4/20/2024 Porto Santos Stefano, Italy
A very quiet night to catch up on sleep and sleep in. A lazy
morning on board. We had pulled the boat well off of the dock and well out of
reach for the passerelle. In order to get to shore we had to lower the swim
platform and rig the passerelle from there. We had what we needed in terms of
line and a block with a cam cleat to devise a very elegant solution. With
access to the dock and calm winds we headed to shore to walk the town for exercise
and, as always, pick up a few grocery items.
We returned to the boat about noon and made some lunch. About 1330 the sky went from clear blue to black and the wind went from 5 to 25 as a squall came blowing through. It all came on in a matter of minutes and resolved in about 30 mins. Back to clear blue skies and warm sunshine. It was very comfortable reading in the cockpit and enjoying the sun. I started reviewing the cruising guide to see what the next leg to Naples will look like. We have friends joining us on May 3. Originally, they were going to meet us in Palermo, but we probably will not make to Sicily at all on the trip.
Another squall rolled through mimicking the earlier version. About 1700 I was below
making a frittata for dinner. I had whipped my eggs and had them in a bowl on
the counter. The wind came up fast again, healed the boat and knocked my bowl
over. Thankfully the fiddles on the counter kept it contained so we could
recover the eggs. They were my last eggs! Being more careful I managed to finish
my frittata on the gimbled stove and the wind blew most of the night, but no
violent waves this time.
4/21/2024 Porto Santos Stefano, Italy
A beautiful sunny morning, crisp and cold as the low passed
to the south. Broke out the bikes for some exercise. Headed north around the
peninsula, but quickly realized that the road was narrow, twisting and had a
lot of traffic. We found an alternate road back to the marina that took us
through several tunnels, but no traffic. Heading off to the south we rode through
the nicer waterfront area that we had been to before, beautiful promenade and
decorative art. Past this area we found beautiful homes perched on the hillside
overlooking the sea. We parked our bikes and walked the shops for a while and
then made our way back to the boat.
A lazy afternoon with the sun shining and calm winds. Pizza
for Sunday dinner with a new twist, mascarpone instead of mozzarella for
cheese, it was delicious.
4/22/2024 Porto Santos Stefano, Italy
Today was predicted to be high winds, the last for a while.
We stayed below and did some cleaning and inspecting. We crafted a lengthy note
to the generator people basically saying that we are leaving, here’s where we
will be, let us know when you are ready to come to us and install the generator.
With that we started to plan our trip south to Naples where we will meet
friends, Bill and Owen, from our yacht club.
We read that a case revolving around ticketing homeless
people had made its way to the Supreme Court. We debated and discussed the issue
at length, but I do not think that we solved the problem. For better or worse
this is likely not a problem that can be solved by simply throwing money at it.
It is a moral dilemma; I will leave it at that.
In the afternoon we were all set to walk to the market, but
it started to rain. When the rain stopped, we did make it to the market and
back without getting wet, but more rain came. After it appeared to stop, we
went for another walk and this time we did get wet…oh well. Smoked salmon with
all the fixings and soup for dinner. More trip planning after dinner.
4/23/2024 Porto Santos Stefano, Italy
It rained hard over night, but the sun rose and a clear sky
revealed itself in the morning. Cold and crisp as we prepared the boat to head
south. With no word on the generator, we headed south. First stop was the fuel
dock and a record 406 liters of fuel. I don’t like to let the tanks get so
empty, but we are full now.
The wind was 5 to 10 from the Northwest and the swell was a
confused 3’ to 6’ generally from the south. We motored around the peninsular,
Comune di Argentario, which really looks like it could have been an Island that
they attached to the mainland with 3 manmade embankments. In between there were
estuaries and on the embankments were roads.
We were elated to finally be moving south and heading to the
Amalfi coast. A short ride later we arrived in Porto Ercole. This was a highly
recommended stop, playground of the rich and famous in the summer time; in my
view it was an expensive tourist trap. In fairness we are off season and there
were several well preserved forts to explore. As we motored into the harbor, we
tried contacting 3 different marinas on the VHF, but no response. We did not
have a confirmed reservation in spite of reaching out to the 3 marinas by
email.
Rugged west coast
It looked like there was plenty of space in the marina inside the jetty and, more importantly, plenty of water depth. We headed in to simply pick a spot and ask permission later. Low and behold a Marinaros shows up waiving his hands and directing us to a birth. It seems that when no one speaks English they just ignore the radio, walk out to the pontoon and waive you in. He was very helpful with the mooring and we were quickly settled into our new spot.
The weather forecast was for rain overnight and well into
the next day. It was also expected to be cold, high of 54 degrees F. We walked the water front and the road that
led over the hill to another marina where we had a beautiful view looking east.
As the sun set it got cold quickly and we headed below to a warm cabin. Our
little space heat is amazing, but it only works when we are plugged into 220v
power at the marina.
4/24/2024 Porto Ercole, Italy
The weather forecast proved accurate and it rained hard overnight
and drizzled during the day until about 1400 when the sun popped out. We
enjoyed our warm dry boat, Suzette reading and I trying to learn how to splice
double braid line. I have the concept down and I have the tools, but I could
not finalize the splice. The guy in the video made it look so easy. Perhaps the
difference is that he was working with new line and I was using an old piece of
dock line that had been stretched, salted and dirty.
It was brisk, but calm and clear. We hiked up to one of the
forts above the marina, Forte Rossa. The
steps were ancient and, as it turns out, we were sort of going up the back way.
There were houses along this path, outside of the wall, that seemed as ancient
as the fort. We made it to the top only to find that this was a private
entrance and we could not access the fort from here. We proceeded back down the
ancient stairs and around the fort to a road that led up to the main entrance.
Out at sea we could see several sail boats sparring as they rounded their mark
and unfurled their spinnakers. At the main entrance to the fort we discovered
that the fort was closed for renovations. There was an Arial photo of the fort
posted at the gate declaring who was doing the work and how it was being paid
for, but no access!
Back at sea level we went in search of a bottle or two of wine. Several inquiries finally had us back on the road to the next marina where we found a small grocery store with a meager selection of wines. Sort of like my fuel, I allowed us to get dangerously low on wine. For dinner it was a medley of 4 different kinds of eggplant, tomatoes and garlic roasted in the oven. This was served over a linguine pasta and, of course, the Barbara we had just bought.
We spent some time checking weather and destinations in
preparation for our departure the next morning. I put up the Code 0 in hopes
that we would have some proper wind to sail.
4/25/2024 Porto Ercole, Italy
Up early, calm wind and sea as we departed the pontoon by
0800. The wind built to 15 knots on our nose and the sea built to 3’ to 6’ and
a bit confused, but generally on our nose. We bashed into the wind and sea for
about 60 miles. We were finally down to the latitude of Rome, the furthest
south that I have been in Italy. The port is Porto Touristico di Roma, a
purpose built marina across the Tiber River from the Rome Airport, which is
about 30 miles west of Rome. With a 6’ swell running directly into the harbor
entrance and 4 meters of water it was a sleigh ride into the harbor.
Inside all was calm and the Marinaros were very helpful and spoke English well. They ushered us to our Berth and help us settle in. This is a huge marina, 1000 berths. The shore is lined with shops, boat brokers and chandleries. We cleaned up and walked the quay while the sun was still up. The shops were kind of cheesy, very touristy. The chandlery, however, was very good and the gentlemen working there was knowledgeable. I am shopping for new dock lines; I want to replace mine before we leave the boat for the summer. His prices were good, but he did not have the 18 mm that I needed, he had just about every other size.
At the end of the Quay there was a beach and many 4 and 5
story apartment buildings lining the sea. They quay had a good number of people
and dogs out for their evening stroll, costumery here in Italy to have a walk
after work and before dinner.
I was wiped out having endured all the thrashing about and
cold wind all day. I was happy to be warm on my boat with a bowl of hot soup
and a cocktail. Sleep came very easy.
4/26/2024 Porto Touristico di Roma, Italy
Up early after a very quiet night. The skies were overcast
and the breeze light as we prepared for a short day, only 30 miles. We did not
have a reservation confirmed for our next stop, but headed out at 0900 figuring
we would get something. The coast here is either long stretches of beach or
sheer cliffs, no place to tuck in and anchor, making marinas a necessity. Along
the way two marinas turned us down, but the expensive one accepted us. Part of
the issue with access to marinas is our size, length and draft, making our
choices limited.
With the wind and sea on our nose we motored South East to
Anzio. Arriving at the point Anzio we had several pieces of data providing
directions for entry; Navily which has current data, our chart which is current
and the cruising guide which is dated 2019. Navily said hug the port side going
in, what it did not say is making a wide sweeping arc to starboard to avoid the
sand bank. As we headed toward the sand bank, I could see it getting shallower
and a fisherman waiving us off on the jetty. We came about and followed the advice
from the cruising guide and picked our way through a very shallow entry, no
grounding!
Once inside it took awhile to raise the Marinaros and once
we did they spent a long time untangling sand lines at the quay before we could
enter. With 10 knots of breeze on our beam we slipped in next to an older Benetau
with a German couple on board. We got our stern tied and one bow line on, but
the other bow line was tangled and incredibly dirty. By the time we got line
untangled me and the bow were a muddy mess! With the boat settled I broke out
the hose to get the nasty mud cleaned off.
The berth was on the concrete quay right in the town and
exposed to the big bay outside the harbor making it a bit slappy and noisy. We
decided that this would likely be a less expensive place to provision compared
to Naples so we hit the fruteria, bakery and the supermercato for a major wagon
full of food and spirits. Dropped our groceries at the boat and decide to go
for a walk before the sunset. This seems to be a fairly old city with a quaint
harbor side that wraps around to a beach front side with cabanas and
restaurants on the sand. There was a guy on the beach who had sculpted a
spectacular castle out of sand entertaining the passerby who tossed him a coin
(no pictures because my camera ran out
of juice).
It was a bit of a noisy night, but sleep came easy after a
bit of trip planning and weather checks.
4/27/2024 Capo d’Anzio, Italy
Up early and out by 0800 on a clear day. The plan was to
head to an anchorage on Isola di Ponza, an island about 20 miles off shore and
30 miles SSE of us. I was tired of marinas and towns; I wanted an anchorage and
natural landscape. Anchoring is so much easier and more efficient than going
into a marina for one night, not to mention it is free. With the marina we have
to find one that has room for us, contact them and wait for a Marinaros when we
arrive, go into their chosen spot no matter how easy or difficult, arrange the
lines based on the type of mooring and the expected weather, deploy the
passerelle based on the kind of quay or pontoon we are on, connect to the water
and electricity on the dock based on their configuration(every marina is
different so we have 4 different hose connectors and two different electrical
connectors, this has admittedly been a luxury with the cold weather and no
generator), hose down and scrub the boat after the sand line mess, walk to the
office and check in and finally rest. For the anchorage we select a place in
advance and have little concern that it will be full of boats, upon arrival
find a suitable place to drop, rarely does it require more then one try, set
the hook, put on the snubber, if the boat is salty give a quick rinse with the
hose and rest. Admittedly, if we want to go to shore, we need to deploy the
dingy, but that is pretty easy to do and usually part of the fun.
As we bashed our way south into the wind and increasing
swell it was becoming apparent that we were not going to be happy going to the
island. The final straw was when we buried the bow in a wave and took a lot of
water over the cabin, not in, just over. I turned to SE to quarter the waive
and slowed the boat speed. Reassessing, we looked at where we could go on the
coast. The closest place was an additional 30 miles, Geata. We reached out to
the marina for a reservation. The ride did improve and once we passed Punta
Rossa, we were getting some protection from the Isola di Ishia and the
peninsula north of Naples. Geata confirmed a spot so we could relax a bit. The
wind was light and the sea flattening as we overtook a couple of sailboats
under sail. The admiral said “we could sail” so out with the main and jib. That
lasted about two tacks before we decided that 2 knots of boat speed in the
wrong direction was not fun. Furled the sails and motored into the marina.
The harbor was beautiful, calm and picturesque. The Marinaros were right there to greet us and had us at the dock in no time. Lots of boats coming in as we settled in. It turns out they were preparing for a big race that would occur the following weekend. Across the harbor there was a military base and a good sized navy ship moored at the quay. As I surveyed the boat, I noticed an American flag flying at the ships stern, go figure. We washed the boat and settled in for 2 nights. This was as good a place as any to do some laundry and prepare for guests. There would be one more stop before going into Naples.
The dock was lively and more boats were coming in. It was
warm and sunny so it was sun downers in the cockpit, then dinner below. We are
becoming more accustomed to eating later as the sun is lingering longer,
twilight at 2030. A very quiet night at the marina.
Comments
Post a Comment