Afterwards we took another stroll through the town, taking a different route, but the crowds were so intense we both got a headache and decided to return to Paw Paw rather than stop for another refreshment.
Still on weather watch for a window to depart, once back onboard, another perusal of the various forecasts showed conflicting information which was more like a lottery on picking what winds and sea state you wanted. Completely useless and changed to something different within a 6 hour window. Regardless, our early morning departure was scrapped, since we had no idea what we would be encountering, especially since a Low Pressure system was circulating between mainland Italy and Corsica Island, moving southwards. It was so frustrating because there were easterlies forecast that we could’ve taken advantage of, but that element of the forecast kept changing too. In the end, we got very light northeasterlies that did nothing, but create an unpleasant swell in the anchorage.
Having postponed our departure, we tried to enjoy a lazy afternoon onboard, but it was impossible. Firstly, because of thunderstorms not forecast, requiring us to be vigilant until they passed and then the increased mayhem in the anchorage that came out to meet us even after we’d re-anchored further out of the bay to avoid the situation that materialised, as yacht after yacht, speedboat after speedboat and megayacht after megayacht arrived. We may as well have stayed where we were. It had been a very long time, though, since we’d seen this many yachts in an anchorage, but as Roy pointed out, it was all very festive; not as crowded as New Year’s Eve in Sydney Harbour (Port Jackson), but it was busy. That, of course meant, we had yachts anchored on top of us from every direction, with the usual latecomers, who short scoped so they could squeeze in.
With all this mayhem and particularly because there were very few non-Italian speakers around when we went ashore, we decided to research Ponza Island, one of the Pontine Islands off the Italian west coast, only to discover it’s been a best kept secret that has managed to fly under the radar, frequented primarily by the Romans and Neapolitans, who vacation here. It’s charm has also attracted celebrities such as Rihanna, Bruce Springsteen, Mariah Carey and Beyoncé.
A favourite pastime of the holidaymakers is to rent one of the many small speedboats and enjoy the numerous coves scattered around the island. This accounts for the churn that we’ve been bouncing around in all day and well into the night, when they all return to base.
Our day ended with a lovely surprise phone call from Keenan and Brooke, who were on their way to breakfast, but wanted to introduce us to their newest member of the family, Milly May, and what a cutie pie she is.
A snoop around, however, revealed a lovely little town, painted in pastel colours reminding us the Greek Island of Symi, although inundated with crowds of people, mostly Italians coming over on the fast ferries from Rome. We did spot the odd foreign tourist, but they were few and far between.
The longer we’ve stayed in Italy, though, the more we see the similarities with sailing in Australian in so many ways; speedboat manics who don’t care what damage they cause with their wake, marinas full of local boats and, hence, no room for transients, rules on where you can and cannot anchor and for how long, no dinghy docks anywhere and very few places to land a dinghy, resulting in us permanent hunting for a secure location, preferential designated anchoring areas for locally flagged boats only, no convenient laundry services or laundromats and no convenient way to fill up propane tanks. We had the same opinion of Australia as we do of Italy, in that they don’t need or particularly want the transient cruisers, because they have a huge boating market of their own!
By late afternoon it was bedlam in the anchorage after the Rome yachting invasion. We’d barely re-anchored further out of the bay, to remove ourselves and Paw Paw from the situation, when a huge yacht decides to anchor right across our bow, less than two boat lengths in front of us and then short scoped to squash in, when there was ample place to go further into the bay. Needless to say, the cruisers were quite happy to stay there until Roy said something after about half an hour, when they showed no signs of moving. Lo and behold the response Roy got in perfect English was: “I was just looking at that”; really, well when exactly were you going to stop looking and move! It just never ceases to amaze us. There have been many times where we’ve misjudged our anchoring, but at least we’ve had the common courtesy to move before being asked to do so, especially when you can clearly see it’s unsafe.
While Roy monitored the situation in the anchorage, Elaine did the laundry then unpacked her summer wardrobe; at last it was definitely hot enough for shorts and t-shirts, but she still hasn’t braved the freezing water. Just having to put her feet into it every time we beach the dinghy is enough for her. Roy, on the other hand, braved another plunge before dinner time, after he was sure a speedboat wasn’t going to ride over him!
Dinner onboard sealed the day, primarily because neither of us could be bothered to deal with the crowds ashore again. Once in the day was enough.
Leaving Ischia Island, sailing further north along the eastern coastline, we noticed how populated this little island was too, but, since we didn’t go ashore, we don’t know if it still had an “ island feel” or not; Sicily certainly didn’t.
In extremely hazy conditions on lake-like calm, flat seas, Roy ran the watermaker as we motored again and Elaine took the opportunity to catalogue the numerous photographs and videos she’d taken over the past weeks.
By noon we could see Ponza Island on the horizon and by 1500 we were anchored off. It was a rather interesting and pretty island, interesting from the perspective of the various rock formations of different colours we could see as we approached and which we could see around the anchorage in more detail.
The anchorage we chose was a little closer to the very picturesque little town of Ponza, but it was a tad busier with local boats and water taxis ferrying folks back and forth to “Spiaggia di Frontone”(Frontone Beach) at the head of the bay and which is only accessible by boat.
By evening, however, the beach was emptied, umbrellas and deckchairs were packed away and the local boats had departed, only to be replaced with cruising yachts arriving late evening. This is likely a staging area for many yachts heading to Sardinia and first landfall for those coming the other way. By nightfall the anchorage had significantly more yachts anchored than what we had on our arrival, suggesting our assumption was correct.
Tired from our lack of sleep and another long day of motoring, we remained onboard and simply enjoyed the sights, before calling it a day and heading to bed, but not before Roy took a swim in what was very unexpectedly freezing water, judging by the noise he made once he surfaced after his plunge, while Elaine took advantage of all the hot water to soak a few items of clothing, all to be put in the washing machine tomorrow.
Before weighing anchor, we dinghied ashore to finish our provisioning and enjoyed a coffee and baked delight; this time chocolate croissants, at a little caffè called Officina, where we also enjoyed a chat to a delightful couple visiting from Australia. We also saw a few more brides and bridal parties having their photographs taken around the “Castel del’Ova” (Ovo Castle) on the waterfront, but, nonetheless, not a very pretty area for wedding photographs.
By 1100 we’d weighed anchor and were heading west to Ischia Island en route to Sardinia in choppy seas, primarily due to the numerous ferries and speedboats flying passed us in every direction. Fortunately it was a short trip and by 1400 we were anchored in a very busy anchorage, full of local boats visiting for the day. It didn’t help matters, though, that a very rude charterer who entered the anchorage after us tried to cut in front of Paw Paw to take the anchoring spot we’d chosen. He soon backed off when he realised Elaine wasn’t having any of it and increased our speed to block him! Idiots everywhere these days, sadly!
We did, however, have a gorgeous view of “Castello Aragonese d'Ischia”, but we were all toured out and stayed onboard, although Roy ventured into the water to clean our depth sensor, yet again, and commented on how warm the water was. Elaine, on the other hand, having seen and smelt the number of sewerage pipes jutting out from the Italian coast, there was absolutely no way she was jumping into any water around Italy. It did make us wonder, though, whether or not the Italians knew where their sewerage was going, because it never stopped them from swimming. Because of this, we are only running the watermaker when we are well offshore.
By this evening the anchorage had cleared out with a few cruising yachts left for the night. Given the summer weather we decided on a nice big salad for dinner, accompanied by a chicken thigh each cooked in one of Roy’s delicious sauces. It was the perfect way to celebrate midsummer.
It seems the Italians wanted a bigger celebration, though, when fireworks, raining down over Paw Paw, woke us up at midnight. As Roy said: “What’s up with these Italians and their fireworks!”. This was the fourth display in less than a week! Needless to say, this, together with the loud music that went on till all hours, was definitely not conducive to a good night’s sleep.
After breakfast onboard we dinghied ashore, passing under the causeway bridge of “Castel del’Ova” (Ovo Castle), which we could see from our anchorage and into Porto Saint Lucia, where we secured the dinghy at the 129 year old exclusive “Reale Yacht Club Canottieri Savoia”, then walked along the waterfront to “Piazza del Plebiscito”, the main city square, but google took us on a wild goose chase, in sweltering heat, before we actually found it. However, this allowed us to see “Fontana del Gigante”, “Statua di Augusto” and Litoranea Park along the way.
The piazzo was enormous, dominated by the neoclassical-style “Basilica Reale Pontificia San Francesco da Paola” (Church of San Francesco di Paola), with its hallmark twin colonnades extending to each side, located on the western side of the piazzo and one of the most unusual Roman Catholic churches we’ve seen during our circumnavigation.
Research revealed that Joachim Murat, Napoleon’s brother-in-law, planned the entire square and the large building with the colonnades, in the 19th Century, as a tribute to the emperor. When Napoleon was dispatched, the Bourbons were restored to the throne of Naples and Ferdinand I finished the construction in 1816, but modified it to represent what is seen today. He dedicated the church to Saint Francis of Paola, who lived in a monastery located on the same site during the 16th Century.
The church is reminiscent of the Pantheon in Rome. The façade is fronted by a portico resting on six columns and two Ionic pillars. Inside, the church is circular with two smaller domed side chapels and a centre dome at a height of 53 metres / 174 ft.
In front of the church were the statues, “Statua Equestre di Carlo III” and “Statua Equestre di Ferdinand I” and on the eastern end, “Palazzo Reale di Napoli” (Royal Palace of Naples), the latter explored after we’d enjoyed a coffee and baked delight at the iconic “Gran Caffè Gambrinus”, regarded as the “society-hall of Naples” for more than 150 years and where Elaine eventually got to eat a “cannoli“. Delicious!
Since the Italian Unification, Heads of State, politicians, intellectuals and tourists alike have visited the renowned caffè, including Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemingway, Sigmund Freud, Luciano Pavarotti and Angela Merkel. Every year, on New Year's Day the President of the Italian Republic enjoys breakfast there.
Visiting “Palazzo Reale di Napoli” was another wonderful surprise, given that the Royal Apartments have been beautifully restored.
It was one of the four residences near Naples used by the House of Bourbon during their rule of the Kingdom of Naples from 1735 to 1816 and later the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies from 1816 to 1861.
Construction on the present building began in the 17th Century and was intended to house King Philip III of Spain on a visit which never happened. Instead it housed various other members of royalty, including Charles III of Spain, when the palace became the royal residence of the Bourbons.
The facade was completed by 1616 and the beautiful interior frescoes by 1620. However, the decoration of the “Cappella Reale dell'Assunta” (Royal Chapel of the Assumption) wasn’t completed until 1644.
In 1837, after centuries of alterations, re-modelling, additions and modernisations, a fire damaged many rooms and required restoration from 1838 to 1858. Further restorations were required after parts of the building were bombed during World War II and the subsequent military occupation caused additional serious damage.
Today, the palace and adjacent grounds house the famous “Teatro San Cario”, the smaller “Teatrino di Corte”, the “Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III”, the museum of the restored Royal Apartments and offices, including those of the regional tourist board.
Satisfied that we’d enjoyed the highlights of “Napoli”, we returned to Paw Paw, but not before completing a quick provisioning trip to a local supermarket.
After a late afternoon nap, we dinghied back ashore to enjoy dinner at Mammina Napoli on the waterfront, where Roy had his long anticipated Napolitano pizza and Elaine decided on the scrumptious Mammina Special pizza, since she doesn’t like anchovies. This was followed by a gelato from Desìo Gelato & Pastry, before retiring for the night.
Back on Paw Paw, we made the difficult, but prudent decision, to skip our tour of Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius after Elaine’s minor medical incident, brought on by the sudden increase in temperatures we’ve experienced and that occurred as we were leaving the “Basilica Reale Pontificia San Francesco da Paola”. Besides being extremely embarrassed, we were pleased to learn there was nothing obscure or sinister going on, but we would like to extend our thanks to all the very kind folks who helped; the lady who gave Elaine her bottle of water, the gentleman who helped Roy get Elaine back into the coolness of the church, the gentleman who gave Elaine sugary sweets to suck, the doctor and his wife, visiting from Sicily, who rendered assistance and the efficient paramedics who arrived in a flash on a motorcycle. We would would also like to extend our thanks to the “Reale Yacht Club Canottieri Savoia” that allowed us to leave our dinghy on their dock and afforded us the opportunity to explore “Napoli”.
By 0630, after a great night’s sleep, we’d weighed anchor and then enjoyed a slow crawl along the Amafi Coast, passing the little towns and villages of Vietri sul Mare, Cetara, Maiori, Ravello, Amalfi, Praiano, Positano and Nerano, each nestled at the foothills of the towering mountains. While enjoying the stunning scenery too, we could see the coastal road high up on the mountain’s edge comprising a series of bridges and numerous tunnels. Along the shoreline, we could see lots of little coves and beaches, only accessible by boat, which explained the myriad of motorboats that returned to the marinas around Solerno last night; there were literally hundreds of them. We also passed plenty of “gin palaces” along the way.
The wonderful surprise of the day, however, was being able to anchor off the town of Amalfi, in good depths and good holding, to enjoy breakfast ashore, as well as have a snoop around. Given that there was a cruise ship anchored off too, the town was very busy, but not as busy as Taormina, on the island of Sicily.
We were completely flabbergasted, though, to see the number of watercraft of all shapes and sizes, from huge motoryachts to smaller tour boats, anchored off the town when we returned to Paw Paw. Being one of only two yachts when we dropped the hook, it was packed and Paw Paw was bouncing around like crazy in the churned up water. That was our cue to weigh anchor for the second time today and continue on to “Napoli” (Naples), but we were so pleased to have seen Amalfi, including the magnificent “Cattedrale di Sant'Andrea / Duomo di Amalfi”, a medieval Roman Catholic cathedral dedicated to the Apostle Saint Andrew, whose relics are kept here and which dominates the “Piazza del Duomo”.
Construction started in the 9th Century and has been added to over the centuries, overlaying Arab-Norman, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque elements, culminating in the 19th century Norman-Arab-Byzantine facade. The cathedral also includes the adjoining 9th-Century Basilica of the Crucifix.
In many ways we saw more from the water than we would have on land, making for a wonderful boat tour along the Amalfi Coast.
As we rounded the western end of the peninsula, with Capri Island to starboard, we were also delighted to actually sail across the Gulf of Napoli, albeit for only an hour, and we could see Sorrento on the northern shoreline, together with the infamous Mount Vesuvius, which erupted in 79 AD, obliterating the surrounding landscape as well as the residents of the Roman metropolis that stood in the volcano's shadow, Pompeii.
By 1530, we were anchored off “Napoli”, in the company of two other yachts and a myriad of superyachts, but our challenge was, once again, finding somewhere secure to leave the dinghy in order to do some land touring.
After Elaine dropped Roy ashore behind the breakwater that runs the length of the bay, he walked from marina to marina and got the same response: “ No, we have no space”; for a dinghy! Really! Pathetic! Thankfully the Yacht Club was willing to accommodate us, given that Elaine had “paid the piper” in firstly getting out of the dinghy and back onto Paw Paw on her own, then back into the dinghy to collect Roy while she hung on for dear life to the painter, still attached to Paw Paw in the swell, bouncing the dinghy and Paw Paw in different ways and knocking her all around in the dinghy. It was bedlam and, if anyone was watching, they truly would have wondered what on earth that nutcase was doing. Anyway, alls’s well that ends well; she never fell in the water or lost the dinghy in the process, but managed to collect Roy.
Both safely back onboard we enjoyed a well deserved sundowner, followed by dinner and bed; it had been a long, but fabulous day!
Fortunately we were able to motor-sail most of the way, which was a nice change from motoring and there were definitely a lot more yachts in this neck of the woods.
After Elaine tweaked her back first thing this morning and went back to bed to rest it, she then caught up on all the ARC 2023 activities to meet a few deadlines that were coming up, while Roy sat watch at the helm in between running the watermaker.
By 1600 we were anchored off Solerno, home to the first medical school of medieval Europe and the homeland of “mozzarella di bufala” and the famous Amalfi lemons, but what a disappointment. Not only was it a rather large city, but it was very industrial, neither of which we were expecting and finding a spot in the anchorage was a tad difficult too, since it was packed with locals out in their little motorboats enjoying their Sunday and, we presume, celebrating Father’s Day.
It didn’t help matters either that the northwesterly winds that were forecast, were, in fact, southwesterly and blowing straight across the Gulf of Solerno, straight into the anchorage. Fortunately the forecast that the winds would turn to the north overnight was correct and things settled down, giving us a calm anchorage to spend the night, for which we were very grateful.
While we had two other yachts for company, it appeared most yachts sailed on to Capri Island, but we wanted to stay a few days to explore the Amalfi Coast. That plan faded into oblivion, however, when Roy couldn’t find anywhere to land the dinghy somewhere secure when he did a diesel run to top up the tanks. No matter who he asked, he got a big fat “NO”! Not one of the three marinas would entertain the idea at all, resigning ourselves to the fact that we wouldn’t be exploring the Amalfi Coast by land after all.
That also meant we couldn’t eat ashore to celebrate Father’s Day, so bangers and mash had to suffice for dinner, but that was enjoyed over a nice long chat to Keenan, who was overnighting in Denver. Keenan was in total disbelief, though, when Roy relayed that it had just cost us €260 for 110 litres of diesel.
But, regardless of how our day unraveled, we’d like to wish Elaine’s dad and all the amazing dads out there a Happy Father’s Day.
