4 days and 3 nights! On to Dubvronik

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Friday I did a bit more laundry and shopping before we had a bit of lunch. The fish market was open so I bought some swordfish steaks and a bag of ice.

We left the marina around 12:40pm. We motored about 1 ½ hours to Isola Volcano thinking we would check out an active volcano. They also had some healing mud baths that many tourists come to sit in. We decided not to walk up the 2 hour hike to see the volcano, and instead we had a nice lunch and then left for Isola Lipari. In Lipari, we found free WiFi, a wonderful Market, and a big fish market for our ice requirements. We had our swordfish for dinner with potatoes and fresh peas. Even the box-o-wine I had was good that night. Overnight, we experienced a great bit of swaying at the dock due to all the ferry’s coming and going . The fish market opened early and so by 7AM, I had the ice we needed and we left for our 3-night/4-day sail. We started out motoring so I was able to make crepes for breakfast and the remainder of our first day was filled with some line repair and my catching up on my journal’s. With no wind, could be a lazy 4 days.


Entering the Straits of Messina


Interesting viaducts along the way


A bit of boat traffic…


Laundry spinner!


Wind surfer we met along shore of the “boot” of Italy

Naples, Capri and new Crew

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Naples

Wednesday, May 25th, Charlie, Ken and I left around 10:30 and sailed to the south side of Capri to see the natural Arch. Wednesday was also the first of several overnights that Charlie, Ken and I would do. Our shifts were to sail 3 hours, be on watch for 3 hours, and then sleep for three hours. The moon came up around 11pm and the sky was full of stars so it was a very pleasant evening.

Thursday, we arrived in Isola Salina, one of the islands off Sicily around 7AM. We found about 7 dead birds on our boat that must have taken refuge during the night. We had seen several earlier in the evening, but thought they flew off. Not sure why they died, but they did make a MESS while alive on the boat.


Natural Arch on Capri


First overnight with Charlie

Isola Salina Marina was 89{e5b62957b3804ab7f47eece8c936dd4b822dafb6efd3f6ca02827a1c1cc3266f} empty so it was no problem to tie-up. 2 men from the marina greeted us and took our stern lines. Nothing much on this island but 2 inactive volcano’s. After breakfast we started to clean and prepare the boat for more overnights. I was untying the gangplank to set it up and as it was leaning on the wheels of the plank, rolled out of hands and into the water. The water was so clear, but we were in about 20 feet of water. Charlie tried to swim down to get it, but declared it was too deep and the water was freezing cold. We ended up tying our two boat hooks and a third pole together and Ken managed to hook it and pull it up and out of the water. It took several hours to get to this point and a serious waste of the morning time.

Later in the day, I did quite a bit of dockside laundry and then some trips to the market. The showers at the marina were the best we had seen so we took advantage and got cleaned up. After dinner, Charlie and Ken decided to check out the town and found one bar open. Seems most of the other cruisers in the marina were there also so Ken came back to the boat to encourage me to come out. It was a fun time, but when the other women started to dance on the bar, I decided it was time for us to go back to the boat!

Heading to Naples and crew change-May 23

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We left Porto Vecchio on Ventotene Island around 10:30 after a breakfast of Eggs’ in-a-hole, and filled water tanks. Page and Alan had found some “delectables” to eat for our lunch, so we were well set for the day. We will head to Procida which is very near to the mainland and Naples. From there it would be a 10 mile ride to the Bay of Naples on Monday.

Isola di Procida is, unfortunately, a bustling, dirty town filled with tourists of all nationalities. Because of its near location to the mainland, there are countless ferries coming and going. We found a small internet point down from our marina and caught up with some email while savoring more cassis. I do have to admit though, the hospitality at the bars and cafes are wonderful. They are not yet tired of the tourist. Maybe that will change at the end of the season.

 

Monday AM. Page and Alan decided to take one of the passenger ferrys across to the mainland early in the morning to ensure they would make their scheduled 12pm train to Rome. Mike, Ken and I left the marina and sailed into the Bay of Naples. We had been directed to go to the marina near the Old City, but found it was private and they would not let us stay. Finding room in any marina near Naples proved to be difficult but after 4 hours of motoring from one marina to another, we found a great one in Castallmmare across from Naples. Only difficulty would be to have Charlie find us. It would require his taking a train or expensive cab. This all worked out and Charlie arrived around mid-night after his plane, bus, taxi adventure.

The next morning Mike took the train to the airport, and Charlie and I took trips to the market and fish markets for food and ice. Some fish markets would give us ice, but others would charge us for it. This ice is treated to freeze at a higher freeze point so you cannot use it in beverages, but at least our food would stay cold. At 10AM, after paying our 50 Euros for the marina, we left for Isla di Capri . Arrived at 12:30 to Capri, got a great berth (although expensive 130 Euro’s), and set off to explore for the remainder of the day. Capri is beautiful, and you sure get your exercise walking to the city center which is on top of the hill.


Mt. Vesuvius