As John said, we chose to detour to the islands seeking some solitude after Fiumicino. Well, in addition to arriving on the weekend (honestly, with this lifestyle we generally don’t know what day of the week it is), it appears to be a popular vacation destination for Italians. The pluses: pristine waters, caves, the town was pretty (the little we saw, it was hilly and my ankle was still mending), and there was an ice cream boat!! 😋 The minuses: when we showed up there were several hundred boats anchored off one of the smallest islands (many left in the late afternoon, but quite a few stayed anchored overnight), the marine traffic made for a lots of movement on the boat, and of course grocery shopping was expensive.
We played in the water a lot. As a result of that John had to do maintenance to the dinghy. One day, as we’re in the water he thought he’d see if he could board the dinghy from the water (emergency preparedness), but… he tried it from the back of the boat, which promptly lifted and fell back upside down in the water dunking the engine (ouch). Lots of cleaning and taking apart and the engine was as good as new 😁
We left the island heading to the Naples area to seek shelter for upcoming strong winds. We anchored near Bacoli. Refilled water and did some shopping and had another adventure. We’d been anchored two or three days without any issues when a squall hit. The anchor alarm went off, and we’re very close to another boat. In total the anchors of 5 boats loosened, it’s rainy, windy and everyone is trying to stay away from each other while anchoring again.
The anchor stayed in place following that night, even though the winds kept coming back for another two days. Now, here the town was good, we had lunch one day there while exploring seeking where to bathe because the water, to my eyes, was polluted. John thought it was OK, at least until the day we left, when he saw bubbles of something (???) rising from the bottom. So far John hasn’t grown any extra appendages (😂) from swimming there.
Another thing that happened, we think the dinghy was flipped by the wind because 1) everything inside it was done 2) the engine would not start. Fixing it was not easy this time, John spent almost a full day working on it, but it would not start. We needed a spark plug, but could not find it in town (where John would have to row the dinghy). We found it in Baia, so we stayed overnight at a marina and did laundry and shopping while there. That’s when I first tried out my ankle, did fairly well walking about 3 km each day to reach the laundromat and grocery store.
We are back at anchor just outside Baia. Dealing with the “hooligans” Italians on boats aren’t any better than behind the wheel of cars, so we get a lot of movement during the day as boats speed around us.
We’re leaving shortly for the archeological site of Terme di Baia. We’ll tell you all about it in the next few days. Patty signing off.
