Economy in Europe

Ok, so usually I don't pay attention to politics and the economy but by chance I stumbled on a currency exchange page on Google while reading about the earthquake in Italy. There is an interesting graph on the page showing the rise and fall of one against the other and it seems that the Euro is falling with respect to the Canadian dollar. I guess it might be a good idea to take a look again before I use an ATM machine in Greece.

Let's see, if I take out 100 Euros and the exchange is 1.6 I need 160 dollars. If I wait until it's worth 1.5, I need 150 dollars - save 10 dollars. Not bad. From yesterday to today, I would have saved three dollars. Enough for a coffee and a pastry. If I wait long enough, perhaps I'll be able to buy a month worth of groceries with the money I save. I'm not complaining...

Now, the earthquake does concern me - I have friends in Italy. Hope they're all ok but still it's terrible for the families of the people who died. I send my prayers to them.

Palermo, Sicily

We are in a marina north of Palermo for the past two days, waiting for yet another weather disturbance to move through. Gusty winds of force 5-7 from the NW, thunderstorms, rain and then periods of sun during which we catch up on laundry, shopping and boat maintenance.

It's not a bad place to stop – there is a good chandlery and market nearby with street sellers offering fish, olives, fruit and vegetables. The ice cream and bread are wonderful as well.

When we arrived, we were welcomed to a dock on the private club side of the marina by Nino and Jackomo who, after helping us tie up and hook up to power and water, have invited us to share pasta and wonderful Sicilian wine with them. In turn, we had Nino and his family over for drinks and home made tiramisu, thanks to Nino's wife Marisa's assistance with her special recipe. They also took us shopping with their car for more wine and other heavy items. My crew, Rob is repairing Alexandro's video game box and if we don't watch out, we'll end up growing roots here. Perhaps that wouldn't be such a bad idea, except for the curiosity to see what's past the next headland that keeps us moving.

And so, while waiting for the weather, Rob, has installed a drinking water tap with an inline filter, so we can be sure of good quality water. He also installed an anti-siphon for the head water intake, and so I no longer have to worry about forgetting to shut off the valve and sinking the boat. The next project is to install a manual pump for the holding tank because we haven't been able to find a pump out station in Italy. The Yanmar is humming happily and can now do 6 knots without straining, due to some well deserved maintenance, the outboard has new spark plugs, and over all, Eidos is happy.

As soon as the squally wind eases (tomorrow, we hope) and it stops pouring rain, we plan to head towards the Lipari islands. There are two volcanos (Stromboli and Vulcano) that are worth seeing. Stromboli is continuously errupting and pouring lava into the sea. It is supposedly a wonderful sight to see at night. And you can walk down into the crater of Vulcano (and I mean you can – I don't intend to) to dip your feet into geysers and hot pools if you can stand the smell of sulphur.

We are about a week behind schedule, but such is the life of cruisers – plans made in sand. Ciao for now.

Mazara del Vallo, Sicily

We are finally in Sicily and back to the Italian way of life - good wine, good food, and more northwesterly winds!! We have been in Mazara del Vella for the past four days with winds of force 5-7 on the nose (what is new). Meanwhile, while trying to upload a navigation program my laptop finally gave up the ghost and so I am now laptop-less. Luckily most of my work was backed up. However, I am not sure which emails I have answered and which I have not, so forgive me if you get several replies. If you don't hear from me, please write again - I am really not ignoring you (smile).

The computers run 10 times faster in Italy than in Tunisia, and even though I miss Tunisia already, I am enjoying the fun attitude of the Italians. And of course I hope to catch up here with some photos and updates while we're waiting for some southerly winds to take us back north and then around the north coast of Sicily to the Aeolian islands, Stromboli and Mt. Etna which I believe is still erupting.

Sicily

Sicily ahoy!

Made it so far! Overnight crossing from Capri and now we're in Palermo, Sicily. Again waiting for weather (south winds - which means on the nose - predicted for the end of this week).
We're a bit in a hurry to get to Tunisia before the winter storms begin. May have to come back here next spring. It certainly is beautiful.

Capri

Road to the sea

One of the sea caves on the west coast of Capri

View of marina Capri

We're on Capri right now after having visited Pompeii and Vesuvius.
Capri is beautiful and I am considering staying here for the winter although I can imagine that it gets a lot colder and wetter. We're having 25 -30 knot winds right now, so staying put and doing some sightseeing. It's too rough to see the Blue Grotto, but there is a stunning view everywhere and lots of other sights. The bus ride to Anacapri is amazing! Right alongside the cliff that goes about a thousand feet down.

Vesuvius and Pompei

Here is a view of the inside Vesuvius' crater which is plugged right now. Good thing too. Otherwise, it could blow at any time or so I heard from the guide. Was he trying to frighten the tourists? 

Pompei

This is the view of Vesuvius from Pompei.

We by passed Naples because I was really worried about the Mafia. Herbert got robbed on a subway in Rome and we didn't want any more problems like that. Also, we couldn't find a vacant spot since most of the residents had their boats back in the harbour for the winter. So, we tied up in a marina south of Naples, called Torre del Greco (thank you Herbert), which was actually closer to Vesuvius and Pompei. We could actually see Vesuvius from the boat! What if it erupted while we were there??

A dock master who looked like a character from the movie Godfather was very friendly and promised us that Eidos would be absolutely safe while we were gone for the day (from a volcanic erruption as well as the Mafia I guessed). A bit of bad reputation perhaps helped to improve the situation, because the cruising guide warned us that the marina was in a poor and perhaps dangerous neighbourhood. We were the only cruisers there but found the locals friendly and warm. And the daily rate for a 10 metre boat was 40 Euros as opposed to 100 Euros in dirty Naples. In October!

While we were there, we noticed a lot of garbage in piles all over the sides of the roads. We asked our guide on top of Vesuvius and were told that the Mafia is in charge of garbage disposal (hmmm - interesting) and they get paid by the city fathers ahead of time. So... where is the incentive? This is one place where I wouldn't want to live.

ROME

Nancy and Rich in front of the Coloseum

Bob

This is the Tiber River, near Rome. full of boatyards and marinas and the closest one can get with a boat to this wonderful city. Hmmm, perhaps I should launch the dinghy and get even closer? By train it takes about half an hour.

Proof that I was there!

And thanks to a knight in shining armour I might get my photos back!

P.S. I finally added a few new photos to Flickr. The ones that are missing hopefully will be recovered soon from my hard drive.

Rain, rain, go away!!!

We've had two gales go through and it's been raining for the past two days, so I'm stuck in the marina at Santa Marinella, about 20 miles north of Rome. It's only an hour and a half by train, but there really is no point in getting soaked getting to and from town. However, I might just find a good museum that's open today (Sunday) dodge the rain and hide out there. Hopefully tomorrow the sun will return and the seas will calm down a bit, so maybe I can sail south a bit closer to Rome. And away from this weather! Luckily the port captain is letting me use his computer and Internet or else I'd go stir crazy.

All roads lead to Rome

All roads lead to Rome and we are here. We had a very good crossing of two days and a night) from Olbia with SE winds of between 5 and 15 knots and flat seas for the most part. Ideal conditions you might say.

Today we are visiting Rome and catching up on practical aspects of cruising such as updating blogs, checking into ferry schedules for Nancy and Rich and catching up on email. Tomorrow we'll do a tourist tour of Rome.

Meanwhile, my computer is still giving me problems (very long story), so I'll have to find a better way to dowload photos. Soon...

Sardinia to mainland Italy

We didn't stay long on the island of Sardinia, just sailed along the north-east coast to Olbia. One day I will go and tour the island by land. Nancy and Rich came to visit and help with the crossing. 

No need to work out at the gym for this fisherman.

Olbia, Sardinia

We are leaving Olbia harbour, and the channel is very narrow. I hope the ferry captain sees us...

Sunset in the middle of Tyrrhenian Sea

Moving on??? Marina di Campo, Elba

Never say where you are sailing to - King Neptune has a way of stopping your plans cold. We HOPE to sail to Corsica tomorrow, but the barometer has been falling and we had some rain and clouds today. Nevertheless, one hopes. We are waiting on the south coast of Elba at Marina di Campo and with luck might make an overnight crossing tomorrow. Where we will arrive is anyone's guess. Safe and sound we hope.

Elba with Kyra and Rick

We just arrived on Elba and it is HOT!!! here as everywhere else around. We had a wonderful but long (35 miles - 10 hours) sail from the mainland (Marina de Medici). With the haze, for a while we couldn't see land even at 10 miles.

The island is very beautiful, very expensive (60 euros per day to tie up in town so we're anchored) but very beautiful. Being anchored also has the advantage of being able to jump in to cool off at any time and of course it is cooler away from the concrete.

Lots of ferries come and go every hour or so, so it is not a place to go to, to get away from it all but we'll try to find some quieter spot.

We will probably stay here in Portoferaio and tour the island by bus or on bikes. Or perhaps move the boat a few times around the island. Not decided yet. I hope to find a place to download a few photos soon to show you.

Florence's nightingale

We're in Marina Pisa, which is just inside the mouth of the river Arno, and will be spending the next few days visiting Pisa and Florence. I was in Florence over 20 years ago, well, maybe longer than that, but it would give away personal information if I told you exactly how long ago it was, so I won't.

Anyway, my favourite place in Florence at that time was not the Uffizi Gallery nor the Duomo cathedral, not even the naked statue of David, but the train station bar where a fat, Paganini look-a-like cook would call out at the top of his tenor, "fettuccine alfredo," and "tortellini al burro," or more like, "fettuccine alfrEEEdo", and " tortellini alBUUUrro," aimed at the customers who waited for their orders and then sat at the bar scarfing the delicious, smelling of garlic and shiny with olive oil delicacies before running off to catch their respective trains. I could have sat there all day just listening to the cook: huge, fat, sweating over the grill and laughing.

When I arrived breakfastless this morning, the first thing I did was to head expectantly towards that bar. What greeted me was not the fat cook's voice, but the hum of refrigerated pop machines and the shiny counters and clean glass of display cases of a sandwich and pastry take outs wrapped in plastic. UGH!!! What a disappointment. I spun around on my heel and left disappointed.

Most of Florence in general was a disappointment this time around: dirty, rude, expensive, with none of the Italian soul anywhere.

Perhaps you cannot go back. Perhaps many years ago I didn't notice the dirt and construction scaffolding on the cathedrals. Perhaps the fountain was on the side of the Piazza della Signotia and not in the centre as I remember it. Perhaps there were fewer tourists then.

Over the course of the day I made peace with Florence. I enjoyed walking across the Ponte Vecchio and down the narrow streets in the old city. I sat at a cafe and ate an overpriced panninni. I went inside a cathedral and took photos.

And later I found a new favourite experience of Florence that will stay in my mind until I return again: as I was walking towards the Duomo Cathedral, I heard a soprano voice singing "Ave Maria", coming from one of the narrow streets. I followed its call to find a young girl who was its source and a young man accompanying her on an accordion. A crowd of listeners was blocking the traffic and once again time stood still. The magic of Florence.