimbels but the pot still slid off when a wave came so Dan scrounged around in the lockers and found the metal brackets that keep pots and pans in place on the stove. I had no idea that we had these on board so was pleasantly surprised:) Sailor Dan always pulls through with a solution to everything, even for the galley. I went back down and could now warm our dinner without it spilling out all over the floor. Once warmed, I put it, (chicken and rice) in bowls to make it easier to eat. This worked out fine but of course was not exactly the most pleasant dinner experience. At least we didn't have to steer as Nelson was working fantastically keeping us on our wind course. We adjusted him every now and again when there were slight wind changes but all in all, he was wonderful. We could sit under the sprayhood and didn't have to suffer all the splashes of salt water that come up when a wave hits us in a certain way. We both feel that Nelson, the wind pilot is the best investment we have made for Roam.

Soon after dinner the sun set and the stars started coming out. It took almost exactly 45 minutes from the moment the sun dipped below the horizon until total darkness at 21.35. By 22.00 we had the most amazing skies above us. Never have we seen so many stars and the Milky Way was clear as can be. We laid on either side of the cockpit holding on to each our side and hooked our harnesses to the cockpit rings (just in case), looking up at the stars and pointing every time we saw a shooting star. And there were many of them. I think we stopped counting after 17. It was truly spectacular. One other good thing about the darkness was that we couldn't see the waves getting bigger and bigger. Most of them were a good 3 meters high now and they look quite frightening as they loom up before us with alarming speed and knock our bow or stern sending us off course. But Nelson soon had us back on track.

We decided early in the day that we would both stay awake together for the dark hours as that's when it's most difficult to stand watch. This worked out fine, neither one of us was particularly tired. Dan worked a bit with the electronic charts on the computer for our approach in to Corsica and I kept an eye on our course and adjusted Nelson when necessary, otherwise I watched the stars. There was only one boat within sight and it was a sailboat that looked to be going to same way but was miles ahead of us. Otherwise, no traffic at all. The wind was now Beaufort 7 and still increasing so we put another reef in the main and reefed the jib as well. But our speed was still too high at 6.8 knots. We needed to slow down to avoid landfall in the dark. At our present speed, we would reach Corsica at 04.30 in the morning, when it is still dark. We couldn't reef the main any further, but we could reef the jib more, which we did; now it was barely the size of handkerchief but we were only able to get our speed down to 5.8 knots. Seemed ridiculous but there was nothing more we could do. After 70 NM we sited the lighthouse at Calvi. When I say, Sited, I mean that we saw its light blinking. Soon we started seeing other boats, but not many. A sailboat passed us as we neared the Corsican coast but it was motoring with no sails up. A couple cruise ships passed before or behind us and at the end a couple more sailboats appeared from the west and from the northeast and followed us in to Calvi harbor. We watched as the dawn approached wishing it would come just a bit faster, and just as we rounded the tiny citadel of Calvi and entered the wide bay, it became light enough to make out landmarks and other boats at anchor. We opted for an anchorage where we could just drop our anchor and go to sleep without being bothered by the noises and activities of a marina waking up. Went to bed exhausted but happy to have this crossing behind us and slept 5 hours. We woke up to a beautiful sunny day in a gorgeous bay. The water was turquoise and clear as can be with a smooth sandy bottom. There was a 4 km long sandy beach just a few hundred meters away, backed by a ridge of mountains with clouds flitting over the peaks, and the village of Calvi at the end of the beach with its citadel perched up on the rocks protecting it from marauders from the sea. It all looked very charming. We ate a huge brunch of omelets toast and coffee and then spent the day swimming, snorkeling and dozing.

This morning we felt well rested and ready to discover the village of Calvi. We blew up the dinghy ( which is a little inflatable rowboat with plastic paddles more suited to a swimming pool than the Mediterranean Sea) and rowed in to shore, then walked the 2 km along the beach to the village. The beach was lovely sand, though not quite as white as Falsterbo sand. There were lots of people swimming, windsurfing, playing beach games and sunning. It took us about 20 minutes to reach the village which was abuzz with all kinds of activities, boats coming and going from the marina, restaurants and cafés in full swing for the lunch crowd and tourists everywhere. We stopped by the harbor office and picked up a weather report then climbed up to the citadel. The view from up there was breath-taking. To the west and north we could see the sailboats coming and going, to the south and east side we could see the bay stretched out before us with all the boats at anchor. The French Foreign Legion uses the citadel for a training base for their 2nd Corp, and during our stay in Calvi we saw them either jumping out of a big black airplane and parachuting down to their landing place behind the airport, or running and swimming along the beach. It was here at Calvi that Admiral Nelson fought the French by besieging the citadel. He won the siege but lost his eye when rock splinters caused by French bombs hit him. We went to one of the waterfront restaurants to sample Corsican food which was a platter of Corsican cured hams, sausages, and salad served with bread. Rod Heikell's pilot book for Corsica says Corsican charcouterie is not worth spending money on as is tasteless and too fatty. But they must have changed the recipe since he wrote his book because we thought it was really good. We went onto the back streets of the town and found a gourmet store specialising in Corsican food and bought some sausage, prosciutto, cantaloupe melon, olives and bread before walking back to the dinghy. Went swimming and spent the rest of the afternoon reading up on our next ports of call. We will sail along the north coast of Corsica tomorrow, and then make our way to the northeast coast before hopping over to Elbe. Weather is lovely as usual, had a slight breeze today but is still about 28-30C.

Calvi is a truly wonderful place for a vacation. It has everything you could want with a super climate, at least during the summer. Lots of activities to choose from if you feel like it, nice hotels and good restaurants. This is a place we would like to come back to one day.

Log 13 August 2010

N 42 48.415 E 10 19.090

Portoferraio, Elba

We left Calvi on Wednesday morning and headed northeast up and over Cape Corse, which is supposed to be quite threatening in bad weather but as it was a nice day with light winds, we had a very nice sail doing about 4 knots. Everyone we've talked to about the Med complains that there's either no wind or too much wind, but we can't agree so far. All our sails have been in relatively nice winds, except of course for our crossing from the French coast. But that was all right too. We anchored in a small bay for the night (N 42 48.251 E 10 21.544).

The next morning we sailed to Elba's Capital city Portoferraio. Thunder clouds were threatening but the day was warm and sunny. When we closed in on Elba's northwestern coast, we saw a dolphin surface right in front of the boat. We watched for more and sure enough within minutes several more dolphins came up and broke the surface. In the end there were about 12 of them swimming around in a circle behind our boat. It was really lovely to see. They are much bigger than the dolphins we occasionally see in Scandinavia. We had no wind until around 14.00 in the afternoon when a fresh wind from S came up and we could sail the last 3 hours to an anchorage outside Portferraio. Elba is very mountainous like Corsica, but much greener. There are 3 ports here, but all were full as this is high season here and Friday to boot. As long as we can get in to town with our dinghy, we are happy to be at anchor. It's much more private and one can swim during the day which is nice.

Dan and I took the dinghy in this morning as we had next to no fresh food left onboard. We had our first exposure to Italian food and on our empty stomachs, everything looked fabulous. We bought focaccio, straight from the oven, Prosciutto, pecorino cheese, fontina cheese, fresh ravioli with ricotta cheese and spinach and some red wine. We could barely carry it all back to the dinghy and then getting it and ourselves into our tiny dinghy was a bit of a struggle. We had to put the food down on the floor of the dinghy and sit on the sides balancing precariously as we paddled back to the boat. We made it safely though and once on the boat, we unpacked and had a lunch to die for! Everything was incredibly tasty and we washed it down with a nice cold rosé wine. As a result, we were incapable of doing anything for the next few hours. As we were lounging in the cockpit, Dan spied my new basil plant and raised his eyebrows. When we made the crossing over from France, we got a big wave that crashed down into the cockpit and soaked my herb garden which was lodged just under the tiller on the floor of the cockpit, with salt water. I rinsed them all with fresh water as soon as I could but the Asian Basil plant took a beating and wilted completely. "I thought we decided to get rid of your herb garden?" To which I replied "I think not...."

Around 16.00 we perked up and decided to go in to town again and this time see some sights and go to the marina and see about reserving a berth for tomorrow. We rowed ashore and walked to the tourist office where we were given maps of the town and of the whole island with some ideas of what to see and where to go. We thanked the woman profusely and then walked out of there and tucked the maps and info into my backpack and headed off for the old town. This is something we incessantly do when we set out to see a place. We are great at getting all the pertinent information and maps but then put them away and proceed to get thoroughly lost and wonder why. The old town is a labyrinth of narrow streets with stone stairs connecting them. At first we were hesitant to take the stairs because they looked like they went right into private properties, which indeed some did, but there was always a path going through and putting you out onto the street. We were looking for Napoleon's palace that he lived in while he was on Elba. It's called Villa Mulina. After getting lost twice and asking directions once, we finally found it and went in to see it. It's completely open to the public and has been fixed up to look just like it did when he was there. It was very beautiful and harmonious with interior colors of pale pink and light green and yellow. It's on a bluff between the two forts, Stella and Medicea, and the back windows and garden look out over the sea towards the Italian mainland. Both Dan and I wondered why he ever left this place.

Napoleon's house on Elba The view from his balcony

From Villa Mulini we walked down many steps past ochra, yellow and pink houses packed tightly together on the steep hill of the town to the port where we found the harbor master's office. We went in and said we would like to reserve a berth for tomorrow night. She looked at us and said, "Fine, how longa you boat?" "9 meters". She looked at us with a very condescending smirk and said "we only reserva de berth for boats 25 meters and longer". Our only chance of getting a berth was to come into the marina with the boat at about 10.30 each morning which is when most boats who are leaving, have left and then we might get a spot, but she was not encouraging. We thanked her and asked for a weather report which she gave us. As we walked out, we saw some papers on a stand by the door. One was a tariff page for staying at the marina. We took it just to have a look. Dan was certain we wouldn't have to pay more than the normal 15-25 Euros for our size. But to our surprise, our size boat would cost 60 Euros for one night. We looked at each other very sheepishly and thought, Whew, glad we didn't get a berth! A 50-plus meter boat would cost 500 Euros for one night. On yet another paper we picked up at the marina, we could see on a chart of the whole harbor, that we are anchored in a forbidden zone, along with about 500 other boats. Go figure, guess that's Italy for you....

We walked along the waterfront back to the dinghy and rowed back to Roam just as the sun was setting behind the mountains. I made our first Italian dinner of Fettucine in a creamy white wine sauce with grated parmasan, baby zucchini and pork tenderloin (see recipe page) and a bottle of Chianti. I think we need to spend alot of time here in Italy...

Dan has devised a new awning over our cockpit so we are protected from the sun. This one looks really nice. It's about 3m by 2m and goes over the boom and out along our spinnaker boom which Dan has attached to the boom, then ties to the guardrail on the sides. We get plenty of shade and it doesn't cut out the breeze like the last one.

Tomorrow the weather forecast predicts thunderstorms and rain all day so have a cozy day onboard Roam to look forward to. I have neglected alot of my tidying duties because it's been so hot out and so much nicer to be topsides rather than down in the boat. So cleaning the inside of the boat is on my agenda for tomorrow. Dan is going to work on a high-beam flashlight that we bought in Langres, France, but which has never worked.

14 August 2010

N 42 48.415 E 10 19.090

Portoferraio anchorage

Same position as yesterday. The predicted thunderstorm arrived with gusto this morning. Torrents of rain came in gusts of wind up to 30 knots. Lightening and deafening thunder crashed all around us. Dan and I were cozy down inside Roam, watching the storm from our portholes. When it got particularly windy Dan put the motor on, just in case our anchorage should slip and we have to make a fast getaway. In between downpours he went out and let out some more chain to make us safer. In the middle of it all, a sailboat came and dropped its anchor right behind our stern. He glided right into the boat behind us and the crew had to fend off. All of the rest of us sailboats started prairie-dogging to see the excitement. So easily we are entertained.

17 August 2010

N 42 48.426 E 10 44.117

Marina di Punta Ala, Italy

We looked at our chart last night to see where we would sail to next. We found a harbor called Marina di Punta Ala which looked nice and was 24 NM to the east on the mainland.
The skies were clear except over the mainland where big thunder heads had developed and were moving down the coast. When we came out of the bay at Elba, there was almost no wind but big swells, can't think where they came from but they were extremely uncomfortable. Our course took us parallel to them which is awful because you rock and roll so much, so we changed our course to go more head on with them until we got far enough away from the coast of Elba and into the wind where we could set our sails and immediately got a better ride. The wind picked up steadily to about Beaufort 4 from SE. We were traveling directly E so were on a tight haul . About 2 hours out, I happened to look behind us and my eye was caught by a strange cloud formation. It took me just about 2 seconds to realise that it was a water spout and it was big and moving in the same direction as us but closer to land than we were. We watched it until it dissipated which was about half an hour. It was very impressive and you could see air being whirled about at the base of it near water. Kind of scary so glad when it disappeared. We made it to Punta Ala in 5 hours and had a really good sail once the swells diminished. The pilot book by Rod Heikell says that this harbor has internet so we were looking forward to getting our website straightened out and doing some banking. But when I went up to the harbor office to register,they said they have no internet and after a walk around the waterfront, found out that not one single cafe had wifi either. Bummer. It's a pretty place though with 4 km of sandy beach backed by those lovely pine trees that are like open umbrellas. I think they're the ones we get pine nuts from. We were moored right next to an Italian motorboat with the nicest people on board. A couple with 2 Rodesian Ridgeback dogs and their friend Monica. We chatted with them and while I was out shopping in the morning Monica trated Dan to a cup of real Italian coffee. They also helped us with weather reports for the next few days which was hugely appreciated as we have a hard time understanding the radio reports around here. We asked them about prepaid internet connections and they were very kind and called their provider to ask if it's possible, but in Italy you have to have an Italian address in order to get internet access. They said they would give their name for us, but there was no shop that sold internet subscriptions in Punta Ala, so that idea died. But we appreciated that they went to so much trouble on our behalf. Dan and I went for a run in the early evening when it got a bit cooler. We were able to run behind the beach on a wide path that leads off to all the beach places. It was all very well kept and there was one or 2 hotels in the trees near the beach. Otherwise looked like mainly condos there. When we got back to the boat, we found that the wind had completely changed from SE to NW and picked up to about Beaufort 5. Very strange. It carried on into the evening and then died at about midnight.

Next day, it was very calm, sunny and hot. We had arranged to stay at the harbor for the day as my friend and colleague, Ann-Louise Hansen, from Denmark, was vacationing in the area and we arranged to meet for lunch at the harbor. She arrived in a bright red Fiat C500, just like she has at home. It was lovely to see her, though I don't think she was crazy about being on the boat. I had bought all kinds of Italian antipasti food for lunch with ciabatta and little pizzas and salad, but after a half glass of white wine, she announced that she was taking us to lunch, the boat made her much too dizzy. We went to one of the waterfront restaurants and spent a long leisurely afternoon eating bruschetta and pasta and ice cream and drinking much too much white wine, but it was soooo good and the company was delightful. Dan and Ann-Louise get on very well, except when Dan claimed that Swedish cheese is better than French cheese. She just looked at him and said, "if that's your opinion, then there's nothing more to discuss".:) We walked Ann-Louise to her car at the end of the afternoon and waved her off, then went back to the boat and motored out to the beach where we spent a very sleepless night due to swells that rocked Roam to and fro all night long.

18 August 2010

N 42 24.172 E 11 12.662

Cala Galera Marina, Ercole, Italy

Started out very early, 06.00 this morning desperate to get out of the swells that had been rocking us about all night at our anchorage off the beautiful beaches of Punta Ala.

We had no wind for the first hour so motored, then a nice NE wind came up and we sailed for about 3 hours till the wind died. Our plan had been to get as close to Rome as possible, but when the wind died and the swells remained, we got sick of motoring so went in to the nearest harbor and it happened to be Cala Galera off Ercole. It' a lovely port, very modern and very busy. The harbor boys were great and helped us get tied up and showed us where to find the harbor office. Ercole is an ancient town is flanked on one side by Forte La Rocca and on the other side by an ancient citadel with a fantastic view over the coast and Mediterranean Sea; like so many of the harbors we sail to around here. This is our most expensive harbor so far, at 64 Euro. They had wifi but it wasn't working. We seem to have something wrong with our internet site, Med Log, so I decided it was worth the walk in to Ercole to find a wifi cafe and get it fixed. Dan was busy re-arranging the reefing lines and other odd jobs so was probably happy to have me out of the way. I walked up to the harbor office and asked directions. They told me there's a bus that goes into town for free so I went outside and lo and behold, there it was. I asked the driver if he was going to the village but he didn't understand a word I said and I, of course, did not understand a word he said, (which didn't stop him from babbling away at 100 words per minute in Italian) but he motioned for me to get in so I did. I was the only passenger on the bus. He drove very slowly through the entire marina and kept looking at me. I was beginning to think he had a problem and wished I had a heavy handbag with me to lop him over the head with. But when we got to the last pier, he threw up his hands and said something that made me think he was wondering when the hell I was going to get off the bus. I said "Ercole"? again, and then he went in to a long explanation of how he only drives around the marina and if I want to take a bus to Ercole I have to take another bus and he gave me a schedule. He sign-languaged me that he would drop me somewhere I could walk " first two fingers wiggling back and forth saying "a pied". Great. We turned around and started back but he had to stop at a great big Italian cruiser to pick up some more passengers. Fine, I'll wait. I watched the Italians on the boat and they didn't look anywhere near ready to take a bus anywhere. They were walking aimlessly around the deck talking all the while. My driver got out of the bus and started smoking a cigarette which was my next clue that this was going to take awhile. I debated with myself, "should i just get off and walk?, what if they get on the bus as soon as I've gotten off, then I'll feel that I have to climb back on or come up with some stupid explanation as to why I want to walk all the way when I can ride, but if I stay, how long is this going to take? They don't even have their shoes on yet, do they never stop talking?..." I took the coward's way out and opted to sit it out. After 15 minutes, they finally started getting onto the bus, all 11 of them. From having the whole bus to myself, I now was crunched up against the window in the front seat behind the driver,(in a bus full of Italians all speaking at once to each other and laughing and scolding with gusto), wondering how I was going to squeeze past this enormous Italian next to me when it came time for me to get off the bus. After a few minutes the bus driver stopped and motioned to me that this was my stop. I looked out and saw nothing but a rickety stair case through some thorny bushes and up the side of the mountain. He shooed me out and motioned "strapeze" and waved his arms around talking Italian. I was a bit shell-shocked so just said "OK, Grazi, molto grazi". I squeezed past my seat partner saying a thousand "scuzzi"s and jumped off and started up the steps thinking, "and now we enter the twilight zone". The stairs ended on a goat path where I had to choose left or right. No signs, no people to ask, not even any goats, just a dirt path. Hmmmm. I opted for left as it curved towards the direction I knew the village to be and started along the path which gave me a fine view of the marina as I was walking parallel with it until I took a sharp turn to the right that led me uphill and eventually after about 500 meters, to the fortress overlooking the village which by the way was closed for the day. Brilliant. Only 2 choices and I had to take the wrong one. Nothing to do but turn around and go back the other way. I soon regretted the choice of flip-flops over sneakers for this jaunt. Little stones kept getting caught between my feet and my flip-flops causing excruciating pain. As I back-tracked and came back in view of the marina, I sneaked from bush to bush because I didn't want the bus driver to look up and see me coming from the wrong direction and think what an idiot I am. I didn't walk tall until I got past the rickety staircase and moved off in the right direction... A good kilometer later, downhill and through many curves and dead-ends, I found myself in the middle of Ercole. It's a lovely bustling fishing village with an overcrowded marina filled mostly with fishing boats. The buildings looked as old as the fortresses protecting them but are painted in gay pastel colors. Restaurants and vegetable stands lined the waterfront. I stopped in at the tourist office and asked where I could find a wifi cafe. She gave me directions and of course it had to be at the far end of the harbor. Off I went, found the place, asked for a wifi connection, and they looked at me like I was from outer space. "Wifi? We don't have wifi. You need to go to next village". You might think that I threw a fit at this after all I'd been through, but you see, I've adopted the Mediterranean disposition as these things happen to us all the time around here. If you ask 5 Italians one question with a simple yes or no answer, you will get 5 different answers. So I just said, "Oh well, thanks anyway, have a nice evening". I was pretty hot and sweaty by now so just trudged off in my dusty flip-flops back to the boat. I am glad that I saw Ercole though, it really was a pretty town. But we have got to find a book store and buy an Italian-English dictionary. This miscommunication is going to be the death of me. Hope next marina has wifi so I can get our website fixed....

22 August 2010

N 41 44.744 E 12 15.253

Porto Romana, Fiumara Grande, Italy

We had a long day yesterday, 11 hours with only 1 1/2 hours of actual sailing.There was virtually no wind. A cloud system passed over us, very high, and it was cooler today again. The past few days we've actually had to wear sweaters at night. I know, we're surprised too, but people have told us that something happens around here on 15 August and lasts till the beginning of September. Clouds appear and stay, temperatures get cooler, and wind becomes very unpredictable. That's about what we've experienced the past week.It has about 5 marinas to choose from, so we chose the first one that is new and has more guest berths than the other marinas here. Entering the river, we felt like we were back on the Rhone as the water outside was brown and muddy and we faced a current again. With the swells from the sea moving in and hitting the current coming out, there was quite a bit of commotion as we entered the river that settled down again once we were a half km into the river. As we came into the marina, Porto Romana, we got a bit nervous as it looked incredibly ritzy and opulent. At the entrance was a palatial yacht club with restaurant and the few boats that were inside were huge, as in over 100 ft. We were about to back out and try another place, when a harbor boy came running up and ushered us in to the marina. We had a moment of indecision and then thought, what the hell, and motored in. He had to hot-foot it around to the visitors' berths to show us where to dock. He helped us with our lines (we didn't even need our lines, they had permanent lines at the dock and at the poles in the stern) and had us fill out a sheet with our boat name, our name, phone number, address, etc. We tried to find out what the fee was going to be, but he had not a clue, he just directs the boats to their berths... He showed us in to a beautiful romanesque building with pillars and marble floors and verandas. It was the showers and bathrooms. It was so beautiful we figured it had to be a hotel or something, but no, it belongs to the marina. After he left with a last, "call me on channel 73 if you need anything, anything at all, at whatever time during the night" we took showers and ate dinner on the boat as it was pretty late (and we figured we were going to be broke tomorrow when we have to pay the fee so would not be sensible to go to a restaurant), and then went for a walk around the compound. The marina area itself holds about 400 boats, ours being in league with the dinghies though they put us in a berth that takes boats twice our size. Along the water's edge, they have marble sidewalks that have roman numerals etched into the marble for each boat space. In between boat spaces they have mosaic images of shrimp, octopii, and fish. In each corner is the Porto Romana logo. It was about as opulent as we've seen on our travels. We strolled past the restaurant which was all terrace with the most beautiful bougainvillea we'd ever seen. Lots of patrons were having dinner there. Behind the restaurant was a great big lawn and in the middle, a swimming pool, hexagonal and about 30 meters in diameter, surrounded by discreet lights and a few chaise lounges under parasols. It was gorgeous. We both thought as we went to bed, this is going to really hurt tomorrow when it comes time to pay.

Next morning after breakfast, we couldn't put it off any longer, so walked as if we were walking to our execution up to the harbor office. A very nice girl was there and had our papers right on top. She asked how long we wanted to stay to which we responded that it depends on the price. She looked at our boat papers, did some calculations on her calculator and looked up at us and said "The price for a berth for you is 47€ day." We couldn't believe our luck so arranged to stay for 2-3 nights. Not only that, we were allowed to borrow their bikes for free for as long as we're here and when we asked about trains, buses, taxis to Rome, which is 40 km from here, she said the best thing was to rent a car for the day from the marina. This would cost 50€ which is cheaper than any other mode of transportation so we asked her to arrange it for tomorrow morning. Spent the rest of the day feeling like the ext tons of empty berths. We emptied the water tank since the water we took in Punta Ala was salty and had a foul taste to it. Having done that we then thought it best to check if the agua in Porto Romano e potabile. Dan went off to ask a guy who was working on his boat further down the dock and came back with a cold beer in one hand and a full bottle of water con gaz in the other. (We guess that Dan's italian needs a bit of brushing up). We then asked 5 different people and got 2 no's and 3 yes's, so with the majority vote we have now a full tank of questionable water. Later we took the bikes and went biking around the neighborhood, went grocery shopping, did laundry in machines that are located just 10 steps from the end of our dock in the palatial shower area and went and lolled about the pool in the afternoon. Life is good. The only thing they don't have is Wifi; it's broken. But we're not complaining!

Got up bright and early the next morning and picked up our rented car from the harbor, their own pool car which we got to have for the whole day for 50€. We were going to do Rome in one day. We drove the 40 km in to Rome, parked near the Piazza Venezia and spent the entire day walking to the forums, colosseum, Vatican City, and St Peter's cathedral. So many ruins in that city! It was really fascinating. After seeing all the ruins around the forum and colosseum we stopped at a trattoria and had lunch. Then set off for the Vatican City starting with St Peter's Basilica. We stood and admired Michelangelo's Pietá for a long time. So amazing what he did with marble. Unfortunately, it's behind a glass wall now so you can't get as close as you would like to and examine it. We were able to go down under the basilica to the vatican grottoes where 20 funeral monuments of popes are interred and were very surprised to see that Sweden's Queen Christina is interred right next to Pope John Paul II. On our way out we stopped at the Vatican bookshop where Dan wanted to buy Richard Dawkins "The God Delusion" but they did not carry such fiction!!! Next stop was the Vatican museum and Sistine Chapel. I think maybe they made an error in the tour to the Sistine Chapel. The Sistine chapel is placed deep within the Vatican building for security reasons and it takes a very long time to get there. One walks through a multitude of grand rooms all of whose walls and ceilings are covered with gorgeous works of arts by all the most famous Italian artists of the time so that by the time we got to the Sistine chapel itself (the jewel so to speak) our senses were so saturated with beauty that we couldn't absorb anymore. We looked up at the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel and identified the pictures from the book of Genesis, looked at the walls with glazed eyes and checked off pictures of the old and new testament, alter wall, Final judgment, yes, there it is, Temptation of Christ, got it right there, and so on. We left after 15 minutes with a huge sigh of relief. But our journey wasn't over yet. We had to get out of there too, which took another half hour of passing through rooms filled with gifts to the Vatican over the centuries, sculptures from antiquity, Papal capes through the ages and quite frankly, I don't know what. I was completely zoned out by then. The nicest picture I saw at this time was the "exit" sign. Once out and away from the Vatican we walked through Rome back to the car; a walk of about 40 minutes but it was worth it. Saw lots more statues of course, but also bridges and fountains. Climbed into the car and drove back to the boat at Porto Romano with the feeling that we must go back sometime and see more of the city, now that we've done the main stuff.

25 August 2010

We departed Porto Romano early on a very calm Sunday morning and set our course for Capri. It would be an over night sail. The weather was beautiful and very hot, though as usual out at sea, slightly cooler. This means roughly 35C for us out on the boat. We motored the first couple hours until the wind came up from the south and we could hoist the sails. The winds around here don't start up until about 11.00 or 12.00 and then throughout the day, they move from NE to SE to SW to NW, so we are constantly setting and resetting our sails. Not that we mind, we are very happy as long as we can sail and not use the motor. We spent the day taking 3-hour watches. When on watch, we make sure that Nelson sticks to the course, we adjust the sails for the wind and we keep a lookout for changing weather and other boats. When the wind changes directions, it oftens starts the process by dying completely. We lower the sails and turn on the motor and motor until it comes up again, whereby we raise the sails and shut down the engine. We go through this process about 3-4 times per day. When off watch, we read (currently we are reading Homer's Odyssey and trying to identify places he travelled as many are actually in Italy), putter about the boat fixing, tidying, organising things. During the dark hours of the night, we sit watch together as figure 4 eyes are better than two when peering into the darkness. Dan keeps track of our progress on our computer where he has electronic charts connected to the GPS. To keep ourselves alert and watchful we listen to podcasts or music on our ipods. One of our favorite podcasts is "stuff you missed in history class" it's on www.howstuffworks.com Otherwise we listen to BBC news, Swedish Radio documentaries and interviews with politicians, etc.

When it gets too hot, we stop the boat and go swimming off the back. It is really lovely. A quick rinse with our shower bag the girls gave us and we are cooled off and salt-less. We spend alot of time pouring over the pilot book and charts to see what there is to see and sometimes we change our course and make a diversion.

At about 05.30 in the morning, just as it was getting light, we sighted the island of Ischia. We had seen its lighthouse during the night as it is up high on the top of a very high peak . Ischia is the largest of the islands in the Naples Golf and is basically an old volcano whose last eruption was in 1301. In mythology it was believed to be the dwelling place of Typhon, the hundred-headed monster destroyed by Zeus. As we closed in on it the features became clearer and we could see that the lighthouse sits atop a cliff that rises straight up in the air from the sea to a height of 160m. Looked very precarious sitting there on the edge of the precipice. All over the island houses are built on the steep sides and it looks impossible to even have roads there as there are huge crevasses everywhere separating the neighborhoods. The ancient lava flows are now covered by lush vegetation. Once we were past Ischia, we soon sighted Capri which looks much the same. Very high sheer cliffs rising straight out of the water. We arrived at Capri at 11.00 on Monday morning. The marina was in complete chaos. Ferries were coming and going and driving at very high speeds leaving big wakes that rocked all the sailboats tied up in the marina. Sailboats and motorboats coming and going and there was a big line of boats milling around waiting for the fuel dock to be free. We tried to contact the harbor master by VHF but they didn't answer, so I got off the boat and went around to where they were sitting in a tent. I found out that they didn't answer because they don't like to speak English... The upshot was, they don't have space. I pointed out there were any amount of empty spaces. But they said that people reserve slips for a whole month, whether they are going to actually be there or not. And they can't rent out a slip that's already paid for, in case the boat comes in. In Sweden, it's first come, first serve. August is the Italian's vacation month so not surprising. We didn't really mind as we knew that if we got a slip, it would be very expensive, roughly 10 times what it usually costs to stay in a marina during low season. So we left the marina, and decided give the rest of the Italian coast a miss for this time as figured it would be the same all along the Amalfi coast too.

The weather was still fine and sunny and very hot. We had a good wind leaving Capri so set the sails for Messina, Sicily and continued on our way. In the evening the wind died completely so we put the engine to work and motored through the night. We saw very little traffic and the sea was flat calm so we changed our normal routine of sitting together during the night and instead each of us got 3 hours sleep during the night while the other stood watch.

Next day was sunny and hot, still no wind and we had no wind all day long . We stopped the boat in the shadow of Stromboli which is an active volcano and said to be the oldest lighthouse in the world as it has been gently simmering since Homer's Odyssey. It's about 925 m high so in the distance looks very exotic and mysterious. Unfortunately there were clouds covering the top so couldn't see the glow. We swam in the water around the boat, the water is the most beautiful shade of blue I have ever seen and it was so clear that when Dan was in the water it looked like he was suspended in air. We rinsed and sun-dried on the deck before continuing. At about 19.00 we reached the Messina Straits and discussed which cave on the mountain side was Scilla's cave. Chapter 12 in the Odyssey tells the story of Scilla and Charybdis who are monsters on either side of the straits. Scilla is a monster with 6 necks and 12 feet that she uses to reach down to the sea from a high cave and snatch sailors out of their boats and eat them. If a ship manages to escape her grip, they get sucked down in a giant whirlpool.Charybdis is on the other side of the strait and sucks in water consuming whole ships and their crews and then spits the water out again. In real life it was exactly as described by Homer minus the monsters. The Sicilian side of the strait had the strangest currents and whirlpools. The water was positively alive with motion. Waves were breaking where there was no wind and it was more than 100 meters deep. The whirlpools were huge, 10-30 meters in diameter and were so strong that we had a hard time steering the boat out of them. There was a very strong current against us as well, due to the full moon, we found out later. Normally it's just a knot or two but during full moon it can get up to 4-5 knots. Our normal speed under motor is 5 knots per hour. We noticed that sometimes our speed would increase to 6 and 7 knots but when we changed our course only slightly, 30 to 50 degrees, it would decrease to 1 knot per hour. We think it had to do with the whirlpools causing different current directions and strengths. Our GPS was telling us to steer in strange directions that we thought were completely crazy so we stopped looking at it and just went by normal compass. This became difficult after a while because it got dark so we could no longer get a visual fix on the marina we were going to. On top of all this, we happened to be short on fuel so were a bit worried that we were going to run out while stuck in the morass of the Messina Straits. Altogether, another twilight zone experience. Dan eventually figured out that the GPS was actually giving us the right information as it saw that we were gliding in the opposite direction due to the currents and tried to put us right. Once we were out of the worst of the current we could use it again to find the marina. But it is never easy finding navigation lights when entering a marina in a city as there are so many other lights that you have to weed out to find the lights you're looking for. We finally docked at about 21.00. N 38 11.939 E 15 33.516 . The distance from the beginning of the straits to the marina is only 5 nautical miles and it took us 2 hours... Our fuel lasted and we breathed a huge sigh of relief when we were finally tied up and at rest. We treated ourselves to a dinner at a restaurant on the waterfront where we enjoyed grilled tuna and swordfish.