Saturday
5th February 2005 - Almerimar
Well here we are
back in Almerimar.
We had a fantastic time
back in the UK – thanks to
everyone who put us up
(or put up with us!) and a special thanks to Al’s sister,
Fiona
for the loan of the car.
We were enjoying
being back in the warm sunshine until last week when it snowed
–
the first time in living memory here in Almerimar.
There is always snow on the
mountains at this time of year
(which is lovely to look at) but everyone was shocked to wake up to a
covering on the boats.
We thought there
was someone on our deck but it turned out to be snow falling from the
boom as it melted.
The marina was
inundated with Spaniards taking photos. – Nige took a few too.
Thankfully the
snow was gone by mid morning and the weather is now back to normal
– a mixture of warm sunshine and occasional cool breezes. Gales
are still raging further east in the Med. We
are waiting for these to disappear before
even thinking about moving on – regulars here suggest this
will
not be until late in March.
So given that we
may be here for a while we are getting back into the swing of life here
in the marina.
Al has joined the local Gym
for a month (€35 – cheap!) and now has aching
muscles having
been four mornings in a row, and Nige is planning more epic bike rides. We
had thought about hiring a camper van for a
few weeks to travel around the interior of Andalucia but this looks too
expensive so we will probably just hire a car for a week and visit Seville.
On the social
side we had friends round for ‘dinner’ - Bob and
Liz from
‘Yanina’ (Christmas card creators and jam session
musicians), and Alex and Ashley from ‘Celtic Wave’
(who
have just spent 3 months touring in a van – not a camper
–
a bucket for a toilet).
We arranged to get
together one afternoon to pool our charts and pilot books and get
copies done as needed.
This afternoon
carried on into the evening with a trip out to the supermarket for food
and more booze – the photos show how things degenerated
Monday
28th
February 2005 - Almerimar
Still here in Almerimar
and it
looks like we will be staying for a while. Today we have rain and gale
force winds and it seems that every other day there are gales and storm
force winds (force 9 and 10!) somewhere in the western med -
particularly around the Balearics which is where we will be heading
when we do set off.
We are managing to keep
ourselves
occupied and we do have days when the weather is really nice - two days
ago we had brilliant sunshine and Nige was out on the pontoon in shorts
and T-shirt servicing winches again - 9 complete now and only 1 left to
do. With most of our winter jobs nearing completion, we decided that we
needed something else to do, so we bought a guitar and are both
learning to play it. After about 10 days, Nige can play 9 chords and
can even change between some of them quite smoothly! We now have very
sore fingers on our left hands but they are starting to harden up
slowly. Will need to visit our musical advisor (Bob on Yanina) for some
more tips before long.
Not much else has
happened since
our last update - we both had flu which meant we didn't do much for
about a week. We started to feel a bit under the weather on Tuesday
15th whilst out for a Chinese (couldn't go on Valentines day because
Nige was playing in the pool competition at the Bucannero Bar!). On the
way home we popped into Las Uvas (The Grapes) where Nige had three
large brandy's and Al had three large Baileys (Spanish measures) in an
attempt to fight off the symptoms - it didn't work but we did feel
better at the time!
Tuesday
5th April
2005 - Almerimar
Well
we are still here in Almerimar
– waiting for westerly
winds so we can head off east along the coast to Cartegena and beyond! The
forecast looks like this could happen
later this week.
We
had a great time in Seville
and Cordoba
with Bob and
Liz last
week.
We hired a car and drove to Seville
stopping on the way at Guadix for lunch. This
is
famous for cave houses – there were chimney pots sticking up
from
the ground
everywhere!
We
drove into the centre of Seville
and straight to the front door of the Hostal - fantastic navigation
– then had
to find somewhere to park.
Still we were
sitting outside the bar next door having a beer by 6pm
so “happy days”.
Hostal Santa Maria La Blanca
(Calle Santa Maria La Blanca -
€40) was basic but clean, quiet and in a great location.
We
did beer and tapas that evening and
then spent the next
day seeing the sights – the old town, the Alcazar, and the
Cathedral (well Bob
did the Cathedral while we three went for a beer).
In the evening we went to see
a Flamenco show
– it was a bit touristy, but as the coach parties were paying
€60 (including
meal and drinks) and
we only paid
€12 (show only – tickets from some dodgy bloke in
the old
town that afternoon)
that was fine.
We did feel like the poor
relations as we sat separate from them but we actually got a better
view from
our balcony.
On Wednesday we drove
through
the countryside to Corboda. It was lovely – almost
like
Derbyshire but sunny. We stopped for lunch in a
village in the mountains and then headed into Corboda. The
navigation was not so hot this time as we
did not have a good map but we eventually found Hostal Almanzo (Calle
Cardenal Gonzalez - €50) and it was really
nice – more like a small hotel and it had parking!
We
spent the evening wandering around
the old town and
decided that it was worth staying an extra night. The
next morning we were up early to get into
the Mezquita before 10:00 for free. This
was amazing and well worth the effort (quite apart from the
€32
saving).
It is a Moorish temple with
850
arches but
right in the middle there is a Christian Cathedral – it is
almost
like walking
into the tardis!
After a morning of
culture we
found a ‘locals’ bar and had
beer and tapas for lunch – then back to the hostal for a
siesta!
In the evening we headed for a Jazz bar
expecting some live music but unfortunately this didn’t
materialize – which was
maybe just as well as we had to be up at 07:00 to get the car back here
for
12:00.
Back in Almerimar the
boat is
all ready to go, the name is
finally on the bow and we have even put up the cruising chute and the
storm sails to check them out. The cruising chute is a
massive
multi coloured
sail made of very light weight fabric to be used in light winds
–
we bought it
in Southsea but haven’t used it yet as it only arrived a few
days
before we
left - we didn’t even have a chance to
put lines on it. The storm sails are the ones we hope we do not have to
use!
The
cupboards are all full – we
have enough rice and pasta
to last all year – well you never know!
However we do know that there
is a Mercodona supermarket in
Cartegena but
it is not as close as the one here.
Monday
16th May 2005 - Cala Potinatx, Ibiza
Well,
as you can
see from the heading we have moved on from Almerimar (at
last!).
We finally managed to escape on 20th April, having been ready and
waiting for a weather window for three weeks. Fiona came out
to
visit for a last minute long weekend before we set off and met all our
wintering chums.
We sailed overnight to Cartegena to meet up with our friends Rob and
Brenda on Paprika. They spent the winter there and now seem
settled in their villa in the Mar Menor Golf resort - though they plan
to head off on their boat again later in the year. We spent a night in
the villa, along with Bob and Liz from Yanina - an evening of fine (?)
music with two guitars, a clarinet, a mouth organ and some dubious
singing! Celtic Wave and Cougar were also in Cartegena at the
same time so it was a bit of an Almermar reunion - many more will
follow as we all head towards 'The Ballies'.
On 1st May we set off again to Torrevieja for our first anchorage of
the year. We spent two nights on the hook in the harbour (for
free!) but did not go ashore as it rained on and off all day.
Celtic Wave were also there and told us that we were not missing much
(however Yanina spent two weeks there and loved it so who knows).
On 3rd May we headed for Alicante, with dreams of a curry. We
checked into the marina (€36 a night - the most expensive so
far
but it was Nige's birthday) and headed into town.
Unfortunately
the Indian restaurant was closed for refurbishment -
disaster! We
decided to save our meal out and look for another curry house the next
day. However our friends on Celtic Wave texted us that there
was
an Indian Restaurant further along the coast in Calpe - and they were
waiting for us to get there so hurry up! Nige spent a quiet
day
on the boat whilst I did the shops.
On 5th May we sailed to Calpe and checked into the pretty marina in the
shelter of the impressive Penon de Ifach rock (€18 a night -
much
more reasonable). As promised Celtic Wave were waiting
(having
been drooling over the takeaway menu) and so we went for a curry at The
Raj, along with Cougar. It was MARVELLOUS - just like back in
the
UK. In fact it had sister restaurant in Uckfield, East Sussex
near Celtic Wave's home town.
On 8th May we got up at DAWN and set sail across to 'The Ballies'
- 55 mile trip in the company of Celtic Wave, which was
pleasant
and uneventful. We dropped anchor in a bay off the Island of
Formentera where we spent two nights. We plan to spend the
next
month sailing around the area (Ibiza and Majorca), anchoring in bays
and only going into marinas to fill up with water (and when we have
visitors from the UK). The dinghy is now being towed behind
us,
ready to go ashore for provisions (and beers in beach bars).
So
far we have visited Cala Tarida (lovely spot - see photos), San Antonio
(where football hooligans go on holiday according to Lonely Planet -
too true), Ibiza Town (by bus - nice place - don't believe the hype).
We are now anchored in Cala Portinatx on the north coast of Ibiza,
waiting to sail across to Majorca when the weather is right.
Friday
June
17th 2005 - Bay of Roses, North East Spain
It
seems our web
page updates this year might be monthly - so many other things to keep
us busy!
At the end of our last update we were anchored in Cala Portinatx
waiting for good weather for the passage across to Mallorca. We
had only stopped in that Cala because our friends on Celtic Wave were
in there and told us on the radio that it was quite sheltered and
really peaceful. The next bit of excitement occured later that same
night when the wind increased and a large swell started coming directly
into the bay - we spent the rest of the night riding up and down on the
swell perilously close to rocks at the head of the bay. Sleep was
virtually impossible and we seriously considered leaving the bay in the
dark. As it was, the wind dropped a little and we stuck it out until
first light. We then headed out to sea to go to Cala San Vicente -
further round on the east side of Ibiza and well protected from the
northerly swell that had built up. When we looked back after about half
an hour, we could see Celtic Wave and four or five other boats from the
Cala following along behind us. We anchored in Cala San Vicente at
about 0800 - all calm and peaceful and were soon joined by everybody
else. Went to bed and slept for the rest of the morning. We spent two
nights in San Vicente and were joined in the bay by Ray and Shirley on
Charlotte II - they had been in Almerimar during the winter and had
last been seen in Cartagena - also our old friends Ian and James on
Trooper - last seen in Estepona in 2004, although we had spoken with
them on the VHF a couple of days earlier.
On 19th May we set off for Andratx in Mallorca - sea was smooth and a
light breeze on the beam - used the Cruising Chute in anger
for
the first time. Once again we were in company with Celtic Wave and
managed to get a few good sailing photos. Andratx proved to be a really
good anchorage - a small town at the head of a large bay with plenty of
restaurants and bars and a good supermarket (important for us
liveaboards). Stig and Alex on Celtic Wave were planning to head along
the south of Mallorca then on to Menorca, so we would probably not see
them again for some time - good excuse to go out for a meal - also had
been saving money on marinas by anchoring, so there were some funds
available aswell!
Our friends Fran and Rich were due to be visiting us for a few days at
the end of May, so we now had to find somewhere suitable to stay -
Palma would be great but we had heard that the marinas there were very
expensive (140 Euros per night). As luck would have
it, Ian
and James on Trooper were going to Palma and promised to phone with
information on prices - they stayed one night in Pier 46 marina in
Palma and it cost them 82 Euros! We decided to head up the north west
coast of the island to Soller - another anchorage that might be a good
place for visitors. Soller was another good anchorage - a few shops
bars and restaurants around the sheltered bay and a tram running to the
larger town of Soller a couple of miles inland - really quite a nice
place. We spent four nights in Soller and on the second day
went
on the Victorian electric train across the island to Palma. In Palma we
did a bit of investigation and found that we could get into the Real
Club Nautico marina for a few days at 38 Euros a night - not too bad,
so we booked a berth for six nights - at least we would have access to
showers for our visitors - and enough bars and restaurants in Palma
(even for Fran and Rich!).
We now made our way back round the coast to Palma, stopping in Andratx
for a night and Las Illetas - a small anchorage a couple of miles
outside Palma. Woke up in Las Illetas preparing to go into Palma when I
(Nige that is) started feeling decidedly unwell - did not want to stray
too far from the toilet (if you know what I mean!). Anyway, we made it
into the marina - our first night not anchoring for 20 days - had a
quiet day and managed a short walk around Palma. Next day, Fran and
Rich were due to arrive about 1600 and I woke up early feeling really
unwell now - bad stomach cramps - stayed in bed all day, did not eat
anything and only drinking water. Al spent the day cleaning and
generally getting ready for our visitors. Fran and Rich arrived as
planned, and after a quick chat, I was back in bed. Fran Rich and Al
left me there and went out for a few beers and some food (great mates!)
- I must have been really ill. Next day, I was not feeling too bad, so
we went out around Palma, had lunch in a bar and then out in the
evening for an Italian - I had pasta to be kind to my stomach and a few
beers for medicinal purposes! The following day we went out in the car
for a drive through the mountains, stopping for lunch in Deya and then
on to Soller where we had an ice cream - Big Mistake! I had stomach
cramp all the way back to Palma and then had to run for the toilets.
Decided that I needed to see a doctor, so we ended up in the accident
and emergency department of the Son Dureta Hospital in Palma - great
treatment - we were out within three hours and in that time I had had a
thorough examination (a bit too thorough for my liking!), an x-ray, a
blood test and a paracetamol because I had a slight temperature. All
the results were analysed and I was diagnosed as having gastro
enteritis - told to to be carefull what I ate for the next few days and
it should clear up. That was a great relief, so we met Fran and Rich in
town where I had a grilled fish (very healthy), and a few more
medicinal beers (not so healthy, but obviously feeling better already).
Had to take it easy the next day, but managed another night out in few
small bars and a great restaurant for Fran and Rich's last night in
Palma. We stayed on in the marina for a couple more nights after Fran
and Rich left as I was still recovering. Tried to have a quiet time,
but Bob and Liz on Yanina arrived in the marina - hadn't seen them
since Cartagena - and Ian and James on Trooper turned up
again so
we ended up having another late night drinking on our boat.
On 5th June we left Palma and headed back to Andratx to wait for good
weather to head north to Barcelona - Bob and Liz followed a bit later
and we had another night on our boat - probably won't see any of our
friends from Almerimar for some time as most of them are
staying
in the Balearics or heading further east towards Sardinia .
On 6th June we left Andratx and sailed overnight to Barcelona - quite a
good passage, but when we arrived, the Port Vell marina in the centre
of Barcelona was full - we ended up in the newer Olimpic Marina a
couple of miles away where they said we could stay for one night only.
This was bad news as we wanted to stay in Barcelona for a few days at
least. That night, Al phoned Port Vell and managed to book
the
next night there, and we ended up staying there for the next three
nights. Barcelona was a really nice place and we did the usual sight
seeing things - The Rambla - too touristy - a bit like Oxford Streer in
London, The Sagred Familia Cathedral - famous Gaudi architecture and
really impressive even though it isn't finished yet! Had a walk around
Parc Guell and went to see the Magic Fountains at night - great
fountains with lights and music. Also did an oil change and managed to
fit in a few bars - think I've recovered from the gastro enteritis now!
After Barcelona we decided to head along the coast and stop at a few
places before crossing the Gulf de Lion to Marseille. We tried to get
into a marina in Mataro but again they were full - this seems to be a
problem along the Costa Brava. We ended up continuing further north
along the coast and spent the night hove to off Cabo de San Sebastian.
We then found a sheltered anchorage in Cala de Sa Riera where we spent
a quiet night - just a couple of beers in a beachfront bar. Next day we
sailed further north - we've had quite good winds and plenty of sailing
rather than motoring along this coast - and spent the next night
anchored in Puerto del La Selva - a small fishing port. The
forecast in Selva was for strong north westerlies, so we left the next
day to shelter in the Bay of Roses - a large sandy bay with the town of
Roses in the north east corner - as it is early season, it is quiet and
seems to populated by elderly French holiday makers - we've only found
one decent bar! We've been here three night so far - anchor dragged
once when the wind direction changed - quite scary as we were edging
closer to the rocky quay where the tourist boats dock!, however
everything has been fine since we reset the anchor. Hope to get
away tomorrow - the forecast is beginning to look better.
Next
passage is across the Gulf de Lion - notorious for The Mistral and
rough seas - hope to post another update from somewhere in the south of
France!
Tuesday
July 19th 2005 - Sestri Levante, Nothern Italy
Well
we made it
across the Gulf de
Lion, have done the French Riviera and are now travelling down the
Italian coast - another busy month!
We
left Spain at
lunchtime on Saturday 18th June and, having filled up
with fuel, sailed overnight and arrived in Marseille the following
morning. We were not sure of the procedures when arriving in
a
French harbour so just headed towards the marinas. Before we got there
we were met by the
harbourmaster (Captainiere) in his dinghy. Far from
reprimanding
us he infact invited us to berth on his pontoon (€25 bargain)
rather than
going into the more expensive marinas. As it had showers and
all
other facilities we accepted - and had a ringside spot in one of the
busiest sailing harbours in the world! That afternoon was the
end
of a rally of traditional sailing ships which all berthed opposite
us. Then the locals returned from their daysails - for well
over
an hour they came in three and four deep and headed past us into the
marinas.
To
celebrate
arriving in France we went out for a meal in the old part
of town - and spent all the money we had saved on marina
fees.
Lesson learned - don't go into restaurants where they charge for the
fish by weight! Still it was a lovely meal. We
spent four
nights in Marseille, exploring the city (and its bars - the French seem
to celebrate 21st June as the beginning of summer and we of course
joined in a at a couple of late night street parties - music and
dancing etc!) and catching up
on chores. We left accompanied by a fleet of enourmous
trimarans
which were practicing for a race the following day - needless to say
they left us standing - they were incredibly fast!
We
made our way
along the coast towards the French Riviera, stopping to
anchor off two islands along the way.
We
spent three
nights anchored off Ile Des Embiez, an island developed
by M. Paul Ricard both as a commercial venture (there is a marina and a
holiday village - very Port Merion like) and as a centre for marine
research - Nige thought this was all a bit dubious - he imagined secret
experiments on people with two heads !?! We were expecting
tranquility but there were a number
of corporate parties going on which spoilt this - we were glad we were
anchored off. We did however manage to gate crash one of their
barbeques and got free sausages!
We
spent a
further two nights anchored off Ile De Porquerolles - we
arrived on Sunday afternoon and as we approached the island everybody
else was leaving for home - good news as this left plenty of room for
us.
There is village on the island and a fort which was captured by the
British in 1793 in a rather underhand fashion. The British
fleet
anchored off the island having fled from Toulon which had been captured
by the Republicans. The French commander of the fort had been
forgotten by the mainland and was unaware of events there.
The
British admiral invited him aboard and while he was happily sampling
the admirals claret, British troups captured the fort and blew it
up. The fleet then sailed off taking the hapless French
commander
with them!
Nothing
this
exciting happened while we were there of course, so we
carried on to Biae De Canoubiers in the Gulf of St Tropez.
This
was a lovely spot, 20 minutes walk into St Tropez and with a 5 knot
speed limit which kept out the boy racers in their
powerboats. We
went into town a couple of times and had intended to stay longer but
unfortunately a gale was forecast to blow directly into the
bay.
We went into Marina de Cogolin (at the head of the gulf) which had the
best shelter. We thought it would be at most a similar price to St
Tropez (€41 - we had checked out on foot) but we were
wrong
- it was €56!! We stayed two nights while the gale
blew -
sure enough we saw 40 knots of wind on our instruments and we were
sheltered by buildings.
After
the gale
had passed we returned to our anchorage and went for a
Saturday night out in St Tropez - obviously the place to be and our
first sight of the big money boats - most of which were British!
Feeling
a bit
like the poor relations we moved on on Sunday 3 July
towards Cannes. We spent one night anchored off Ile St
Marguerite
just outside Cannes but decided it was too far to dinghy into town, so
on Monday
morning we checked into marina 'Port Pierre-Canto'
(€29).
This was 15 minutes walk along the seafront into Cannes. We
spent
two nights here and really liked it - not as historic as other places
we have been to, but full of life.
Next
on our tour
of the French Riviera was Nice - we anchored in Rade
de Villefranche - a bay between Nice and Monaco - both were short train
or bus journeys away. Villefranche is a lovely old town on a
steep
hill with cobbled streets - some in tunnels under the houses.
The
location was ideal but unfortunately the bay was open to the swell
which rolled in making the boat rock uncomfortably. We put a
stern anchor out
to hold us in position but were still not happy to leave the boat for
any length of time. We decided to move into the next bay
which
looked better on paper but the swell still rolled in so we checked into
the marina at Beaulieu-sur-Mer (€36). This was a
lovely
marina, friendly and clean with showers operated by movement sensors
(very posh!),
and also good transport to Nice and Monaco, the town itself however was
elegant but dull.
We
went into
Nice on the bus for a day trip - had a great time explored
the old town, climbed Mont De Chateau, walked along the seafront
and then went for a meal in the old town - fixed price this
time.
We missed the last bus back and had to spend an hour in a sleazy
railway station bar before catching the train home at 1am.
After
a day of
rest we went to Monaco on the bus for another
day trip. Although the city was spotless, the gardens were
well
tended and the boats in the marina were huge - we got home in time for
tea as the place felt staid and too touristy.
On
Tuesday 12th
July we went back to Villefranche but it was still
rolly so the next morning we left and headed for San Remo,
Italy.
Nige's parents had been there many years ago so he wanted to see what
it was like. There were no anchorages nearby so we went
straight
into the marina. We were greeted by smiling friendly
marineros -
we soon found out why - €48 (PLUS €2.50 for a shower
-
unbelievable!). We
stayed one night and washed on the boat. San Remo old town
was on
a hill with cobbled alleyways under the houses (like
Villefranche). We climbed to a floodlit church at the top and
found an open air concert being performed by a pianist and 12 piece
orchestra. It was being filmed for Italian tv - we stayed for
a
while and then went searching for a bar.
On
Thursday 14th
we travelled 20 miles along the coast to Loano, a
bustling seaside town with a more reasonably priced marina -
€30
plus 50 centimos in the slot for a shower.
The
next day -
Friday 15th July we carried on to Genoa. This was
a
big, noisy city with a mosquito infested smelly marina, but we stayed
three nights anyway. Partly because we wanted to buy some
charts
and the
chart shop was not open at the weekend but also because we wanted to
explore. The city was full of grand buildings and palaces -
streets of them - many crumbling through neglect. On monday morning
Nige bought the charts and camping Gaz and I went shopping - I bought a
chicken from the chicken shop, cheese from the cheese shop...... there
were also a couple of small supermarkets but I had a great time with
all the Italian housewives shopping the Italian way!
All
stocked up
we headed off down the coast towards Portofino and other
bays in the the 'Gulf of Marconi'. We visited
Portofino
many years ago with our friends Andy and Judith who were working in
Milan at the time so were looking forward to going back
there.
Unfortunately the swell coming from the strong winds further
south in Corsica made Portofino and nearby bays look very uncomfortable
so we are now anchored 10 miles further
south off Sestri Levante.
We may go back on ourselves and visit them in the next few days.
Thursday
25th August 2005 - Isola Di Ponza
After
spending a couple of nights in
Sestri Levante we headed back up towards Portofino. When we
arrived we decided that it looked too crowded and so went into the next
harbour, Santa Margerita Ligure where we anchored close to the jetty
used by the tripper boats - this provided a great place to dinghy
ashore and also a tap to fill the water carrier.
Unfortunately it
also acted as the launch pad for the fireworks display that evening -
we thought we had a prime spot but the harbour police thought we were
too close so we had to move. They were right - it was a
fantastic
display and we would have been showered in gunpowder and
debris!
Still the next morning we went back to our spot and stayed there for 6
nights. Santa Margerita is a lovely town - a bigger version
of
the picture postcard Portofino (which we walked to). There
was
lots going on including live music at an Irish bar - we were the only
audience apart from the families of the musicians.
On Tuesday 26 July we headed south to Rada Di La Spezia where we
anchored in a bay off Le Grazie. The whole Rada is protected
by a
breakwater as a lot of Italian Navy vessels are based there, so the
anchorage was well sheltered. Le Grazie itself is just a
small
village with a few bars, a supermarket, a launderette and coin operated
showers - I made use of these facilities which are rarely found when at
anchor. We went on a bus trip into La Spezia which had some
interesting looking shops and bars, and also walked to
Portovenere. This is another 'picture postcard' Italian
village
with a crowded harbour - the week before Bill Gates' sidekick Paul
Allen was there
- his 'ship' took up the whole anchorage (there was a photo in the
Italian papers).
On Sunday 1 August we set off towards Pisa into the River Arno to meet
up with Bob and Liz on Yanina. It was Bob's birthday and they
had
some visitors - Midge and Lawrence - who were to stay with them for
three weeks. So that night we had a bit of a party on
Yanina. The next
day they headed off to Elba - we stayed another night, anchored up the
river, and then followed. The river made an interesting
change -
we saw foxes, herons and deer on the banks. It reminded us of
when we had our first river boat on the river Trent.
On Tuesday 3 August we sailed to the island of Elba and anchored in the
bay of Portoferraio. On the way we (Nige) broke the drum of the jib
furler. Fortunatley there was a sailmaker in the town who dealt with
Furlex and ordered the replacement part for us. We also
bumped
into
the previous owner of the business in a chandlers (he is now a live
aboard whose boat is in Venezuela), and he arranged a discounted price
for us - that was a stroke of luck!. Portoferraio is the main town on
the
island and is where Napolean was exiled for 6 months - we looked at the
outside of his house on one of our three visits to the anchorage.
On Saturday 6 August we sailed round the island to meet up with Yanina
for a beach BBQ to celebrate my birthday. Unfortunately the
disposable BBQ had been at sea too long and so we finished the evening
using the grill back on Strummer. The next night we stayed in
another bay on the south of Elba before returning to Portoferraio to
shelter from the strong southerly winds forecast and to wait for our
spare part. As it turned out we had a couple of really windy
days
with very strong gusts and boats were dragging their anchors all over
the place. We managed to anchor securely in a good spot with
only
one boat
infront of us - a dive boat - they anchor all the time so will have
good ground tackle and won't drag - wrong! In the
middle of
the
night I woke to see it drifting past us towards the pack of anchored
boats. As there was nobody aboard I called the harbourmaster
and
gave our position and the nature of the problem. I got no
reply
so blasted our fog horn 5 times to alert other boats and hoped for the
best. The harbourmasters however did arrive, they secured the
boat and contacted the owners who came out and re-anchored.
On Saturday 13 August we left Elba (on our second attempt - we had
sailed round to Porto Azzuro spent a noisy and windy night there before
returning to Portoferriao and repeating the trip a day
later). We
sailed to Isola Giglio and spent the night in a rolly
anchorage.
As we were awake already we set off again at first light back to the
mainland. We spent a more peaceful night at anchor outside
Santa
Marinella - we only realised just how sheltered this anchorage was when
we left the next morning and encountered a huge swell. As the
wind was not on the nose we just put out some jib which steadied the
boat and carried on - it was almost like being in the Atlantic again.
We arrived at Ostia, near Rome on Monday 15th August, and popped into
the marina on the crest of a huge swell - just like a cork out of a
bottle! We only had a sketch plan
of the marina as it had been built since our pilot book was published,
but we saw large power boats coming out from it so thought the entrance
would be big enough for us. Fortunately it was. It
was a
nice marina, only €1 fare into Rome, but Ostia itself was
rough. We booked in for a week (€280) and I texted
Fiona -
unfortunately she had a meeting on Friday so she made a flying
visit. She arrived on Saturday afternoon and left on Monday
afternoon having travelled from Bradford via London and
Amsterdam. We spent her day in Rome seeing the sights
(wasting
money on the tourist bus) - she said lunch was the most expensive pizza
she had ever eaten.
On Tuesday 23rd August we left Ostia all clean (boat and crew) and full
of water, fuel and provisions. We were planning to anchor off
Anzio but there was still swell from the gales in Corsica and Sardinia
and when our depth guage got to 0.5m in the entrance we changed our
minds and carried on to Nettuno where we booked into the
marina.
On the VHF we were quoted €50 but in the office they tried to
charge me €65 - I only had a €50 note and pleaded
that my
Captain would be very angry if I paid more - so they charged the
€50. Nice marina, lovely old town but not at
€65 a
night.
So yesterday we sailed to Isola di Ponza where we are now anchored in a
bay north of the town. The town harbour itself was manic when
we
arrived with ferries, boats and dingies buzzing around all over the
place. This bay is less manic - even peaceful except between
5pm
and 7pm when the Italians pop over from the mainland in their
powerboats and the beach disco blasts out music.
We plan to leave here tomorrow afternoon and sail overnight to Torre De
Greco - a marina near Naples - where we can leave the boat safely for
the day to visit Pompeii.
Friday
30th September 2005 - Malta
Well we are now in Malta - where we
will be spending the winter.
Our visit to Naples and Pompeii did not quite go as planned. We
sailed overnight from Ponza to Torre Del Greco in The Bay of Naples but
when we
arrived we
found that it was just a small, grotty harbour and visitors
berths
were non-existant. Consequently we carried on across the bay to
Sorrento but
these
harbours were also small and crowded - so we carried on past Capri
(which was like a powerboat motorway - this being the last Saturday in
August) - again, we carried on along the Amalfi coast and eventually
anchored outside
Salerno after 24 hours at sea. Not a good day!
The following morning we headed into Salerno and moored bows to the
'transito' berths where we stayed 4 nights for free. Nige went in search of camping Gaz
as we were running low but couldn't find any - everywhere had run out
as the holiday season was coming to a close - so we ate out. We visited Pompeii which was
fascinating even for us 'rubble cynics' - particularly due to its size
- a whole city of streets with pavements and full
height buildings. The journey there took a little longer than expected
- 2 hours on a local bus - but the train back took just 20 minutes.
On 1 September we filled up with fuel and sailed to a quiet anchorage
off Punto Palinuro. The next morning we went looking for Camping
Gaz in
the campsite ashore but again found none so sailed on to Scario.
This was a lovely little town but the Camping Gaz story was the same so
we had to eat out again to save what gas was left for tea and coffee.
We left Scario late the next day and sailed past Stromboli at
night. This is an active volcano that has mini erruptions every
20 minutes or so - very exciting but too small to make a good
photo. The next morning we anchored in a bay off the nearby
island of Vulcano. This island has hot springs where lots of
strange people were covering themselves in the volcanic mud and
inhaling
the sulphur vapours - much better photo opportunities.
After a smelly night amidst the sulphur fumes we headed towards Sicily
and the Messina
Straits. This narrow channel between Sicily and the toe of Italy
is renowned for its strong tides, eddies and whirlpools (known as
"bastardi's" in Italian!) which together
with the ferries contantly crossing make for an exciting
passage. Having studied the tide tables we approached at the best
time, and were passed by Kiah, a boat which had also spent the winter
in
Almermar and left there a few days after us.
Having successfully negotiated the Straits we went into Reggio
Calabria.
After an altrication with a local who was waiting to go into the
only available 'transito' space we spent a free night on the fuel
berth, and a local taxi
driver called Saverio got us a bottle of Camping Gaz - he arrived with
a photocopy of an article featuring
himself written by Rod
Heikell (who writes the pilot books we
use).
The following morning we had an early start as we were kicked off the
fuel berth at 0700, and sailed south to Naxos Giardini, in the shadow
of Etna,
where we found Kiah at anchor. We were intending to visit the
village of
Taormina, which is 250m above sea level, but a violent thunder storm
with winds of over 40 knots put paid to this idea that day, and as dark
clouds came over the following day we decided we should stay with the
boat. We then moved on and spent a couple of nights anchored
in
Brucoli Bay before sailing down to Syracuse on 10 September.
Syracuse was a great find - we anchored in the bay west of the the old
town with just a handful of other yachts. The town itself was
beautiful and there were lots of lively bars and
restaurants which we visited. On the outskirts of the town is a
greek theatre (one of the largest of the ancient world apparently)
which we also visited. Kiah arrived a day after us and we decided to
sail together overnight to Malta.
On Tuesday 13 September at 6pm we set off. All was fine as we
sailed down the past the bottom of Sicily, but then the lumpy sea
started. We had expected this as the sea level between Sicily and
Malta is relatively shallow, but it still made for an uncomfortable
night. We arrived in Malta, our home for the winter, tired and
relieved at 10am the next morning.
At present we are a in guest berth, waiting for the winter berths to
become available when the locals get their boats lifted out - hopefully
in the next week or so (the
price for the 7 month
winter contract here in Msida Marina is £735 including water and
electricity - cheaper even than Almerimar). Bob and Liz on Yanina have arrived
and are
having their boat lifted out on Monday for antifouling etc.- they have
still to decide whether to stay here or carry on to Tunisia - so we
have had a couple of parties just incase they leave.
So that's it - the end of our cruising for 2005. 1690 nautical
miles
travelled around 4 countries, 54 nights spent
in marinas and 95 nights at anchor or at sea.
We have loads of projects planned for the winter so we will be busy -
our Wind Vane steering system should be delivered in mid-October and
fitting that will be interesting. We are also planning to fit Radar,
and an arch on the stern with solar panels and a wind generator. We
are investigating upgrading the fridge (need to keep the beer
cold!), and there is also the engine to service and anti-fouling to be
done, plus we are heading back to the UK for a couple of weeks over
Christmas. Phew what a hectic life we lead!