After spending 6 months in West Wales, Patty and I have started our travels again, this time in a Renault Master based camper van. We are currently near Rome having spent the last week preparing Lady Cindy for sale.
Patty and I will both contribute to this blog, this is just a quick update on whats happening now. In due course, we will blog more about our time in Wales, the van and our future plans.
Dotty and I have been slowly heading North back up to Fiumicino to dock the boat from the 15th. Most of my free time, and there has been a lot, has been spent working on an Android app. More on that later..
I was woken this morning with a call of ‘hello there’ bleary eyed, i popped my head out the open hatch above my bed to find a swimmer next to the boat. He asked to rest against the boat, he had swum well over 300m from a hotel complex ashore. I invited him aboard while i made coffee. His dry bag, which was full of water, contained his now wet cigarettes and a bottle of wine 🤣, did i mention he’s from Dublin? 🤣 he is on holiday with his girlfriend and went for a morning swim. We had a good chat and i took him back by dinghy.
In case you are wondering how Patty is getting on in Argentina..
I have now booked my journey back to the UK. It involves a £500, 33 hour journey using a taxi, 7 trains, a sleepover at Geneva station, crossing Paris by metro, a pet transport minibus through the channel tunnel and two more trains to Southampton. Well the alternative, was a 6 hour journey with two flights from Rome to Southampton via Amsterdam. That cost half as much, but dotty would have to travel as cargo 🤔 imagine her howling in the hold 😳.
At Southampton i will visit family and stay in a pet friendly hotel. I also pick up a car my uncle is kindly donating before driving back to wales. Friends have kindly arranged temporary accomodation while i look for something more permanent.
I have been developing an app called ShipsLog, the clue is in the name as to what it does. I am at the stage where i am using it myself snd ironing out bugs/making improvements. Watch this space for more information
We have reached Salerno where Patty needs to leave for a few days to go back to Barletta. I will probably stay here and work on a phone app I am developing but may move South toward Scicily. The weather forecast is all over the place with some models predicting more storms. One unforecasted storm blew through last night forcing us to leave the anchorage to seek shelter in Salerno harbour.
This coast would be beautiful and well worth visiting if it were not for the Italian boaters. I would strongly advise any cruisers to avoid this coast in July and August. The marinas are stupidly expensive, €100-€160 per night, some places even charging €50 or more to just stop and fill with water. Luckily we have a secret weapon for that and have got free water (we did tip the marineros). We have an Italian speaking woman to soften up the invariably male marineros 😉. The other major problem is the sheer number of power boats going past between 10am and 8pm causing wash. It is very uncomfortable rolling on an anchor and as the waves come from all directions, a stern kedge anchor doesnt help. The Italians have no sence of courtesy on the water, they speed through anchorages, anchor too close to other boat and pass far too close.
On the plus side, the scenery is stunning, water is beautiful South of Naples, at night the anchorages are like mill ponds and we sleep with the hatch open and star gazing.
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.
Hi, everyone. This is Patty. There was some doubt (mostly on FB) as to whether I’d return to John and Lady Cindy (and Dotty 😁); but I made it back, as planned, and very happy to have done so.
As John mentioned on a previous post, we hired a car to drive to Barletta. On the way out of Rome we thought we would explore some of the famous sites. First stop was the Coliseum.
Right after refilling Dotty’s water bottle I turned around and slipped on the marble floor.
Ouch!! It’s not the first time I hurt an ankle, as sprains go, this was a bad one. So, we spent the week in Barletta hiding from the 40+ weather in the air-conditioned apartment (not so conveniently located on the 3rd floor, no elevator 😬) . John has been an absolute treasure😍, taking care of me and keeping busy working on his app.
Thankfully, the ankle has been improving daily. I can hobble around quite well. Sunday we returned to Rome and Lady Cindy. Last night we left the marina, and boy it was eventful. We had to wait for two bridges to be raised to go out onto the open water. The second bridge was a challenge as it only opened partially and we were already having difficulty with the river current and navigating at such low speeds. Once we got to open water we got hit with 20 knots winds, so we spent the 20 minutes trip to the anchorage in an intricate and forceful dance with the sea. The reward was that we slept with a cool breeze and zero mosquitoes!!
We are now waiting for another set of strong winds to pass by before we start heading toward Sicily. Today we got some swimming done and we are slowly making progress on turning Lady Cindy from a bachelor’s pad to a love nest🥰.
John will be writing about his driving experience in Italy. 😜 Initially we planned on sharing driving duties, but that’s one more thing I couldn’t do with my damaged ankle. I’m really looking forward to reading that post!!