Cetraro Italy 14 August 2015
We had a great passage from Tropea to Cetraro, 51 nautical miles, it was flat calm and very little wind all the way. We have started noticing a lot of floating “stuff” in the ocean. Today we saw a few plastic floaty toys and very sadly, a large dead turtle. He was floating with a couple of birds perched on top. We saw it from quite a distance as it was such flat conditions. There was also quite a slick running from it that you could see for a couple of miles. Once we got closer the birds scarpered and my goodness what a very bad smell he had. Nothing we could do so we just let him be. In Australia or NZ there would have been sharks and all sorts of fish feeding off the carcass, but there was not one fish.
We have been trawling lures now for a few days with absolutely no joy, haven’t even caught any garbage which is also unusual. Robbie has changed lures from hard to soft, from big to small and is running 3 rods, one each side and one off the back, and still no joy! The area we are now in, is known for its swordfish and dolphin fish, at certain times of the year. We have seen many FAD’s (Fish attracting Devices) which appear to be recently put in, but are not attracting fish at the moment so it may be too early. We have zig zagged to every FAD Robbie has laid eyes on.
We were hoping for a good night’s sleep but it wasn’t to be. At midnight they let off fireworks. Robbie was sound asleep and he jumped out of bed at the first big bang and was staggering around still half asleep wondering what the hell had woken him up.
PTA Degli Infreschi 15 August 2015
Seems like we are destined for disturbed nights, tonight a huge thunder and lightning storm came through with rain. We unplug all the laptops, phones and turn off all the electronics in storms like this in case of a lightning strike which would cost us a lot of time to replace the instruments, if we had to, and of course the money although we are insured our excess is $5,000.00
SCO Della Bay 16 August 2015
We woke up quite late, due to not much sleep and it was raining quite heavily. A couple of yachts had come in during the night and there was a lovely timber motor cruiser with young children on the mooring behind us. It was quite close to us and I was able to speak to them and ask if they would like the plastic toys, which they did. It was nice to get them off the boat and hopefully the 2 small children will get some pleasure. The father was impressed that we came from NZ with the boat and he said he loved NZ and that he played rugby for Italy. I think the poor mother was sea sick and they left not long after. The yachts also left. The weather deteriorated and a bad swell developed which made it very uncomfortable. We conferred with Peter and Heidi and decided to move at 3.15pm to a more protected anchorage.
We had a bit of fun trying to get the duck back on the top deck in the swell and wind but eventually we made it.
It was a 10 nautical mile run to SCO Della Bay it was choppy with small short waves which is uncomfortable but OK. We dropped anchor just before 5pm. The beaches were all deserted and there were 3 yachts already anchored and there masts were swaying in the rely swell. There wasn’t a lot of wind just this horrible swell which was sweeping round into the bay. Peter and Heidi came over for a game of 500.
SCO Della Bay 17 August
Another sleep in today, this was really nice. We never got out of bed until after 10am! The swell had calmed down a lot and the sun was out and there were already quite a few people on the beach. Peter and Heidi picked us up in their duck around 12 and we headed to the beach. We were met at the beach by a young man who informed us we were not allowed to land the duck there. We then found a nice little cove in the next bay with a walkway to the main beach. There was quite a bit of surf and I got a very wet backside getting out of the duck.
Took us about half an hour to walk to the village where we had a very nice lunch overlooking the coast. There were some big waves crashing on the very rocky coastline but there were still some swimmers braving the elements.
Peter thought it would be a really good idea to try some local Italian wine, and so I broke by alcohol famine and we ended up drinking 2 bottles of white wine and 1 bottle of Prosecco. Heidi was the only strong one who declined the wine! We stopped in at the little supermarket and got a few things, I was able to get ammonia, this is the first time I have seen it since Australia. I use it a lot for cleaning.
The walk back seemed to go really fast. Getting the duck launched into the surf was fun and we ended up with our knapsack getting very wet which had our phones and iPad in it. The iPad was OK as it has a waterproof case on it but Robbie’s phone got quite wet. My phone was in my purse, so it was OK.
Capri 18 August 2015
Woke up with a headache from the wine yesterday! It was good at the time but not today!! There was a light wind blowing but a long rolling swell which is not so bad. We had to fend off a yacht that was drifting and would have hit us. We started the motor and up anchored for the 58 nautical miles to the Island of Capri, the most famous island in Italy. We are looking forward to this, it is supposed to be very beautiful.
The passage wasn’t too bad the swell improved slightly, we had an uneventful 10 hours apart from a fishing rod going off while Robbie was talking on the phone to Mark from Starlet (Nordhavn 46) and us getting all excited thinking it was another fish, but alas! It was only a heavy duty sheet of plastic, which we kept, to dispose of properly when we get to land.
Quiet night tonight, cooking a Thai Green Chicken Curry and we will explore Capri early tomorrow morning.