Day 5: Ponza to Ischia

We had a good day today.  It started with me waking up at 7 am for our early sailing and being engrossed by Bill’s expertise making coffee through a very slow pour-over.  Thank you Bill!  The day kept getting better. 

On the weather front we had clouds and mild winds with a forecast of more winds throughout the day! A very nice change. 

And for the proof, we’re soon tacking east with the help of our engine at 7-8 knots towards Ischia. 

Jimmy’s happy. 


Dan’s happy he has lunch. 

Steve is happy he has autopilot. 

Amos is happy all the time…

Dan educates Wiltsch on where we’re headed.  

Bill decides to sleep on it. 

Jimmy’s tired of being happy and takes a nap too. 

I ponder the meaning of life, or was I pondering a nap?

Jimmy and I walk to dinner with the Piratis where we stand before the Castello Aragonese built 434BC.  We’re walking on ancient ground!

After a great day of sailing from 8:15 to 3:30 we arrive at Ischia Pointe and after a couple of dinghy excursion to figure out if or how we could use our dinghy after last nights fiasco we took a water taxi to the town and had an excellent dinner at Porcavacca (holly cow) and holy cow did we eat a lot of meat, pork and chicken! 

Luckily they were having Mass right across from where we sat.  Hopefully we’ll be forgiven for our dietary transgressions?

We leave our dinner in Ischia Point and waddle back on our wobbly sea legs to our waiting water taxi and on to the Saint Michele for the night. I’m sure more will happen before we bed down for the night (it does) but my internet sucks so I have to do my blog at the Porcavacca wifi during dinner. Good night Ischia!

Day 4: Ventotene to Ponza

We woke up Tuesday morning to another bright blue sky and warm morning.  Checking on our boat I found we had not not moved over the night, but of course how could we?

Ciao to Enrico (L)and his side kick Guido(?) waiting along the quay cheerfully helping boats depart and collecting the overnight fee. It was a fair price for a great space and support from him and his crew who made it easier for us first-timers in Italy. 

Another shot of the tiny, crowded marina and the Saint Michele with the red jib about six boats in. We had a calm and quiet night and slept well.  

Again with the calm seas and sadly windless day.  We left Ventotene around 10’ish and arrived near Ponza around 2’ish under engine power.   We didn’t even pretend to be motor-sailing today and never raised a sail. 

Approaching the east side of Ponza we spent about an hour along the east coast developing our strategy and overnight plan. 

By 3pm we had developed a plan, had lunch and time for a swim.  Dan, hosing off after his swim, is the last to board after we snorkeled around me for a while.  The water was warm and clear to the 10 meter bottom but the fish were sparse.  

Amos aptly guides our dingy as we motor about two thirds of a mile to the port of Ponza as we make our way for dinner before 7.  


Once in the port we met with a tangle of language and bureaucratic behavior that kept us going back and forth across the marina just trying to find a place to tie up our poor dingy for dinner.  After about 5 failed attempts at different locations we finally found this little nook of a place to tie-off.  Just to be sure no one towed our dinghy away we had a bottle of wine at the adjoining restaurant to appease the  commercial gods.  At this point we weren’t to keen on Ponza but the dinghy crew was stoic and pushed on to find a restaurant for dinner. 

Things made a turn for better as Jimmy guided us to a very nice Michelin rated restaurant where we found excellent food, wine and service at a reasonable price. 

Leaving the marina and the beautiful night sky after dinner we headed back to the Saint Michel to sip lemoncello and discuss where to go for the next day or two.  Good night Ponza.  

Day 3: Ischia to Ventotene

In the morning we wake to brilliant blue skies after yesterdays rains.  Bill and I decide to start the day with a refreshing swim in the bay.  

Jimmy uses his drone to capture a nice aerial photo of our beautiful boat, the day and of course the Piratis!

At 9:40 Amos and Dan weigh anchor as we leave Saint’ Angelo bay to move our sail further West into the Med.  

But the sailing gods frowned on us (and perhaps we learned a new lesson?) and we fouled our halyard (the rope that pulls up the sail) on the mast light fixture while hoisting the main sail. We tried for about 15 minutes to clear the tangle but the harder we tried the worse it seemed to get. Thinking our only option was to admit failure and make the call of shame to the sailing company to bail us out Steve remembered the bosun seat and I “volunteered” to be the Mast Monkey and take a vertical hike up the mast.  

Amos winches me up using the genoa halyard and in a few minutes I had the halyard free and we were able to raise the mainsail!  Luckily the seas were way more calm than yesterday, Amos didn’t drop me and everything worked out to plan!

Before we knew it Steve was working hard as the Cap’n as we motor sailed our way about 25 miles to Ventotane.  The seas and winds were incredibly and disappointedly calm today so lots of time for day drinking. 

However Steve did have to hustle hard at Ventotene because our plan to dock in the much bigger and therefore easier Porto Nuova port was hijacked by the guy on the harbor radio who sent Enrico out to lead us into the much, much smaller and difficult Porto Vechio. Enrico squeezed us into a very tight marina and Steve did a great job (thanks also bow thrusters and Enrico for the push!) and we ended up with a very nice berth in the  heart of the village and center of activity. We were too busy to grab a photo of the parking job but this photo from later that evening should give you an idea of how tight the marina is. 

Another new experience, we docked bow first and had to use what seemed to be a miserably small and wobbly gang plank to get on/off the boat.  Jimmy leveraged his past athletic career as a balance beam gymnast to make it ashore. It was a wobbly ass board and way more harder than it looks. 

In the process of giving Bill a hand coming down the gang plank my sun glasses were knocked off my head and became the casualty of an errant footstep. Good bye $12 sunglasses!!  Hello Bill!

A late lunch of octopus was had by all (but me) right across from our overnight parking spot. Mmmm. It actually tasted pretty good from the one bite I had but everyone else cleaned their plate!

. 

Ventotane has been worn down by the sea over millions of years and has left many caverns and caves. This tunnel connects the marina/town on the west to the east side….

….providing this secluded and calm beach and bay on the other side. 

Another view of the marina village and merchants tucked into caves worn into place over time.  

We had a very nice happy hour of wine and bruschetta/olives/cheese but for some reason the only picture we have from 2+ hours was this photo adjacent to our table of two attractive dive shop women and our server.  Oh well, you get the idea?

Facing our bow and the marina street scene you get  perhaps a small idea of what a very nice time we had today.  Good night Ventotane!!