Returning from our aborted mid summer sojourn to Madeira and the Azores, we arranged for the boat to be launched at R Marine in Reggio. We immediately headed north to San Giovanni where we met Dan’s nephew Tony and his wife Julie. They had spent a couple of days in the area trying to track down some ancestry issues.
Our next stop was Marina Carmello in Vibo. Before heading into port we decided to stop for a swim. While getting set up to anchor the boat, the port transmission locked in gear….oops. Once on the dock, mechanics from the marina inspected the situation and Dan consulted his experts in Norway, Greece and Florida. Conclusion was the gear box in that transmission would have to be replaced; however, we could still run the boat on one good engine.
Not wanting to cut our adventure short, we decided to head out on that one good engine. On our way to Acropolis, we planned to anchor up for lunch and a swim….beautiful. Ready to move on, we were unable to raise the anchor. Thankfully, Tony was finally able to free the now bent up anchor….sure glad to have them aboard. The city of Agropolis features and enormous fortress, a massive marina and many fine restaurants.
Continuing north, we decided to cut across the Gulf of Salerno directly to Capri. On the west side of Capri we found a fine spot to drop the hook and have lunch and a swim. Continuing on, we stopped at Positano. As there is no real port there, we picked up a mooring ball for the night. With all of the tour boats buzzing around and a moderate wind, staying on the boat overnight was untenable. A comfortable night in a hotel, great dinner and an a walking tour of this famous city. Cruising back east along the Amalfi coast we stopped at the small port of Cetara where Tony and Julie left us to continue their journey on to Pompii.
At Cetera, we rented a car to drive the Amalfi coast over to Amalfi staying there overnight. Back in Cetera, Oriol and Tomas arrived from Barcelona to join us for a long weekend. We had anticipated a nice cruise back along the Amalfi coast, around Capri and over to Sorrento and on the other side of the peninsula. Instead we had a very rough trip to wonderful city of Sorrento. Given the weather, we took a ferry over to the island of Ischia for the day, renting a car for a tour of this great little island. The following day, the Barcelona boys left us and we took a day to relax.
With Pompii less that 20 miles away, we decided to take a cab over and spent the night touring the ruins the following day. An amazing experience well worth the trip. We later read the book ‘Pompii’ by Robert Harris and visited the Museum at Naples…both highly recommended.
Now we had to make a decision about there we were going to get the transmission replaced, a project we assumed would take the boat out of service for about a month. Go north or go back to Vino where we had met the mechanics. Returning to Vibo was about a 150 mile run and Dan decided that would be best and we would cut our cruise short and leave the boat there for the winter.
Click on the picture to see the full album of this trip