The Italian Job

Well after much “to-ing & fro-ing”, back & forwards to the police station, we finally managed to get someone to stamp out passports in Crotone. They obviously don’t get a lot of cruisers clearing in or out of Italy from there because n one new quite what to do with us. Anyway after 4 days in Crotone we had a good sail down to Sicily. We arrived at 4am & as we were approaching Sicily we saw a bright red glow up high, we couldn’t figure out what it was to start with as we were still 30nm away from land, however as we got closer Pete worked out that it was the red glow of the lava flowing down Mt Etna. We anchored at Taormina which is not far from Etna & could see the steam from the crater during the day & the lava flow at night from the boat.

After 2 days in Taormina we continued on to Messina where we were entertained by the antics of the sword fishing boats. Check out the photos, they have a 25m tower were the captain steers the boat, he also has 2 spotters up there keeping lookout for the sword fish sleeping on the surface. There’s a couple of crew on deck & then out on the 30m bow sprit there’s a guy with a harpoon ready to spear the sword fish as they sneak up on them. There are 12 boast operating in a 5mile square, we found it very entertaining & Pete saw one boat catch 3 fish, one after another. We also saw 2 sword fish asleep who managed to escape the fishermen. We had to wait a couple of days in Messina as the wind was blowing in the wrong direction.
Then we headed out to the Aeolian Islands. On the way to Vulcano we managed to hook up a 15kg tuna. We caught it on our small rod & when it hooked up we were going west & the fish was going east, the line was running out real fast. As usual we had the sails up, but at least it wasn’t the spinnaker like when we caught the Mahi Mahi. Pete tightened the clutch on the reel, it was literally “make or break”, luckily he managed to slow the fish down while I turned the boat around & 45mins later we had it on board. There was a fair amount of fish there, too much for us to eat, luckily as we were going into the anchorage at Vulcano we met up with some American cruisers, Tom & Pam on Imagine, they wintered over in Finike with us, so we were able to share some fish with them, We also gave some to another American Cruising boat & an Italian boat when we got to the anchorage. The habour at Vulcano gets very deep very quick which means there’s not a lot of space for anchoring, however as we arrived on Sunday a lot of the boats that were there had come over from Sicily for the weekend, so they disappeared early evening leaving a bit more space for us. Vulcano town is very much a tourist town, we didn’t bother climbing the mountain to see the crater lake, however we did see the mud pools in town, but decided it was too hot to try them out.
From Vulcano we moved to Lipari, a lovely old medieval town with the narrow cobbled streets & while it was also tourist it had a nice feel about it. I also enjoyed the many shops, but could have done with a shopping buddy !!!
Our next port of call was Stromboli. We just arrived in time for Pete to go on the night trek up to the summit of Stromboli to see the fireworks (check out the photos). Although it was only 1000m high there was a very definite change in temperature & a lot of the people on the trek were feeling the cold, including Pete. I stayed on board Saliander as there were some strong wind gusts coming through & the anchorage was a bit exposed, it was also rather rolly.

The next day we had a good sail west to Marina di Scario on mainland Italy, we stayed one night & checked out the local market the next day before continuing our journey west to Salerno. Salerno is quite large town, but not very touristy. There was one other cruising boat anchored in the harbour, it was an Australian family with 3 children aged 6, 4 & 2. They were heading in the direction we had come from & as they had only been cruising a few months so we were able to give them some suggestions on where to go etc. We were quite enjoying Salerno town up until someone decided they needed our outboard motor on the dinghy more than we did. We had padlocked the motor to the transom, but they had obviously come prepared & used bolt cutters to remove it. I guess we were more fortunate than the Australian family though as they not only lost their outboard, but also their dinghy….. We met a very helpful Italian man, Tino, at the marina who offered to take Pete around town to find a replacement motor. I think the ride around town on the back of Tino’s motorbike took a few years off Pete’s life, as they were going 120 kms on the busy streets overtaking on the wrong side of the road- eeeeekkkkkk!!!!! He returned looking very pale. Our Kiwi friends Trish & Morris, on Cygnus II, arrived at Salerno while we were there. We took the bus with them to visit Pompeii, what an amazing place. Although most of the artifacts have gone to a museum in Naples there are still lovely frescoes on the walls & mosaics on the floors in some of the houses, & some of the buildings such as the public baths & the brothel have been well preserved.

From Salerno we went to Amalfi. This certainly lived up to its reputation as being one of the more picturesque places on the coast, the town is very touristy but also very nice. The towns along this coast are built up steep mountain sides. They grow a number of crops, including olives, chilies & lemons. There are shops that are completely dedicated to selling lemon products such as soaps, jams & the main one being Lemon cello. The Lemon cello comes in several falvours - lemon, crème lemon, chocolate lemon & orange lemon, of course we had to try some & they were very tasty. We caught the bus with Morris & Trish to Sorrento. The trip along the coast road was very spectacular. The narrow windy road is cut into the side of the steep mountain side & looks like a scene out of a James Bond movie. We spent a few hours exploring Sorrento, mainly the shops, before catching the bus back to Amalfi. On our return we viewed the town Basilica which has a museum attached to it.

The next day we were off the Capri, the land of the “Mega Yachts”, we’ve seen a few “Super Yachts” in our travels, but the “Mega Yachts” are something else again. One of them was 4 stories above the deck, had a swimming pool, 2 fold out balconies at water level, one on each side, & a huge garage to house the 6 jet skis & who knows how many tenders!!! Capri was a lovely island that definitely caters for the rich & famous. The 5 star hotel charges 2,000 Euros pre night (NZD4,000), which included breakfast & just down the street were all the famous fashion houses such as Louis Vutton, Giorgio Amani etc. We circumnavigated the island & stopped off at the Blue Grotto, the boys drew the short straw & had to stay on board Saliander & Cygnus II as it was too deep to anchor. Trish & I joined the hoards of tourists waiting to go into the cave. We boarded a wooden dinghy & had to lie down on the floor while the oarsman took us through the narrow entrance, in fact it was so small that when a big wave came the entrance was totally blocked – quite an experience I can tell you…... Once inside it was well worth the effort, the water was iridescent blue as the sun reflected off the white sandy bottom.

From Capri we went to Ponza in the Pontine Island group. Once again the town was full of tourists & there were a lot of boats in the anchorage. We were warned it would be busy this time of year, as the Italians all seem to take their summer holidays in the month of August. We haven’t seen many cruising boats for a while now, it’s mainly Italian & French boats, plus a few German. We explored some man made caves. The entrance above the water was fairly big & there was a narrow channel dug out below the water to allow the water to flow into what appeared to be a big swimming pool. We have since learned that apparently the caves were created over 2,000 years ago & were used by the pagans for catching fish, there is also an alcove at the rear of the cave where they used to worship.

Trish & Morris left us at Ponza to head for Rome for a few days sight seeing & we acquired a new crew member. Trish & Morris’s Burmese “Alley Cat” joined us for the trip to Elba Island, our next port of call. It was a 20 hour sail & Alley did a great job of making sure we didn’t fall asleep on watch. She spent most of the night wandering around the boat & had an awful lot to say for herself. However since arriving at Elba she’s making up for the lost sleep. She’s no stranger to sailing as she sailed from NZ.& has spent the last 6 years on board Cygnus II.

Today is Tuesday 12/8/08 & we’re now provisioning up & getting ready for our next visitors, Chris & Tony, who arrive here this afternoon.