Raffaellesco - Bill and Suzette's Sailing Adventure

 5/12/2024 Porto Touristico di Roma, Italy Up early to finish packing and get Bill and Owen to the taxi stand. We departed about 0845 and Owen and Bill were off in their Taxi by 0900. It was another calm day, no wind, no swell, lots of sail boats and fishing boats playing on a Sunday. The sun was shining and we were busy on the boat as we motored NW back to Port Ercole. Suzette did some cleaning and I worked mostly on my last sunshade side curtain. Bill had me motivated to do some other improvements to the boat, little things to make it safer and easier to operate, I will spare you the details. We arrived at the anchorage at 1700 as other boats were leaving. We dropped the hook in 4m over sand and the anchor easily set. This is a beautiful spot, castle on the hill, long beach, a couple beach clubs and lots of sunbathers. It was Sunday and Suzette had made the pizza dough on the way up. We did the pizza on the grill as it was getting warm and we did not want to heat the cabin....

 5/5/2024 Marina Piccolo, Sorrento, Italy A very quiet night, up early to sunshine and activity in the marina. We walked up to the Hertz place and took possession of a Fiat Cabriolet. We set off to the west end of the island to find the castle that Suzette stayed in when she was backpacking across Europe as a young woman. We negotiated the winding road and eventually found her castle. Next stop was Positano, but we found ourselves in a little town where a young man accosted us and convinced us that we needed to go to his grandmother’s restaurant and enjoy her lemon granita and her fresh mozzarella caprices salad. We bit and went to the restaurant and everything was fabulous. They were salesmen and wanted us to get this and that, but we resisted. From here we navigated to and through Positano.   There was nowhere to park and no way to stop as we slowly meandered through the town dodging motorcycles and people. We found ourselves in a little town that was not so crowded and ...

 4/28/2024 Geata, Base Nautica Flavio Gioia, Italy Up early with the sun, clear skies and warm. Sorted out the laundry, filled the wagon and walked to the laundromat. It turned out to be full service and they could not have the laundry ready before Tuesday, this was Sunday. The next laundromat looked promising, but it turned out to be on the military base, no civilians. Last chance was a hike up the hill where we found two washers and two dryers! A great way to spend a beautiful Sunday morning in Italy. I wonder what the status of my generator is? While waiting on our laundry a young Italian man walked in to do a load. He was studying English, he had his study guide with him, but he was more than happy to practice with us. He had crewed on a sailboat and traveled to a number of places in the world. We told him where we were headed and he was excited to give us a list of his favorite places. We did not have a pen and paper so he ran home and returned with pen and paper. He must ...