Naples, Italy to Dubrovnik, Croatia

Charlie, Ken’s nephew joined Ken & Kristine for his 10 week summer job as the Grateful Red Mediterranean crew. He arrived late to Naples, took the Italian train to the boats harbor. The sail from Naples followed the route of the Odyssey. past the island of the Sirens, where Odysseus was tied to the mast to hear the Sirens and his crew let the counter winds out of the bag. The Grateful Red visited volcanic islands where the six-headed monster Scylla lived and the volcano still spews lava into the sea. Through the Straits of Messina, home of the whirlpool that sucked in Odysseus’s ship, followed by the long, boring sail along the bottom of the Italian boot with only interruptions being a few visits by the Italian coast guard (war in Libya was on going with NATO bombers flying overhead and the coast guard looking for boats full of Libyans fleeing to Italy). After a couple of high wind storms and hours of no wind motoring, the crew of three arrived in Dubrovnik.

San Tropez, France to Naples, Italy

After a winter of boat repair, a hull repaint and new racing headsails, the Grateful Red was ready for the sail back across the ocean to the Caribbean. The crew leaving San Tropez was Kristine’s childhood friend their Devils’ Lake days – Page, her husband Alan, Mike O’Connor who celebrating his new great job by again crewing, Kristine and Ken. First stop was the Island of Corsica, then the Italian Tuscan islands including Elba once the home of Napoleon, a stop in Flegrean Islands, and we couldn’t find a slip in any Naples marina so we sailed down the coast to a marina where we could see Pompeii.

San Tropez to Port Napoleon bring back

After a terrific Grateful Red St-Tropez party the final cruise back to Port Napoleon was with Lake Kegonsa Sailing Club sailors, Jack, Steve and Ken. A night in the Porquerolles, a night in the great old port of Cassis and finally, a motor into the thirty knot headwinds to cross the Golfe do Fos and enter into Port Napoleon. Too windy to take put the boat on the hard, but spent a night listening to the Badgers when they beat Ohio State via Internet Radio.