Filed from Palermo, Sicily
38 08.59N 013 22.27E
September 10, 2000
PHOTO: STREET SCENE, GAETA, ITALY
Buon Giorno!
We left Maddalena on the north coast of Sardinia on August 5 and
headed for Gaeta, Italy, to meet son, Rob, and his fiancée, Alexandra.
PHOTO: ROB AND ALEXANDRA IN ISCHIA
The wind was out of the northwest at 12 knots, and we had a great sail with
the asymmetrical spinnaker up until 10:30 that night. As we were approaching the
Pontine Islands off the Italian mainland the next day, a pod of about 30 dolphin
treated us to a nice welcome, swimming alongside and playing in the bow wave.
We anchored at Ponza at 1:15 pm, in a large bay northeast of the
harbor. There were probably 100 boats or more anchored there, and in addition,
there were ferries, tour boats and other boats motoring back and forth
throughout the day, making us feel as though we were anchored in the middle of a
washing machine. But the holding was excellent, we did not feel crowded in spite
of the large number of boats, and by 7 PM most of the boats had left, leaving
the remaining sailboats a relatively quiet and pleasant anchorage.
PHOTO: ANCHORAGE AT PONZA
We arrived in Gaeta several days before Rob & Alex and settled in at the
Base Nautico Flavio Gioia. We were impressed with the area and with the marina.
The staff is extremely helpful, English-speaking and available 24 hours; it is
very secure; there is an excellent boatyard and staff; and it is close to buses
(bus stops at the marina gate) and trains into Rome and Naples. Many Americans
winter here or leave their boats here on the hard. Within walking distance from
the marina is Via Indipendenze, a long narrow walking street, very charming,
overflowing with small shops and vendors’ stands, where one can buy fresh
produce, meat, cheese, bread, fresh fish, - all the wonderful foods and wines of
Italy. Just about any service you need can be found here. There is a large
supermarket, a laundry ($15 US for two large bags), and even a place where US
propane tanks can be refilled. There is also a well-run internet service, called
Internet and Friends, with reasonably fast internet connections and many
computer cubicles, for a cost of about $8 US per hour.
Rob & Alex had been traveling in Paris and Venice and we had been
communicating via email to coordinate our meeting time. They used their
Hotmail.com account and we used the Amateur Radio Winlink 2000 system on the
boat or our USA.Net account. They arrived at the boat during a heat wave. It
was SOOOO HOT! We got out of the marina the day after they arrived and headed
for Ponza,
where we anchored for two days, cooling off periodically with a swim in the
cool, clear water.
PHOTO: ROB & ALEX COOL OFF
The town, an old fishing village that now also has shops catering to the many
tourists that visit, was a long dinghy ride across the harbor.
PHOTO: FISHING BOAT HEADING HOME TO PONZA
Alex bought a really neat pareo there, which looked great on her long slim
figure. After exploring and shopping, we had lunch in a family-owned restaurant,
La Kambusa, which is on the harbor and has a convenient dinghy dock. The
prosciutto and melon appetizer was excellent, as was the linguine with seafood
– lots of mussels and shrimp.
We then had a long, hot motor-sail from Ponza to Ischia
PHOTO: OFF TO ISCHIA
and anchored in front of the Aragonese Castle in the harbor. The holding was
good in sand and weed, but there was a skim of oil from nearby motorboats,
making it unattractive for swimming. We cooled off instead with the boat shower
and had cold salad for dinner. Rob, Alex and I explored the town of Ischia the
next day and enjoyed strolling through the streets of the old town, shopping for
fruits and veggies in the markets. We also toured the Aragonese Castle, an
enormous fortress, which was first built in 474 BC by the Greeks and rebuilt in
1441 by Alphonso of Aragon. Parts of the castle have been converted into
galleries for the display of contemporary Italian art. When we returned, hot and
tired, to the boat, we weighed anchor and motored to the island of Procida for
the night, just a mile or two away. There we found a very pleasant anchorage in
the cooling shadow of a tall cliff and with cool, clear swimmable water under
us.
We returned to Gaeta and from there took the train to Napoli, which took us
to within two blocks of the ruins of Pompei.
PHOTO: LOVE AMONG THE RUINS
Walking through the excavated remains of the city of Pompeii, buried under
ash by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD, was fascinating. It is really
amazing to see the details that remain here of everyday life in a Roman city.
There are homes, bakeries, cafes, brothels, stables, gymnasia, theatres, and
narrow city streets containing the wheel ruts produced by the passage of metal-
covered chariot wheels. Some of the buildings have public notices, political
statements and graffiti still evident on the walls. In the Garden
of the Fugitives, we saw plaster cast impressions of the bodies of 13
people, most likely family members, who were buried under the ash of the
volcano. A very knowledgeable guide took us on a private tour through the home
of wealthy Roman merchants, with the frescoes
that decorated the walls still vibrant
and well
preserved.
Rob & Alex left the next day to go to Rome, where they would spend 3 days
before flying back to Albuquerque, NM, to start another semester at UNM – Rob
in Mechanical Engineering and Alex in Law. We really enjoyed their company for
the week they were with us. They were so easy to have on the boat and Alex did
fine, even though she has not sailed before or spent any time on a boat – a
very adaptable and a very delightful young lady! Can’t wait to see them again.
We left Gaeta on August 26 and sailed to the Aeolian Islands off the coast of
Italy. On the way, we passed the island of Stromboli during the night and were
treated to an awe-inspiring spectacle.
PHOTO: STROMBOLI AT DAWN
Stromboli is still an active, though quiescent, volcano, and 4 times during
the time that we were passing, 12 miles off, we could see the eruption of great
balls of fire and smoke, lasting about 10 seconds or so each time.
The islands in this archipelago are very bold and there are not many shallow
places in which to anchor. After checking out the very deep harbor at Lipari, we
continued on to the island of Vulcano and anchored in an attractive large bay
there. This island is composed of extinct craters and one active crater, from
which warm springs and mud pools bubble. One can walk up from the beach a short
distance and bathe in the warm mud pools, which is thought by some (not us) to
have health benefits. The odor of hydrogen sulfide here was very strong, but it
was a pretty place and there was a lot of activity. A water delivery ship, the
size of a small freighter, arrived, bringing the island’s water supply. We
watched as it came in, dropped a hook and sent a man in a lifeboat to shore to
tie the boat with a line to the quay, all done so expertly and quickly as
hydrofoils came and went in the harbor very close to it.
We left the islands and headed to the northern coast of Sicily. There are not
many good places to anchor along the northern coast, but we found an excellent
anchorage near Tindari.
PHOTO: THE ANCHORAGE AT TINDARI
It is not very well described in the Italian Waters Pilot by Rod
Heikell, but
it is a large bay, with plenty of room for a lot of boats. It is protected by a
long stretch of sand bar beach along the north side and is well protected from
all but the east, with excellent holding in sand. On the west side are tall
cliffs with a monastery
perched on top.
While we were here, we experienced our first Sirocco – the
wind from the south that blows very strong and hot. It blows in strong gusts
that feel as though the door to a nearby blast furnace has just been opened. It
actually feels hot on your skin and makes your throat and eyes feel dry and
gritty. While we were here, we could see numerous forest fires during the night,
less obvious and dramatic in the daytime, including one on the hillside above us
just below the monastery. We watched as the yellow "smoky" or civil
protezione planes made trip after trip to land on the bay, take on water, and go
back to drop their load of water on the numerous fires. This has been a
particularly dry year in this area of the world, although fires are a potential
peril every summer.
We loved the people in Tindari – so many stopped by the boat to talk
including Stephano
and his wife, his nephew,
his niece
and nephew, and his sisters-in-law.
Next stop: Palermo to await the arrival of friends, Mark & Luann
Weinheimer of Oriental.
Arrivederci,
Peg and Tom
