Friday 31 July 2015

Roccela Ionica

30 July, I didn't wake up at the usual 5ish,  so I didn't get my prompt 06h00 departure. Leaving Regio was pretty straight forward. The wind in the harbour was a nice 10kts from the North. As soon as I hit the channel, it picked up to a nice 15kts and a little bit of current helped. After about 5 nautical miles, the wind picked up to a nice 20ish and stayed like that almost all the way to the exit, where it got to a boisterous 33kts. The wind was directly from behind(well almost) and at that point I got up to 9kts.  The wind died shortly thereafter and it was back to the slave.  There was a bit of a current against the boat while I rounded the toe, and then it turned the other way, so did the wind, it was now blowing from behind, but at 5 kts. With about 22 NM to go, it picked up to 10-15 (not as per forecast), but I decided to keep the engine on and hoist the Jib, I was doing a nice 6-7 kts. With 10NM to go the wind shifted by 30deg and it went from 10-20 just a promptly - *NOT* in the forecast...  I carried on and decided to dock at Rocella as I needed a good nights rest as I was close to taking a nap during the day..

I caught up to NICA, a litle 24ft boat sailed by Evelyne and Stephan - I met them at Regio. They encountered the same weather patterns as I - but their boat is tiny so it was quite exciting.  Yesterday, we had a Pizza with Stephan, Evelyne, Philippe and Silvan. Philipe is sailing a little 8m boat in the same direction as us. Silvan (fixed) is in a J97, on his way home.

I'm have decided that Venice is not possible, I plan to leave the Med in September/October. To see Venice round trip would be 14 solid days (add a week for contigency), that would not allow me to see Greece or Turkey. So I will be heading off to Greece. I'm going to sleep this afternoon and go on a night sail, as it's a full moon..
Leaving dock

Farewll Regio
 The coast of the Ionian is quite bare, but there a number of smaller new towns, with the older villages stuck on some mountain top, away from the coast.. Makes you wonder of the past of this place..



 At Roccella Ionica the view of the marina from the restaurant.


 We had dinner at the local restaurant, which at night explodes. there are over 100 tables. The Piza gets sold by the 1/2 metre (its about 30 cm wide). Really good.

 So today, an afternoon nap and a star cruise!

Wednesday 29 July 2015

Reggio Calabria

28 July, left Vibo at 06h00, forecast was for variable winds 5kts till 9 then 9kts NW.. The winds were variable and not of much use, so I fired up the slave... With about 20 knots to go, the wind became useful, so I got in 2 hours of sailing. As I approached the Straights of Messina, I dropped my sails as it was quite a busy channel and I didn't want to be faffing around in big boat traffic dropping my sails, I also opted to stick to the eastern side of the channel, (instead of using the western channel for larger traffic). I had read about the currents etc, supposed to be 1 kts or there abouts..

The entry into the Strait, was uneventful, a 1 kt current helping me along, the channel gets deep fairly quickly at about 200m off it is already 20 m deep. About 5 miles in the wind went from 9ks to 19kts (not in the forecast), also noticed a standing wave, across the whole strait.. Checked depth an things looked good, going through the set of waves was easy enough, a this point I was approaching a pretty busy ferrry terminal, with two ferries loading, one departing and two waiting to dock. I noticed I wasn't moving much... Checked my SOG (speed over ground) 1.5 kts, boat speed - 5.5kts..  A nice bit of current.  I decided to add more power as he ferries were going along their business and did not care much for a pesky  little boat. I got the boat speed up to 6.5 kts(not quite rental power setting) but was barely moving a 2 knots. I considered putting up my Jib, but given I had noticed that the seams on two of the panels had come undone, I decided against it as I didn't want to risk damaging the sail further and so I, sloooooooooooooooowly motored on.  As I rounded the ferry terminal, I got closer to land and the current decreased down to 1kt and then virtually nothing.  The wind was helping quite nicely blowing up to 25ks from the stern. Docking went fairly smoothly.

I completed the formalities and was greeted by Servio - he is mentioned in the guide books. He offered Parmesan, Salami, white or red wine. I told him later.  After dinner, Servio showed up and he drove to his place, tried some of he wine, cheese, so I bought some cheese, salami and 6 bottles of wine, he threw in another two for good measure.

I had decided to spend a day here, fixing my sails as the wind in this area is pretty strong and I didn't want to risk turning a small torn seam into a large tear..   I woke up this am, checked the forecast - 9-10kts from the north. I fell for it.... The wind started at 10 and has been blowing steadily over 20..  All the forecasts were *WRRRRONG*.  I  dropped he jib, and got to work.. I was prepared for a quick 2 hour job(note no 5 minute job), repairing he two torn seams... Was I in for a surprise! The first 30cm or so of all he seams - the stitching was chaffed and damaged.. So I spend the day from 07h00-17H00, sewing my jib. True to the guide book, Saverio, showed up around 09h00 and a croisant for every person on every visiting boat. I got two. Saverio showed up and took me for coffee and tonight, I will join Servio for dinner at his favourite tratoria and tomorrow, I'm off, that is assuming I get my jib up...

*UPDATE* - with the help of marina staff, I put my jib up, the wind was blowing steady 20kts.. It was done *QUICKLY* as there was no sign of it abating. I went for Dinner Saverio, to a local taverna and dinner was chosen by him.  It was pretty good local food. I paid for dinner and I got thanked I was called "cornudo" (I guess Italian term of endearment). Saverio offered more wine as his thank you and wanted to know if he could bring me a croisant for breakfast or more bread - I told him I was leaving at 6, he was insisting, but it is one thing for me to get up at those hours and totally another to get someone out of bed.
In the channel, out of the Big boys way

Standing wave across the channel

Safely docked..
Buying Cheese, Cured meats and wine at Servio's

Fixed up

Yet another seam to fix..
 All the panel joints were in this state - guess it is abrasion from winding on sail to tight, I'll have to be more careful going forward.
Fixed..


Sunday 26 July 2015

Vibo Valentia

Still at Vibo, doing some minor maintenance on boat and mostly on hard drive, with the majority of my movies - for some reason the files are gone.. The disk still shows full, but no joy, so been spending the better part of yesterday recovering, what I can, almost done.. Tomorrow, I'll head off.

Update - I didn't head out - I ended up spending 3 days recovering my movies - still about 200 disappeared in the ether.... I did spend he time installing my music and movie player and ironing out some of the kinks.

At Marine Des Cogolin, I got Monaco Marine o do some gelcoat repair on my transom, as the boat was out the water. I was initially quoted 300 OORO - when he actual bill was presented - 600.. I was a bit stunned to  say the least. I brought the discrepancy to their attention and they graciously made the price 500.. Sill not entirely happy, but, it needed to get done. The repair looked good. About two weeks ago I while swimming I noticed that the repairs done were not done properly, jut looked as though they put a bit of putty and pained it..  So today, having a bit of spare time, I decided to fix the thing properly(well better than hey had done - to do it properly the boat would need to be out the water.. So here are he pictures of the rubbish repair
Note the crack
 After removing some gelcoat and sanding (I really could have removed more under the transom, but I couldn't get low enough)
Sanded and removed bad gelcoat and rotten bits
 After three layers of gelcoat and some sanding....
This is what I was expecting from the outset
   With all the maintenance out of the way, a meal a movie and tomorrow, we are back to the high seas.. I have emailed Monaco Marine to get them to explain the repairs done - will update with their comments

Saturday 25 July 2015

Vibo Valebntia - Stela del Sud

23 July, I left anchor and the forecasts were for isolated thunderstorms.. So I set my second reef and hoisted the sails, I got off to a flying start, with the wind dying down in 15 minutes.. I was sailing past a valley, so the Katabatic wind was blowing, once left the valley, nuttin!.. I ended up motoring all the way, fortunately with no thunderstorms, although I could see the clouds building and hear the thunder.  The last two hours, the wind picked up and it was blowing off my stern, I had put my main away some time back so I just unfurled my Jib and immediately was getting 1-1.5 kts, which was nice. I arrived at Vibo at 17h30ish, filled up and I could see the dark clouds arriving.. No sooner had I docked when it started thundering and a few spits of rain.. But no thunderstorm.  Docking here was a pleasure, there were 3 people to help, two on the dock and one just jumped on the boat and tied my bow, while I grabbed the stern..  It is extremely cheap and nice, so I have opted to take a couple of days, yesterday, did a bunch of 5minute boat jobs (the whole day), I fixed some loose woodwork in the main cabin (I did not for some reason fix this when I bought the boat) and I ran some wire to put a 12V socket with USB adapters in the cabin..  The forecast for Thursday and Friday were for storms, one did arrive, but wasn't particularly exciting, it looke fairly ominous, but the winds only got to 25kts and a bit of rain. The boat next to me set off, he was back within the hour apparently it was nicer at dock..
Ominous clouds

The ducks opted to go ashore..

Not looking good.

Today is provisioning and planning and tomorrow might be off to Messina.

Diamande

22 July, I left Agrippoli, for Diamande, is was another windless day, so ended up moroting most of the way. There were numerous forecast for thunderstorms in the area. I got to Diamande and went to the port (it's not finished) - so I set the anchor, with a clunk - very unusual, and went for a dive to investigate.. I immediately raised anchor, the floor was littered with concrete blocks, which I was not happy with, the sun was setting, so I motored on further south and found a beach, set the anchor and put out a lot of chain, in expectation of a storm at night as it was forecast.  Fortunately, I woke up shortly after 05h00 and set off to Vibo..


Anchored south of Diamande

Naples, Pompeii an Mount Vesvius

18 July, we set sail for Naples - as per usual, the wind was not playing ball, so it was just a 5 hour motor. We anchored on the west side of St Lucia Marina, looking at the Castel dell'Ovo (so named as the stone it is build from is egg coloured). On the Sunday we went for a sight seeing trip of Naples. Our expectations were pretty low - the Pilot's guide didn't rate it very highly. We started off our sight seeing with the Royal Palace. We then went on a hop on hop off bus trip, and we did two of those trips. We finished off the sight seeing with a trip of the underground cisterns. These were built in ancient times and were just expanded - during he second world war, they were used as bomb shelters. Very impressive, they are 40m below ground level. 

Royal Palace
This was built for one of the Spanish Kings, who conquered the kingdom of Naples. He didn't end up staying her, instead, his, Viceroy, then Napoleon's brother in law..
Entrance looking left

The walls are decorated in Marble, with carved reliefs

A close-up of the marble panels

Chapel Royal (redesigned sometime in 18th century)


Guy in the portrait is Napoleon's Brother in Law (he too didn't have a happy ending)

Tapestries locally made in Maples

Nice Vase

Equally nice vase

The walls have have a fresco covering.
Ceremonial swords and pistols belonging to Joachim Murat

Clock - depicting Atlas holding up the world (It displays, hours/minutes/day/month/phase of moon)
There are a total of 40 timepieces in the Royal Palace, guess the royalty didn't want to be late or they liked their hightech gadgits!


A decorated door

Flemish room (so named because they have mainly flemish paintings)





A flower vase and birdcage - present from Russian King




Another Cool clock

Throne room


Another cool clock  this one still works!

Job and his daughters - in one of the ante chambers

2nd Ante Chamber

Fresco, commemorating the Victory of Spanish King 

Cielling of 1st Antechamber
The ensuing photos are of the 1st Antechamber, this is where you were brought in to wait for an audience, this room is pretty impressive.



Note the 3D effect of the fresco, it is pretty impressive

The king/Viceroy's box in the theater
The gold looking thingy, is made of paper mache.

Done with the Royal palace and now for a Red bus tour.. This will take the better part of the afternoon..
New Castle

A view of Mount Vesuvius, from Polissipio

Wollombi II and Flying Fyn at anchor next to the Egg Castle

Unique style of Church, on the way to the Palace on the hill
We had spent 3-4 hours on the bus, going around Naples, only getting a taste of what it is.. We then went and did a tour of the cisterns

Cisterns
These were built in Greek times and were a way for them to bring fresh water to all the houses. This system was just enhanced by the Romans (no lead pipes) and even after them. The underground system was still in use till 18th Century, when a Cholera outbreak forced them to stop using the cisterns. During the 2nd World War, some of the passages were enlarged and they were used as bomb shelters. There were a total of 200 of these each housing up to 2000 people.

Steps carved out (2nd World War) to 40m below the surface

On the way down, there was a chapel, should you wish to stop and  pray.

If your house was destroyed, then you could use one of the caves.

You can just see the outline of showers(they were pilfered)

Sluice, like feeder tunnels, brought water to larger cisterns.
The wealth of the owner of the property above the cistern, would dictate it's size, in some of the ones there were up to three wells into the cisterns.
2nd World War grafitti - that one has "Vinveremos" - we will win..

The square holes, were used by the Pozzari (poor schmucks who maintained the cisterns)


Interconnecting tunnels (she was not a tall lady)
We had 1 guide for 25 people, he offered to take us through these tiny little tunnels, then promptly disappeared down one of them with us having a choice to follow. No signing of waivers or nuttin, quite refreshing. A member of the party wasn't overly keen on this , but democracy ruled..

Obviously there were going to be blackouts (during the bombing), the 3 insulators were the main power source, the two little ones were backup.

With some elbow grease and these badboys, you too can make your own system of custerns!

This used to be 1 house, in mediaeval times - this had 3 wells.

One of the wells belonging to the house above

After the tour, we went for dinner, an I had the *BEST* seafood pizza *EVER*
That was 2 meals!


View from anchor
After Dinner, we went back to the boat and had a bad Neopolitain experience - the Pilot guide warned of petty crime etc, so far we had been lucky. We went back to MnM's dinghy and found it gone.. We looked around and found it someone had kindly moved it.. We were about to leave and Mike noticed that not only did they move it, they also removed the anchor. Mike was pretty Peed off after giving some guy 10OORO, for claiming he had looked after it. Mike went and told him he wanted his money or the anchor back. Fortunately a club member came over and smoothed things over, he kindly gave Mike a spare anchor and we left...

Next day, I was going to go to Pompeii, as Mike and Michelle had to wait around for a number of days for guests and the guests would most likely want to see Pompeii, so I went on my own.  I was a bit concerned after what happened to Mike's dinghy..

Mt Vesuvius

This was a bit meh - a bus ride to the state park, then a bust trip up, a hike of 600m, then a walk around the crater down again.. It all took 3 hrs. I was done by 13h00 as I had gotten the 10h00 bus.
Looking over Pompeii 
Not the crater that obliterated Pompeii and Herculanum

 The crater we walked around was the most recent crater, I think this one last erupted in 1960(?), you can make out the 4 rings, the last four eruptions
Looking over Naples

The crater from another perspective

Looking over the Bay of Naples
Pompmeii
This must be added to the must see list... This one can easily (even me) spend a whole day walking around, this place used to house 60k people! I took a guided tour lasting 3hrs and they took us to the most prominent points.. Firstly we went to the Gladiator's practice ground, where they trained when they were in town, then we went to House Pompeia (One of the Emperor's wife's house), then public baths, red light zone, forum and done. I went off afterwards to see the amphitheatre.
Gladiator's practice field
 Then went off to see the large theater, this housed up to 2000 people for plays, music etc, this was covered over.
In the centre(where he lady with a hat and white handbag), there is a spot where you can be clearly heard all around the amphitheater

Stage to the right
 Then off to a smaller theater, this one only housed 800 people, this too was covered this, the stairs are original.


The Stage

Close-up of the stairs
 Then on to house Pompeia..

The Via Stabia - one of the busies roads
 The stones in the middle of the road are the primitive version of pedestrian crossing - the roads didn't have sewers, so at conveniet places you could cross..
Fast food Roman style - there were 40 of these.

Wagon wheels left their marks

Another view of Via Stabia - original basalt paving stones

Another fast food joint

Sign writers; handy work
 Even in the times of Pompeii, did they have signwriters, these ranged from political slogans (for candidates), to working ladies advertising they services to this one which just stated Cornilius..
Entrance to Domus Pompeia

Antechamber
 The hole in the roof drained into the pool below and was collected for washing etc..

Bedroom

Office


Hallway, leading to garden and more accomodation

Courtyard with garden

Dining room

Mosaic floor

Decoration on wall


Calorium

Cool room
 This house had both a hot and cold room



 On to the public baths, this is the change rooms, typically men would use the baths in the morning and the women in the afternoon. There is a big courtyard for exercise and a pool in the complex as well.

Looking at the entrance, note the skylights

Hot room
 The hot room, has a raised floor and double walled so hot air was channeled to warm up the room. There was also a cold room..
Courtyard - pool to the left, note the decoration on the walls
 With that out the way, the next stop was the red light zone - this was one of the largest brothels or Lupanarium (in latin, place of shewoolf).  Prostitution was legal in Rome, there were 20 official working houses. This one was conveniently located next to a hotel, where lonely travelers could relax..
 This one had 10 rooms, 5 on ground and 5 on second, each room had a plaque above the room, depicting the lady's speciality.

Bed - just need mattress, a bit o clean up working lady and customers..



 Finally the forum, this place had a supermarket, courthouses, temples, central admin buildings etc, it was all aced in marble, it is quite impressive..
 I then went to the amphitheater, where they had plaster casts of bodies found while digging. From the casts, it can be seen that death wasn't painless..


Infant
A dog 

A gladiator
With Pompeii done, it was back home. I returned to Port St Lucia, to find my dinghy still there, stopped off at Flying Fyn for a tea, said farewells(for now), a nights rest and then off south the next day..