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| Sunrise over Naples and Mt Vesuvius from the deck of Alcheringa |
July 27-28, 2013
It was now time for our final jump down into
the Bay of Naples where we would celebrate Karen’s birthday, visit the ruins of
Pompeii and finally meet up with
Karen’s parents, Trevor and Joy, who would be joining us for a couple of weeks
on Alcheringa as part of an extended,
overseas holiday.
We were up
and underway by 7.30 with a course set to take us across the bay a fair way
offshore to the channel between the mainland and Isola di Procida, the northern gateway to the Golfo di Napoli. We motored across the flat sea for the first hour
or so and then turned into the emerging gentle south easterly breeze to raise
the mainsail. Turning back on course and motor sailing, this provided us with a
small lift in speed.
The wind
had been predicted to swing progressively through 180 degrees before freshening
later and, for a change, that’s pretty much what happened. We were constantly
trimming the sails as we motor-sailed until we could finally rely fully on wind
power. There’s no better moment than when you can shut the engine off and enjoy
the relative quiet. By early afternoon we were romping along on a good downwind
sail and making good time towards Naples. Sheer heaven.
Approaching
the entrance to the Bay of Naples we became aware of just how much ferry and
pleasure craft traffic were threading their way through the narrow channels around
the reefs and mussel farms and decided it would be prudent to drop our sails
and motor through with maximum manoeuvrability. The theory may be that power
gives way to sail but no one ever told the ferry drivers that. They never deviate
off course for anyone. It proved to be wise decision as even not constricted by
wind direction we still had to work hard not to be run down at 20+ knots by a
hundred of the kamikaze power boat drivers and a couple of the many ferries running out of
Naples.
After narrowly
avoiding disaster, we headed for our planned anchorage, Baia, but discovered what was supposed to be an ideal spot to hang
out for a few days was in fact surrounded by ugly, derelict buildings and appeared
to have tons of potentially anchor snagging junk littered across the sea floor.
It didn’t take long to decide to switch to Plan B and make our way closer into
Naples itself.
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| Isola di Nisida has an infamous past |
On the way
we motored past a small island steeped in history. Isola di Nisida was called Nesis
in Roman times and it was here that Portia committed suicide, supposedly by
swallowing burning coals, UGH!, after her husband Brutus along with Casius were
defeated by Marc Antony and Octavian in the battle of Phillipi. Brutus and
Casius are said to have hatched their plot to assassinate Julius Caesar in the
villa on the island.
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| Our Plan B was the western side of the Bay of Naples |
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| We were able to anchor in good sand off an attractive area called Possilipo |
Our Plan B was
to anchor on the western side of the bay near an area called Possilipo which would provide good protection from the prevailing
North Westerly winds. When we rounded the point we discovered about a thousand
small boats spread around the whole place. That’s what we get for arriving in
Naples on a sunny, Saturday afternoon in summer. Regardless, we were able to
claim a good spot in six metres of water, reasonably close to a small beach and, as usual, 99% of
the boats disappeared back to their berths before nightfall. Their exit did
make for plenty of rock and roll from their wakes though. Italians only know two
throttle positions, flat out and stopped.
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| Gaeta to Napoli – 6.7 Nautical Miles – 9 Hours 08 Minutes Average Speed 5.1 knots – Max 6.7 Knots |
We jumped
in the dingy next morning and headed ashore to find a suitable place to
celebrate Karen’s birthday. Our first job though was to find somewhere we could
land and leave the dingy. The beach we were anchored off was clearly a private area
and we soon discovered the entire waterfront appeared to be a private affair.
Heading east along the bay we eventually came across a small boat marina and
decided to tie up to the end of one of the fingers. We waltzed down the dock
like we owned the place and then discovered it was some sort of private boat
club with, bar, restaurant and swimming pool. We smiled and waved at the
security guy on the reception desk as we walked out the door wondering how difficult
it may prove to get back in later. Oh well, that would be this afternoon’s
problem.
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| Our view of Mt Vesuvius from the boat |
We wandered
down the road, further east towards central Naples to check out a larger marina
nearby. If they had affordable berths available it would be a suitable spot to
bring the boat in for a night or two to top up water, do some provisioning and
have Karen’s parents join us. Mounds of rubbish piled in the streets did
nothing to attract our business and neither did the lack of facilities in the
so called, Superyacht ready marina.
It was going to be back to the pilot guide to find somewhere else.
The further
east we went, the grimier the streets became with litter everywhere, more dog
crap than a greyhound track and no sign of anything resembling even a half
decent restaurant. We walked for miles hoping things would improve but by the
time we passed the American Consulate surrounded by armoured vehicles and
Italian army personnel well equipped with automatic weapons we decided it was
time to beat a hasty retreat back to Possilipo.
We’d already built up a couple of serious appetites from our marathon walk so finding
a place to eat was now a very high priority. Fortunately we were able to catch
a bus back and save our weary legs. The previous afternoon Karen had actually
spotted a restaurant high on the cliff above the boat so we crossed our fingers
that it would be OK and made a beeline for it.
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| If the locals eat there the food's normally good and Ristorante Leginalla was very busy indeed. |
The bus
stopped right outside and we were instantly encouraged by the place being well
patronised by nicely dressed locals. Ristorante Reginella proved to be an outstanding
choice. Alcheringa bobbed lazily at anchor below us. The views over the Bay of
Naples to Vesuvius were fantastic. The staff could not have been friendlier or
more helpful and the food was to die for. We never actually made any selections
from the menu. Instead we simply went with our waiter’s recommendations and spent
most of the afternoon working our way through course after course of amazing
seafood and a couple of bottles of Italian bubbles.
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| Just warming up with the first course, which followed a plate of breads of course |
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| The seafood kept coming with the second course, as did the bubbles. |
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| The third course saw us cry enough, no desert please. |
The staff made a big thing
about us being from the yacht anchored below the balcony and before long other
guests came and chatted to us about the boat, where we’d come from and where we
were heading to. It was all very sociable and there were no end of birthday
wishes for Karen. We ran up the white flag before desert but did manage to cap
off a wonderful birthday lunch with a couple of glasses of the local specialty,
Lemoncello.
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| The views were fantastic. That's Alcheringa on the right. |
By the time
we waltzed through the doors of the boat club off handedly waving away the
doorman’s queries with a smile and ‘No problem, we’re just going to our boat’
repeated three times in response to whatever it was he was saying in Italian.
Once more a confident look and incomprehensible language got us past a
potential roadblock as he decided pursuit would be futile and simply watched
slack jawed as we trundled down the dock then weaved our way out to sea in our
small inflatable.
Back on
board, the birthday celebrations weren’t over yet though as we popped the cork
on a fine bottle of Moet, enjoyed yet another great sunset and planned our next
day’s trip to the ruins of Pompeii. That will be the next blog chapter.
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| The whole shoreline of Possilipo is lined with very impressive buildings |
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| Karen decided this round building would make a very nice art studio. |
Sometimes
we’re so busy out doing things we don’t have enough time to write about doing
things and our blog slips a little behind time. We’re working at getting it all
back to current at the moment but To stay right up to date with what we’re up to these days and see lots more photos check out and 'like' our Dreamtime Sail Facebook page at Dreamtime Sail on Facebook
If you have only recently discovered our blog and would like to read how it all started, or work through our previous adventures, click the link to go back to our first blog entry. Stuff it. Let's just go sailing anyway. We hope you enjoy reading the previous posts to catch up on our story.
