Our Wakes: 2017

From Capri to Messina Straights (10 - 27 May 2017)

As we were unable to find a protected place around Capri island, we decided to continue our journey eastwards towards Positano. There is no marina there, but there are buoys off the beach that you can rent for the night. The night was quite uncomfortable because of a significant swell. However, Positano is a beautiful village with all the houses built on the mountain side. Visually, it is quite pleasant. We decided to move to Amalfi, the next village, a little bit further east but with a real harbour for Terus. Also, the weather forecast predicted strong winds in the next two days. So being in a marina was a much better idea. Amalfi is like Positano, built on the slopes and in the middle of it stands the cathedral. Amalfi is well known for its lemons which are quite big. A lot of products are derived from the lemons such as candles, soap, perfumes and a liquor called limoncello. But Amalfi is a huge tourist sponge. The streets are occupied by tourist shops and restaurants. Luckily, the cathedral make the stop in Amalfi interesting. If you go there, you must visit the museum. It contains a few beautiful religious objects, but the most impressive part is St Andrew crypt. The body of the saint is kept in the crypt and the walls are nicely painted with different scenes from the Bible. The next day, we decided to take the bus to Positano. The road is very scary and each time two buses pass each other you are full of admiration for the drivers who know the exact dimensions of their buses and how to avoid hitting or falling down the cliff. When we returned to the boat we were surprised at how much swell there was in the marina. Terus was jumping up and down by more than a meter. We thought that a lot of things would be damaged inside the boat, but luckily, there was no damage at all and this was thanks to the harbour master who had watched over the boats and made sure ours moved with the waves without touching the boat next to her. Signor Anielo, you really impressed me with how seriously you did this. You really deserve recognition for your devotion to your customers. The future looks good because Signor Anielo’s son is helping him and I am sure he will do his job as well as his father does it. Once the sea was calmer, we sailed to Agropoli. There is not much to say about this little village, but one train stop from there lie the Greek ruins of Paestum. There are three very well preserved temples here. The funny story is that the temples have been well preserved because malaria kept people away from the ruins during the Middle Ages, so none of its ancient stones have been stolen. Thank you little mosquitoes....The museum is located next to a site containing some beautiful paintings found in the tombs around Paestum. After Agropolis we continued down the west coast of Italy. There are a lot of mountains along the coast that make the view always interesting. There are also a limited number of marinas along the coast, so that we had to plan our supplies. In Cetraro, We were very pleased to find a supermarket that was very well supplied. Even if we had to walk 1.5km to get there, we were happy as we could res supply Terus with plenty of food. We were also happy to find out that the marina was well maintained and had very modern showers and a washing machine. We stayed in Cetraro to clean all our clothes. In Cetraro we realized that we were in the south of Italy as several boats were registered in Malta. After Cetraro, We headed to the Vibo Valentia Marina. It is a little marina but it has a harbour that can accommodate big boats of up to around 100 meters in length. They can handle petroleum and grain. We decided to stay 4 days as the marina was nice and so was the price. On the last day we discovered a big boat of the coast guard moored in the harbour. They were transferring a lot of illegal immigrants. The people in the marina told us that this happens about twice a week. This time more than 1,000 people were being offloaded, but normally the number is much lower. Seeing this happening is of course disturbing as we all know what the people have gone through for what they believe will be a better future. What we could see showed us that the people were treated with respect and the transfer happened very carefully. Our next stop was Tropea with a nice village located 60 meters above sea level. To get to the village you have to climb 187 stairs, but the effort is worth it. From there you have a beautiful view of the sea and you can see Stromboli, one of Europe’s active volcanoes. Inside the village, you can see a large number of big mansions, but some of them are in ruins. The rest of the village offers plenty of restaurants and bars for the tourist. You can also find agencies that offer excursions to Stromboli. The Tropea marina is also a very important charter port for German tourists. Every Friday afternoon, the crew brings the boat back and a complete inventory is made. On Saturday morning, the boats are cleaned and at noon the new crew goes on board. Sometimes they are not very experienced in boat handling so the captain is shouting at them all the time ....