6/29 We cleared out at Corfu with no problems at all. The young man from the Coast Guard remembered Glenn from
last year. At 2:00 in the afternoon we headed out for Italy. The wind was supposed to be light and on our
35 degrees. BUT as the day went on the winds built and were, of course, on our nose. They were supposed to be
12 KTS and were 20 KTS by nightfall building to 27 KTS in the morning. We had a miserable night just banging into waves
constantly. It took us 18 hours to go 81 miles. We decided to go to Otranto instead of Brindisi even thought it
wasn't a port of entry. We were going to throw ourselves at the mercy of the Coast Guard. We tried to anchor but
it seemed that we might be dragging. We saw two boats that had previously been anchored go over to the commercial dock
and tie up so we decided to do the same. The winds were 20 KTS in the harbor and I did a perfect docking.
I am feeling much more confident about docking this year. We were actually able to clear in here and they said we could
stay at the commercial dock for now. We took a nap and woke up to find that we needed to move as two megayachts were
coming in because of the high winds. They wanted us to raft to another catamaran. I managed that with no dents!
We then went ashore to walk around and get the lay of the town. As we came back to the boat we were invited for apertifs
by the French people on the catamaran we were tied to. I had my first Pastise. It was good. There were 8
people on the boat and they were headed to Croatia. We visited with them for a couple of hours and had a very nice time.
Back to our own boat for dinner and in bed by 10:30. 11:15 we heard rapping on the hull. They had decided to head
for Croatia tonight. It's really the best time to travel with all of these high winds. So, we got up and untied
from their boat, pulled out for them to leave and then I had to redock. The third time in 12 hours. I'm thinking
of becoming a boat pilot.
7/1 We decided to check with the Coast Guard before we went touring the town to
make sure we didn't need to moved again. Sure enough we did. So we just went back and anchored as the winds had
quieted down enough to make it comfortable. In town we visited a cathedral that had glass cases full of skulls and bones
of 800 martyrs killed by the Ottomans in 1480. We did some internetting and then back on the boat to wait for the wind
to die down.
7/2 Up goes the anchor at 4:50 a.m. and off to Brindisi. It tooks us 9 1/2 hours to go
43 miles. The wind along this coast is relentless. We managed to tie up on the free city wall. We walked
in to town and ordered sunglasses for Glenn as this is the first time we will be in one place long enough to get them made.
He broke them last year and some how managed to leave the US without getting new ones. Big Mistake. It costs $260
just to polarize the lenses. Polarized lenses are nice on the water but he's going to have to do without. At that
progressive lens sunglasses cost $425. I bought mine in Walmart. (Private note to Glennie: note the lack of s?)
What a difference. The eye doctor, Luigi, is also a sailor. He is going to Greece for three weeks so we discussed
all the nice islands there and then gave him our hiking trail map from Sifnos the next day. Glenn ended up with a free
eye exam. As I am sitting on the boat typing this four days later Luigi stopped by and gave us two bottles of wine
that a friend of his had made. He stopped by to tell us that the sunglasses wouldn't be in Wednesday as we had hoped.
What a truly nice person he is.
7/3 A trip to Vodaphone! I've missed them this year. Now we have internet
on the boat for a month.
7/4 Happy 4th of July. Our big celebration was to put our large American flag
up. We were flying our small one when we were in Turkey. We will be in Brindisi until 7/16 as we are flying to
England 7/8 - 7/15 for a vacation. Just kidding! Janine and family are going to Pickering England for Tom's grandmother's
90th birthday. It is to be a huge family reunion. We are joining them and then on to London for three days.
Can't wait.
Since we are tied right to the city wall we are able to watch the evening promenade. It
is especially large tonight as it is a weekend night. It seems that everyone is out, dressed in their best with high
heels walking up and down the waterway visiting family and friends. There are all ages from grandparents down to strollers.
Many are eating ice cream cones as they walk. We have seen this before in Italy and also Portugal. We have never
seen it so thoroughly done as it is here in Brindisi. What a wonderful idea - out walking in the cool evening air talking
with friends instead of shut in at home watching TV. It makes me feel lonely over here in this part of the world.
7/5
Today we are sampling the local bus service. We took the bus to the airport to see how far away it is. We sure
can't walk it. We will have to talk a taxi driver in to picking us up at 5:00 in the morning to catch our flight.
Then on another bus to go to Brindisi Marina to see if we can confirm a berth there. We tried to make a reservation
but they wouldn't let us. Well the office was closed for the day, strange for a marina. But there seemed to be
plenty of space for us. We came back to town and bought Glenn a pair of Italian slacks. "Che bello!"
7/6
Today we're trying out the trains. We took a trip to a nearby town, Lecce. What a pretty city. Most of the
buildings are made of a local material that glows gold and cream. It is very attractive. The churches are extremely
baroque with beautiful inlaid marble altars and so much stone carving. We visited the Provincial Museum which had a
larger collection of Greek pottery than we saw in Athens. There were a lot of old buildings with beautiful ornate
carvings along narrow streets. It was a very pleasant visit.
7/7 We made our move over to Brindisi
marina in preparation for our flight out tomorrow. We had a real shower! Just a day of finishing up our
packing, organizing and relaxing.
7/8 Up at 4:15 we thought. We had forgotten to reset the alarm for
the hour time change from Greece to Italy. It was really 3:15. Of course, I couldn't fall back asleep.
Our
cab driver was there 5 minutes early! What a relief. We didn't know what we were going to do if he didn't show
up. We were at the airport nice and early for our flight and unfortunately, didn't realize that Ryanair doesn't assign
seats. We thought our sequence number was our seat number. We were practically the last ones on the plane, though
the first ones at the airport. We didn't get to sit together. I really don't like to fly and being stuck between
two strangers stressed me the whole way. Once we hit London we just went downstairs to get on the train. Three
trains and we were at Malton where Martin, Tom's father, picked us up to take us to Pickering. We had a vision of
England as cloudy, rainy and crowded. As soon as you get away from London it is really all beautiful countryside with
farms, sheep and cattle. They were actually in a drought which meant that the mornings and nights were quite cool and
it got cloudy in the afternoons but no rain. It was such a pleasure to wear a jacket after all of the heat that we have
been in. We were staying in a cottage with Janine, Tom, and Hugh within 15 minutes walk of the village. It was
really lovely. It was an old house with a portion of it converted to a cottage. The cottage is named Rock Cottage.
It was really neat looking inside with the wooden floors and beams and the rocks chipped off and painted over walls in white.
Sally and Brian are both artists and had taught Tom art when he was young. They kindly allowed us to stay in the cottage
for free. It is such a beautiful site with the old house and every where you looked in the gardens a sculpture peeped
out at you. They both sculpture, Brian also paints and does photography. There is an old steam engine that goes
by in front of the house. Hugh was just thrilled to death. One of the stations was used in one of the Harry Potter
movies. If you're ever in Pickering, England I recommend that you stay at the B&B Rock Cottage. We walked
in to the village to say hello to Tom's grandparents and then to a takeout where we had our first fish and chips.
The serving was huge! We took it down to a nearby stream with ducks and had a picnic. We headed for the grocery store
to get some supplies but it closed at 8:00. What a difference from the Med. A walk back to the cottage and early
to bed. It was still daylight. It doesn't get dark here until 10:00.
7/9 Today is the big family
day for Joan Booth's 90th birthday so Glenn and I took the opportunity to ride the train. We headed north towards the
moors and got out at Goathland where we walked for 3 1/2 miles through beautiful countryside and woods to the village of Gosham.
Back on the train to head back to Pickering. We picked up some steak pie for dinner. It was good but not as good
as Martin's steak and kidney pie.
7/10 Every time we take a walk we go by the train station and Hugh asks
to go for a train ride. We keep putting him off. Today he got a very serious face, thought for a minute and said,
"Can we go for a ride on the choo choo train dada please?" We hated to turn him down again with a promise
of tomorrow. We went in to the village to tour the local castle, church and graveyard. Back to the cottage to
change for dinner for the entire Booth/Michael clan at a B&B in town compliments of great granny and grandpa. Hugh
ate his entire serving of salmon appetizer. We also had duck and a variety of vegetables. Cheesecake with strawberries,
cream and ice cream if you wanted. I could hear my arteries clogging.
7/11 We took Janine and Hugh on
the train today. Tom stayed behind to paint. We only went to the next village, Levisham. It was Vintage Vehicle
weekend. We saw some old English cars and small steam engines. They also had a band playing 60's music. I
had a shortbread. Back to Pickering to get ready for a barbecue at the cottage. Tom had bought some fresh, cut
right in front of you, pork chops and bangers. We picked up the fixings for a salad, strawberries and bread. Mary
and Martin, Brian and Sally, their granddaughter Holly, one of their students and the 5 of us all had a wonderful dinner together
in the garden.
7/12 Happy Birthday to my sister, Marlene. Martin, Mary and our group are driving to London
today. It was a 5 hour trip with some rain. We were all glad that Martin was doing the driving (on the left side).
We are staying with Mary's brother, John, his wife, Christine, and their two sons Tom and Nick in Chiswick. It's
a lovely 5 bedroom, 3 story house that is 100 years old. The tube is just a block and a half away. I have 20 places
picked out to visit and 2 days to do it. I'm sure we'll get to see it all.
7/13 Off to see the Queen.
Our first stop though is the Natural History Museum for the dinosaurs! They had three robotic ones us on a case and
Hugh just stared and stared. First he said they want to go outside and then he held his arms up for them to jump.
We had a tough time moving him on from there. His other big interest was the display of dinosaur toys. The skeletons
didn't really do much for him. Then off to Albert & Victoria museum, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Buckingham Palace,
Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Parliament. We walked along the River Thames and then back to Chiswick. Janine
had brought us a jar of peanut butter. She was going to bring us a bunch of them but we only had carry on in RyanAir
so we couldn't take them back with us. We carried peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches every day.
7/14
Our highlight today is the British Museum. Hugh's highlight is Hambley, the world's largest toy store (5 floors).
We just didn't have time to do the British Museum justice. Mary met us at the toy store (good news for Hugh) and then
we all went to the Geffrye Museum which has displays of living areas in houses from the 1800's to 2000. We got the only
rain of the trip, a downpour, as we sat and had a cup of tea in the museum. How British. We walked through the
SoHo district to get to the toy store so I think we did a pretty good job of seeing London. Of course, we went
through everyting pretty quickly and there is so much more to see. Maybe we will be here by boat next year.
7/15
Off at 5:30 to the airport and the heat and humidity of Italy.
7/16 We did all of our laundry, filled our
water, filled our fuel, went to the grocery store, and cleared out. We are ready to continue our journey west out of
the Med. tomorrow morning.
7/17 Off to any early start to the tip of the heel of Italy. What a difference
from our last overnight trip. There was hardly any wind the entire time and the ocean was calm. We traveled 209
miles in 24 1/2 hours. We tied up to another commercial wall. The city, Rocella Ionica, is a bit of a walk
away and we just aren't interested. Glenn went over and got a vegetarian pizza at a pizzeria by the dock.
It was the smallest they made - 1/2 meter, that's 1 1/2 feet. It had 8 big slices and it was delicious. We had
the second half for lunch the next day.
7/19 We made most of our way up the Messina Straits stopping right
before the narrowest part. We ended up tying up to another city wall in a kind of dirty harbor. Just a big city
with high rises called Reggio de Calabria. Again there was nothing appealinbg about it so we just stayed on the boat.
7/20
Today we go up the fastest flowing section of the strait. For some reason we've had a hard time figuring out the tides
as we have been going up the strait. It's been with us and against us but never when we thought it would be. Oh,
well we made it to Isle Vulcano. This is such a pretty place. The anchorage is gorgeous. We were here last year
and really enjoyed it. We have decided to skip the mudbaths this year as we don't feel like spending a week getting
rid of the sulphur smell on our skin.
7/21 Up and at 'em to hike that volcano. We are here a month later
than last year so we thought it best to go earlier in the day. Well our strategy didn't help me. It was just too
hot. I was dragging after the first zig and zag. I'll blame it on still getting over my cold and the heat.
I sure hope I'm not in that bad a shape compared to last year. I'm actually very disappointed with myself but it was
just making me sick. So, back down the hill for some postcard shopping and a beer. Back on the boat we decided
to go for a snorkle. The water is exceptionally warm here from the vulcano and hot water springs around. We went
over by a volcanic rock spur and we actually saw fish! There were a lot of fish that are similar to our wrasse at home.
They had beautiful shades of blue and green. I also saw a school of pale buttercup colored fish that were so pretty
swimming about. There were a lot of different looking crabs that almost looked like large spiders. They were very
thin and had long legs and just hugged right down to the rocks. The black sand made an attractive background to all
of the sea life. There were a lot of sea anenomes of different pale colors. And I saw a few jellyfish. None
of it compared to the Keys or the Bahamas but it was the first time we've seen any life in the water here. Speaking
of the Keys just reminds me of the BP oil spill. What a tragedy. All I can think of is the poor dying fish and
birds. We have been keeping up on the news about that daily. As usual it's all about greed.
7/22
We left with the beautiful sight of the sun rising behind us and fumes billowing from the volcano. It was really
hot in the cabin last night. The volcano just keeps the entire area warm. It is just so pretty though. We
got to Cefalu on the north shore of Sicily at around 3:00 in the afternoon. Another gorgeous anchorage. The town
is bordered by La Rocca, a huge rock with an amazing wall and castle on top built by the Arabs and occupied by them until
1061. I don't know how they built it on top of such a steep mountain. The town is full of narrow, cobbled streets
with little shops on the main road and houses facing each other along the back roads. There is a nice, long sandy beach.
We are anchored on the other side of the rock and have about a 15 minute walk on the asphalt road around the rock. That's
a hot trip.
7/23 Off at a run (well very fast walk) for the train station. It is at the furthest end
of town away from where we enter the city. It's the uphill part that slows us down. We were thinking of giving
up when we hit the downhill slope and speed increased. We made it with 3 minutes to spare and unbelievably -
the train was late! This never happens in Italy. They apologize for being 45 seconds late on the train in Rome.
Then we sat and watched while one of the train employees attempted to close the outside door on our car. He opened the
unit and moved it manually. The door closed but didn't seal. Open again, close again. Open again and close
again. Fool around a little inside the mechanism. Let's give it a kick. Open again, close and it worked.
The door to our car on the inside is held open by a rock. We're off for an adventure. We are on our way to Palermo,
the capital of Sicily. It is a huge, old, dirty, noisy, beautiful city. It is what it is. No spiffing up
for tourists. The beautiful baroque, Arab, Byazntine, Norman and Renaissance architecture just rises up out
of a row of plain and ugly buildings. Everything in the city is gray and dirty. Palermo is the seat of the
Mafia which is strongest here in Sicily. The Police station had bullet proof glass along the wall in front of it and
we saw the most police around that we have seen in our travels. We have a list of places to see and a map and we are
on a mission. There is the fountain of shame, the cathedral, churches, oratorios, the museum of archaeolgy and a palace.
We managed to see it all with one stop for lunch in a park and the all important ice cream break (this was also on my list).
In our wanderings we passed through a street market. While we were sitting in the park we noticed one of the pigeons
looked a little scruffy. Upon closer investigation we saw that its foot had thread and hair all wrapped up tight between
its toes and it limped as it walked. We feed it some of the bread from our sandwhichs chasing the other pigeons away
as it was slow. It came right up to our feet to eat. I finally convinced Glenn that we should try to get the threads
off his foot with the pocket knife we carry in our backpack. It had a rather large blade and the pigeon's toes were
skinny but we decided to go for it. Glenn caught it very easily and it just laid upside down with his head resting on
my chest as I slowly cut and unwound the threads. It never tried to peck and didn't really struggle. It took about
15 minutes but we finally managed to get it all off. We set him down and he laid down under our bench. I'm
sure he was stressed. We left him some more bread and went on our way. I was floating on the balls of my feet
I was so happy. There are so many times when you see wild animals in trouble and you just can't help. I was just
thrilled that we had helped this bird. When we passed the park on our way back to the train all of the pigeons were
gone. Success.
The train was stuffed on our way back. They couldn't shove any more people in the door
of the car we were trying to get into so we had to run for another. Glenn spent the trip standing and I sat on a raised
seating area between two girls feet. After all that walking I would have sat on the floor.
7/24 Today
we are exploring Cefalu. There is an old lavatoria below road level where they used to do the laundry. It is still
set up with washing stations with a scrubbing stone for each. We then went to look in the cathedral. We saw a
couple come out of there yesterday after their wedding. There were people all dressed up walking all over the town.
I don't know if they were going to a reception or what as they were walking in every different direction. We walked
over to the beach area and sat under a tree for lunch. As we wandered around afterwards we found a real grocery store.
We walked up and down every aisle just so we could stay in the air conditioning. We are about as far from the boat as
we can get and still be in town so we didn't buy a lot of groceries.
7/25 Today we are climbing up La Rocca to the
Norman castle on top. There is a nice breeze which makes all the difference in the world to my climbing abilities.
We were sitting and resting about 7/8th's of the way up when an 8 year old boy came running by. His mother says she
calls him the Norwegian mountain goat. It was a nice view of the surrounding mountains and the harbor from the top.
We had lunch near the Temple to Diana and back to the boat for a windy (cool) afternoon.
7/26 Today we had a long
sail (49 miles) to the port of Terrasini. There was a small dock with three boats on it that looked like a city dock
with two guys standing there offering to take our lines so Glenn decided, "What the heck. Let's dock"
It required med-mooring but we always pull in nose first as that is the easiest way to get on to the dock for us. We
came up to the dock and the guy told us we had to back in and use our anchor in addition to the lines they provided for the
front of the boat. So I had to move off the dock, turn around and drop the anchor 75 feet from the dock and then back
up towards the dock letting out anchor chain at exactly the right rate as I went. Then you have to stop before your
dinghy (which is suspended from the back of our boat) hits the dock. Meanwhile your anchor line has to be tight enough
to hold you off the dock. You then pull a line from the dock for each side of the boat and tie it to the front of the
boat. There are also two lines to tie to the back of the boat. Did I make it sound difficult enough? It
was my first real Med-mooring and it was perfect. To celebrate we decided to go get a pizza for dinner as it was 7:00
by this time. The guy standing on the dock told us we had to sign in at a little shack at the end of the dock.
So we got dressed for town and walked to the "office". It appears we have tied to a private dock and there
is a charge. A 65 Euro charge, which is about $87. This is for a bird pooped dock with no water or electricity.
He went down to 55 Euros but that was still more than we wanted to pay. Actually, we didn't want to pay anything as
we could anchor for free. So, all my hard work down the drain, we got off the dock (much easier) and anchored.
We had a nice little dinner on board and went to bed at our usual 10:00. A few minutes later we heard a siren and we
could see blue lights flashing through our cabin window. It was the Coast Guard telling us we had to move because our
mast was in line with the airfield. We were 100 feet from the dock with all of the other masts sticking up and a half
a mile from the airfield. We were only allowed to stay on the commercial dock for three hours. We must leave the
port. We couldn't believe it. They were kicking us out of a harbor at 10:00 at night. The Coast Guard boat
was there when we first anchored (in daylight). For most people the only alternative would have been to go back to the
dock and pay the fee. We had our thoughts that this might be the purpose of waiting until 10:00 to tell us to move.
But we are stubborn. We looked at our chart plotter and on the other side of the marina there was a little cove.
We went there and anchored in the pitch black dark. It was a little nerve wracking as we were surrounded by rocks.
It was a rocky night but we managed.
7/27 We woke up still sputtering about the fact that the Coast Guard
actually kicked us out of a harbor at night. Their job is to help boaters and I can testify that they usually do.
This case was just too much. 12 miles up the coast we pulled in to Castella Mare de Golfo. It was a nice big harbor
at a pretty little town. We went in to town to walk. We often head for the cathedral as it is a goal to walk to
and they are usually quite pretty inside. We found one church up at the highest point of town which is usually where
the cathedral would be. Just as we were getting ready to cross the street to go look inside the bells started ringing
and we noticed a man in a suit standing in front of the church. We were deciding whether to go take a peek when a funeral
procession came up the road. This is a narrow, cobble stone road and the hearst was followed by about 50 people walking
in a group to the church. We just stood as the procession passed us and then went back down hill to look for the old
cathedral that we saw from the water. I am so glad we didn't cross the street in our shorts and end up at the church
when the hearst came up. After much wandering, we saw the belltower but couldn't seem to find the proper street to the
church. All the streets are narrow, short and cobblestone. This is really a pretty little old fashioned town.
We finally got to the cathedral and there was a group of well dressed people standing in front of it. A wedding!
Scratch church visiting in this town. We decided to do our grocery shopping. We found a small store for our milk
and juices and then went to a fruit and vegetable market. We have lately discovered what they call a small peach here.
It looks like a squashed peach and it is so good. The fruit inside is white and has a little more texture than a regular
peach. We also bought this strange looking thing we had noticed in the markets. It is somewhat shapped like a
zuchinni, pale green and we have seen some two feet long. I often said I wished they would create some new vegetables
for variety. Well we found one. Down the hill to a pizzeria. This is our last port in Sicily and we have
to have a Sicillian pizza. We got a small cheese and small vegetarian and it was delicious. We saved half of each
for our trip to Sardinia as we never feel like cooking on an overnight and all we crave is carbs. We sailed out of the
harbor at 9:30 at night headed for Sardinia. Another trip against the winds but they are supposed to be light.
I took the first watch until 1:00 a.m. and then Glenn took over.
7/28 Nice Glenn let me sleep until 7:00 a.m. I
got up and took my seasickness pills and went out on watch. It was 6 to 8 foot swells. I just kept feeling worse
and worse until I finally had to call Glenn to take over. I just had to lay down. It's the only way I can survive
seasickness. I was trying to hold out until my pills kicked in. No such luck, 10 minutes later my first time for
throwing up on this boat due to seasickness. I had thrown up a couple of years ago but that was when Glenn had me help
him in the head and the smell just did me in. I don't really understand the term swells. I think they should be
called bads. I put my patch on and laid for about 1 1/2 hours until the swells went down a little and I felt slightly
better and then went out to take a watch. Neither one of us felt particularly great the whole day. I had my first
food at 2:00 in the afternoon.
7/29 Another night at sea and we finally came in to Villa Simius at Cape Carbanara
in Sardinia at 6:30 a.m. We slept for a couple of hours, went over to the dock and fueled and after more winds discussion
decided to stay in the harbor we were in even though it was a little rough. In the afternoon we walked 4 km into town.
We wanted to check out the bus situation for going in to Calgary tomorrow. Not a very good schedule. There was
one at 8:30 and another at 10:00. We would have to leave the boat at 7:15 to make the 8:30 bus and then it was 1 1/2
hours to Calgary. That meant 5 hours of our day would be spent in traveling. We decided it wasn't worth it.
Picked up a few groceries, had an ice cream and headed back to the boat. We had a bit of a rocky night as the harbor
is quite large and open.
7/30 We have decided to move 20 miles to a quieter anchorage. I had wanted
to do some more exploring around Villa Simius but oh well. We couldn't have left the boat alone anyway in the high winds
and waves we were getting. So on to Pula where it is nice and quiet.
7/31 8:15 at night and we
are off to Menorca. It is 235 miles (or two nights) away. The forecast is for very little wind and wind behind
us!
