|
Sail-World.com : Cruising with Balvenie: Island hopping in Italy
Cruising with Balvenie: Island hopping in Italy
|
New Zealander cruising couple Amanda Church and Mark Farrell continue to cruise in their yacht Balvenie, a 47foot fractional rigged, centre cockpit, sailing sloop built in 1991. In this edition they are island hopping in Italy.
Stocked up with Lemoncello, Creme Lemoncello and an abundance of free lemons, it was time to move westwards from Positano, along the Amalfi Coast.
Fromt sea level looking up at the houses clinging to the cliff and could see the road tettering on the edge. Having done the bus trip before on this island, this certainly felt like the safer option - not nearly as far to fall!! We had light winds again so motored along the coast passing Positano which looked as spectacular from the sea as it had from land.
We left the mainland coastline and headed across to the island of Capri, known for all the rich and famous who holiday or own exclusive property there. We had heard on our cruisers net that a night in the marina was 800€ so we decided to give that a miss, we looked at anchoring but there wasn't much room and there were lots of tripper boats coming and going from the famous 'Blue Grotto', plus it was Friday afternoon - it would only get busier.
 | |
The skies were clouding over, the weather was at last changing after our great run of clear skies and light winds, so we decided to save Capri for another time and head for an anchorage we could sit out the expected low that was coming our way. We put the sails up and headed north across the Bay of Naples to the offshore island of Procida.
We were just one of seven yachts in the Corricella Bay overnight on the southern side of Isola di Procida. Ashore looked like a movie set, a dominating stone fort sitting proud on top of the headland, higgledy-piggledy terraced houses falling over each other down the hillside in an array of pastel colours, the local fishing fleet tied up along the quiet harbourside and the scene completed with the church and belltower.
 | |
The next morning dawned clear and sunny, the low due through late in the evening. By late morning we estimate we had around 200 boats in the anchorage, most of them small power boats out for the day from Naples, picnicing, swimming, sunbathing, posing (well we are in Italy!!!!) and just generally having fun.
By evening just ten of us remained, amazing. The predicted wind and rain came through, it was the first clean rain we had had in months and it washed layer upon layer of Maltese dust out of the rigging and down the mast until at last Balvenie was clean again. Unfortunately the wind also kicked up quite a swell, life onboard got quite rolly from time to time, good excuse to spend more time ashore.
 | |
It was time for New Zealand to play Italy in the qualifing round of the Football World Cup, unfortunately the skies opened about 1/2 hour before kickoff so our arrival in the low key local bar was delayed. We just couldn't surpress our amazement when, on arrival, we discovered the All Whites were 1 goal up over Italy. We didn't make too many instant friends, but they were very tolerant of us and happily found us somewhere to sit in the packed out little cafe, their mood certainly improved when Italy scored, drawing the match. At the end they all wanted to know why New Zealanders were visiting their little island, and thought we had done very well sailing all that way. We got to be regulars there over our few nights at anchor, watching many a football game!
 | |
We had a good look around this little island, ashore it was pretty ramshackle nearly every house in desperate need of a 'do up' but its just got that feel of a functional lived in place with a laid back lifestyle, why stress about a new paint job!!!! Over the north of the island, all of 10 minutes walk, it was more orderly, there is a large new marina, tidy promenade and regular ferry services to Naples, quite a different feel to it completely.
The low passed by and headed for Croatia so we moved on from Procida just a few miles to the island of Ischia.
Squeezing in the tiny permitted anchoring area was not so easy but once settled the vista of the Castello on headland made the move worthwhile, ashore the island was green and lush and looked lovely. Fellow cruising boats White Rose and Eye Candy had arrived before us and had gone ashore, only to come back a long time later having not been able to find anywhere they could leave their dinghies.
White Rose had organised a water taxi so we got ready pronto and joined them for an evening shore excursion. Ischia is said to rival Capri for its natural beauty and it really was lovely, many trees, flowers, pedestrian areas and many Neopolitans looking seriously glamourous relaxing in all the cafes and bars. We found a cute little restaurant promising Mamas traditional cooking (Mama looked about 90!), the service, company, ambience and atmosphere could not be beaten, just a shame Mama had never learnt to cook!!
 | |
Early next morning we were awoken by two elderly fisherman, quite possibly Mama's husband and brother, through sign language it seemed they wanted us to move so they could lay their nets in the anchorage. Bleary eyed I explained as politely as possible in my non existant Italian that we were in the designated anchorage area and that we would be staying there, they looked at us in amazement and eventually rowed away - we went back to sleep!
Time to head ever westwards however the wind did not come out to play and we motored 26 miles in some rather lumpy seas out to the next island of Ventotene.
 | |
It's a small island lying north/south and not providing great coverage, but there was no wind forecast so we found a spot in what we thought was sand amongst 17 other yachts, dropped and set the anchor. We jumped in for a swim, there was the most fish life we have seen in the med, the surrounding area is all marine park and what a difference it makes it was great to see life under water again.
We also noticed we were on rock not sand, but hooked nicely to a big boulder and not likely to go anywhere. By dusk we were the only boat left at anchor, all the others had gone into the tiny Roman natural harbour which looked like it would only fit about 4 boats, conditions were pleasant albeit a little rolly so we stayed at anchor, and didn't even go ashore to the small village..
We awoke at dawn, bouncing up, down and sidewards in choppy seas. A 15knot breeze had filled in from the northeast, with a fetch on it all the way from the Italian mainland. We started lifting the anchor immediately, dreading the moment it would snag on the rocks. We should have had more positive thoughts, as it came up without a problem - Italy continues to treat us well. We cleared the island, put the sails out, bore away and had a very pleasant downwind sail 24 miles ever westward to the next island of Ponza....
Cruising Info for Procida:-
Anchorages - Corricella 40 45.322N 14 01.460E 9.5m sand and weed
Communications - WIND dongle ok, TIM and Vodafone on phone ok
Money - ATM's over in northern town
Provisions - small minimarket and bakery up hill by church, better provisions over in northern bay
Formalities - of course not!
Cruising Info for Ischia and Ventotene:-
Anchorages -
Castello d'Ishia (Southern Bay): 40 43.694N 13 57.760E 9.6m weed and sand, zoom chart right in to see the non anchoring area. We paid €2.50 each, each way for the water taxi. Other boats did manage to find places to leave dinghy but its not very easy
Ventotene: 40 49.756N 13 27.854E 9m sand, weed and rock. We couldn't tuck in any closer as it was all buoyed off for swimming areas. There were about 20 yachts in the Roman harbour, bit lively coming out into the nor'easter as its a tiny entrance. Good half way point to Ponza but wouldn't stop there again, maybe further down around the island a little would have been better.
Communications - No WIND signal for dongle in either, poor Vodafone and no TIM on phones Money - ATM's on Ischia
Provisions - Good supermarket on left side on main road in Ischia towards main town
by Amanda Church and Mark Farrell
Click on the FB Like link to post this story to your FB wall
http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?nid=73348
7:50 PM Sat 14 Aug 2010 GMT
Click here for printer friendly version
Click here to send us feedback or comments about this story.
|
|
|
Our Advertisers are committed to our sport, please support them!
This site and its contents are © Copyright TetraMedia Pty. Ltd and/or the original author, photographer etc. All Rights Reserved.
Photographs are copyright by law. If you wish to use or buy a photograph you must contact the photographer directly (there is a hyperlink in most cases to their website, or do a Google search.) with your request.
Please do not contact Sail-World.com as we cannot give permission for use of other photographer’s images.
Only if the photographer named on the image is Sail-world.com, Powerboat-world.com or Marinebusiness-world.com
Contact us
.
or complete our
feedback form
Contact us
.
View our Privacy Policy.
[ Go Home]
[ Banner Advertising Specification]
[Bot Archive ]
Customised news feeds -Marine Industry companies, Clubs and Associations have their own customised version of our Sail-World news feed on their website.
Look_here_to_see_examples
|
| | |
.jpg)
