Cetraro to Capri

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 arrived at Cetraro around 2:30pm, Stormvogel were already anchored. Poor Heidi now has the virus I had. We had a swim, the water is really clear here but there were a few large jellyfish swimming round, Robbie took the underwater camera and got a few shots. Not long after we arrived a Diesel Duck arrived called Destiny, registered in London. They shouted out for us to come over for a beer later, which we did. It was lovely to meet another cruising motor yacht. John and Ava, live in France (John is English, Ava French) and they have spent 6 months a year cruising the Med on Destiny, for the last 7 years. She (Destiny) is now up for sale, and is a lovely boat with lots of room. We had a couple of drinks, (I am still on water or Soda Water) and it was great swapping stories and experiences. We exchanged boat cards and will definitely keep in touch. The last couple we met on a Diesel Duck was Bob and Margaret in Langkawi at Xmas time, A Scottish couple who live in Australia, and they have motored all the way through the Red Sea and Suez Canal ( they hired armed body guards for the pirate areas) and are due to arrive in Turkey any day now. We had a quick tour around the marina on the duck and saw a strange vessel, which turned out to be an oil leak response vessel, with a large hydraulic boom on the front which lifts down into the water to suck up the spilt oil.

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

Same old early departure, 6:30am. We had a very flat passage of 36 miles and it was actually a bit boring. So to liven it up a bit two things happened – Robbie actually caught a fish! Very much excitement, this is the first fish for nearly a year! It was a Bonito Tuna, we wouldn’t normally keep them in Australia but Heidi makes the best ever fish burgers and we gave them a call on the VHF and they said yes to the fish. Then we started collecting the floating plastic we saw on the ocean. We practiced our man over board procedures, I only ran over the man twice! We had a bit of fun and we ended up with 1 large green crocodile, 3 lilo’s, 3 paddling pools, a Spiderman ring, a ball, and I think that’s about it. Stormvogel joined the game and also scored a ball, and lilos. Most of it was partly leaking so we put a knife in it and threw it away. In perfect condition we ended up with a big paddling pool, a ball and the Spiderman ring. It was worth the effort to rid the ocean of this plastic which eventually breaks down and the poor fish, turtles or birds ingest it thinking it is food, and also we had some nice things to give to some young children when we next see some. We are presuming that this stuff just blows off the beaches and no one bothers to chase it.

 we arrived into the bay at 1:00pm and were assisted to a mooring (Gratis) The bay is lovely! Very clear water, a few caves to explore and a few small sandy beaches. There are some ruins up on the hill and one on the point of the bay. Lots of trees and bush around it is a lovely anchorage. There wasn’t any swell but there were a lot of small motorboats all rafted up to each other on the moorings. The boats right in front of us had a boom box happening, with great music and lots of bikini girls which Robbie thought was pretty good, oh and, some Italian men in small white briefs dancing on the bow. They had a lot of fun and It was actually quite entertaining just watching them. We took the Kayak and explored one of the caves, it was quite big and went a long way in. I chickened out before the cave ran out! We didn’t have a torch and it was very dark! We relaxed on the beach for a while and then back to the boat and Peter and Heidi came over and we sat up on the fly bridge enjoying the music and dancing. Robbie cooked the fish burgers on the Bar-B-Q and they were really beautiful. Poor Heidi didn’t eat any as she wasn’t feeling well. Slowly one by one the boats left, the party boats were one of the last to leave, and we were desperately hoping they would leave, we didn’t fancy another sleepless night from loud music.

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.

It was a nice walk up some quite steep steps and path with lovely views over the bay. To get to the main beach we had to go across a small but very brown river, which was done by a small floating barge connected to ropes which was pulled across by a guy on each side.

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.