Homing in on our Winter Berth
Wednesday 9th October… Time for a look around this welcoming Port di Anzio, and we strolled around the coast for a short way and then back through the town. There’s an amazing building here on the seafront, long forgotten and overgrown and it seems it was once the Casino in its heyday.
Boats, not bodies on this beach
Time stood still
A well presented cafe
The once magnificent casino
.... it's unloved these days
Some nice residences though
Back in the plaza square we were tempted by the ice-cream shop and it was a special treat, at just one euro each! Incredible.
My fabulously handmade ice cream cornet with cream
and freshly chocolated wafer
Now Dean getting stuck into his
The other guys arrived today and some of us went out for a bite to eat, pizza and lasagne of course…. Can’t seem to get much else, but that along with the wine was just 12 euros per person. Then a late night tipple on board Eternite finished the day nicely. It’s strange, we didn’t want to come to Anzio, but we found it to be the most friendly and welcoming place along this Italian coast.
Thursday 10th October… Time to move on. Dean was extra keen to go to the Isoles Pontine, where the main island is Ponza. We (Dean) like to give places a name and so we are calling these islands ‘Pontins’. At 9am we were on the move gently finding a safe route out of the harbour, because of the moving sandbanks. All was well and it was only about after 20 minutes we were just raising the mainsail and a rib came over to us at high speed. We wondered what was going on, but he explained in pretty good English that we were in a Firing Range and we should immediately steer 220 degrees for 6 miles until we cleared the area. Yikes! We had been on a 150 degree heading so it wasn’t really too much in the wrong direction, but probably added about an hour or two to our journey time. Impavidus and Eternite were about half hour behind us and just leaving Anzio so Dean radio’d them to pass on the important information. It was a long day and we arrived at Ponza about 5pm, having taken a route around the north of the Island cutting in between the Scoglietti rocks.
Ponza, famous for its unusual rock formations
Friday 11th October... Nice sunrise this morning over Ponza, and time for a little look around. It's a tiny town with a bit of a seafront with a few shops around, and a pleasant little walkway above the harbour.
Here's Eternite anchored near the craggy rocks
This looks like sunset, but it's actually sunrise!
A view of the anchorage from the quayside.
Thesee in view
A lovely cafe here with spectacular croissants
Now a view from Thesee.
This green boat has Canadians onboard
The big ferry drops its anchor in the middle of the port
and reverses into the quayside
We invited the gang on board for drinks and BBQ Pork joint this afternoon. It turned into quite a night with everyone bringing along a bottle, crusty bread, crisps, dips, and even a pineapple. By the time we'd finished there were two carrier bag full of empties! A great night.
Saturday 12th October... This morning we took a walk across to the bay on the west side of the island. It was only a short walk, probably about a mile or so. We tried to climb to the top of the hills but the hiking paths aren't very walker friendly and we kept coming to dead ends. Some great views though.
Beautiful house along the main road
So colourful
Here we are on the west side of the island
Now climbing the hills and looking back towards the town
More rocky views
This is a hotel
Nooks and crannies
Back in the main town we took a look at the unusual cemetary. Nothing like a cemetary at home. Here's a few photos.
This afternoon some of us dinghy'd over to the caves outside of the port, and the men did some snorkelling.
Approaching the caves
Wow, looks like Roman baths
Holy rocks
The Eternite crew before the swim
Dean's in and ready to go
...now David
... and Keith
Caroline keeping watch
Time for a spin around the bay
..and some more cave investigations
Boats buried in the sand in this cave
Eternite having a closer look
Back in the port Dean and Ant find and recover an anchor on the seabed
Sunday 13th October... A quiet day really, not much to do. Think we've just about seen Ponza town by now. However, this ship sailed in today, it's called Royal Clipper.
....and then it left a bit later on, sails being set
Moonrise this evening
Monday 14th October... Not a lot going on today. We are waiting for some wind to take us back to the mainland. Did some odd jobs and cleaning. As there's not much to say, here's some Wikipedia history about the island...
According to local legends, Ponza was named after Pontius Pilate, Roman governor of Judea who tried Jesus of Nazareth for sedition against Roman rule. Pontius Pilate's family owned a grotto on Ponza, which is still named after him.
During Roman times, Nero Caesar, eldest brother of Caligula, was deported to Ponza in AD 29, where he was put to death the following year. Two of his sisters, Agrippina the Younger (mother of the emperor Nero) and Julia Livilla, were exiled to Ponza in AD 39 for their complicity in a plot to overthrow Caligula. They were recalled to Rome in AD 41. Julia Livilla had a mansion named Palazzo Giulia (Julia's Palace) built specially for her on Ponza. The ruins are still visible. A similar mansion with the same name was also built on nearby Ventotene for Emperor Augustus' exiled daughter, Julia the Elder.
Tuesday 15th October... Time to leave Ponza now and head back across to the mainland 36 miles away. The wind was about 14 knots, so good enough for a sail. By 6.45am we were lifting the anchor and on our way just before dawn. The crossing is about 7 hours and there was some weather coming over from the west this afternoon, so good to be getting out of the way sooner rather than later.
We managed to get ourselves on a 60 degree heading for most of the way. Not quite enough to get us there on the same tack but pretty close. The sail itself was pretty good and the wind constant, the sea state was up a little but nothing more than expected. The weather held off and we arrived in Gaeta at about 3pm. A little later than we had thought, but that's because we had to put in a tack to get us around the headland which added about an hour and half to the journey, and the wind dropped off towards the very end too. There were virtually no boats about on the sea today, just a ferry and a couple of fishing boats. We had the place to ourselves.
On our last leg around the Gaeta headland
Getting closer now
Almost at the marina
Dean prepares the fenders and lines ready for our arrival
So we'll be here at Gaeta in the marina with the name of 'Base Nautica Flavio Gioia' for the time being at least. If we decide that we like it we'll stay for the winter months. The harbour staff have been very good, with three of them helping us to berth. There was no need really as we would have been able to do it, still it's good that they want to look after you. There's a bit of a live-aboard community here as far as we understand, so we'll see how things go.
Wednesday 16th October… Wow, the thunderstorm came through late last night. Dean says it was quite something, but I reckon I subconsciously slept through it. In fact I slept until 9am, at least 12 hours in bed.
Our first full day in Gaeta, strange I’d never heard of this place a year ago. Gaeta is situated about half way between Naples and Rome, alongside a scenic mountain range which I’m sure we will be exploring in due course. But today was the start of the wind down, like putting away the paddleboard, and tidying up lines out of the way. Right outside the marina is an American warship. I don’t know how long it’s been here, but it left later on this afternoon.
Our view of the mountains
Looking towards town
...and towards the Nature Reserve
Early morning catch up with the gang
We had our first walkabout into the locality, checking out some of the shops and bars. We stopped for a beer and glass of wine, less than 5 euros. Everything seems reasonably priced which is more than can be said of the last couple of months. More exploring to be done tomorrow, maybe a walk up to Mount Orlando Nature Reserve.
Tinsel Champagne Chef on the esplanade
The Old Station Cafe
Unusual tree house
Exploring the tiny streets
Melons galore
Thursday 17th October... Today was time for a few more jobs. Managed to get some laundry done in the very tiny room in the marina. Dean did the big job of giving the dinghy a real good scrub and clean, leaving it to dry off, and then folding it all up into a tiny bundle to go into the lazzarette for the winter. It looks brand new. Well done Dean 💖
There's a Chinese Bazaar here in Gaeta and Dean is already making it his favourite shop, along with the Chandlery. The Bazaar is like a tardis and you could easily go in and never find your way out of there again. They sell practically everything you could think of, but it's especially useful for small hardware items.
Next job of the day was removing the faulty solar panels which Dean only fitted three months ago. One is totally kaput and not producing any power at all, but both panels have damage to the surfaces where they have bubbled and cracked. So we are having to send them back to Spain. Just a couple of unusual photos today.
The remnants of our poor Black Country Flag
Still, it has been happily flapping away across the Mediterranean all year
Yes, we i'm really not sure what's going on here
Friday 18th October... Dean's still on his early riser schedule and i'm not too far behind him, maybe an hour? And by 8.15am we were on our way to do some shopping at the Carrefour Express which is the nearest supermarket to us, less than 10 minutes walk away. I wouldn't really class it as a supermarket but it's not too bad and the prices are fairly reasonable for most items. The staff were friendly and accommodating with our attempts to communicate. Nearby at one of the many cafes we noticed these unusual tables, not only with flowers as per usual, but these had a flower bed actually growing IN the table.
Very nice flower tables, but impossible for a tablecloth me thinks
On our way back we stopped off at one of the fruit and veg stalls which we had been told about the other day when Dean was chatting to one of the Ormeggiatoris. That is the correct term for the mooring staff here in Italian marinas. It's a bit of a mouthful to try and say and i've been avoiding it so far, but it's about time we tried to get used to it from now on. He told Dean that this fruit and veg stall sell their wine for 1.60 euros per litre and we should try it. You can take your own plastic bottle and they will refill it, but today we bought two 1.5 ltr bottles which were on show and ready to buy. So the tasting verdict at dinner time, and it was incredibly GOOD. Really full bodied and tasting almost Cab Sav like. We're definately onto a winner with this, and thanks to the Ormeggiatori for the great tip!
Pre-dinnertime snack with the newly discovered Vino Rosso
Jobs today were removing the faulty solar panels from the bimini, in fact we took the whole rear part of the bimini down in one go, solar panels and all. That's the way Dean had set it up in the first place, so the whole thing is removable with the panels intact (should we ever get a big blow come through without warning, and the bimini needs to fold away quickly). He thinks of everything you know, always planning way ahead and pondering over the what ifs.
He's also considering covering the old existing panels with a fine plastic film to help protect the surfaces. Here's a photo of the one he covered today as a trial.
Looking good, but i'm sure there will be
more perfecting in due course
While Dean's hard work was going on, i was doing a little research on the town and the area. We are right next to a range of mountains and i needed to find out what they were. So they're the Aurunci Mountains apparantly, circled in red on this picture below. Gaeta is right on the tip, south side of the red circle.
Also I've been intrigued to know why the marina is called 'Base Nautica Flavio Gioia'. Well Wikipedia tells me that Flavio Gioia was the name of a local hero. Here's what i found out about him.
Flavio Gioia is reputed to have been an Italian mariner and inventor, supposedly a marine pilot, and has traditionally been credited with perfecting the sailor's compass by suspending its needle over a fleur-de-lis design, and enclosing it in a little box with a glass cover. He was also said to have introduced such design, which pointed North, in deference to Charles of Anjou, the French king of Naples.
Flavio Gioia's birthplace is alternately given as Amalfi, Positano, Naples, or Gioia, a town in Apulia, hence the derivation of the reputed surname.
The lunar crater Gioja is also named after him.
Flavio was born in the second half of the 13th Century
Saturday 19th October... Morning walk down the esplanade with views across the yacht club and the bay. The weather's been warm and calm as you can see from the flat waters behind me. Dean and a couple of others went out for breakfast at a local cafe and watched the live England Rugby Match.
Enjoying the sunshine
Early Christmas Tree ready for the lights switch on
Well it was Saturday night in Gaeta and we joined up with some new friends and went out for a pizza (of course) at a nice little place called 'Il Mandracchio'. The tables were fully booked for the evening, but they kindly fitted ten of us in for a quick bite.
Sunday 20th October... This morning we got up to find Saffy in a new sleeping position....
....this one called 'Bum in Basket'
Then this afternoon we decided to take a ramble up to Mount Orlando Park to see what it was all about.
Wild cats and kittens everywhere
Heading to Montagna Spaccata (the split mountain)
Super views of the huge beach
We are here
The Santuario of SS Trinita
According to ancient religious tradition the rocks here split at the time of Christ's death, when the veil of the temple of Jerusalem was torn. Really??
Dean descending into the split rocks
He's almost disappeared now
It really is quite something to see
About to look down to the sea below
..... it's so high our legs turned to jelly
I popped the camera over the side
This is looking straight down!
and now straight out
Now we're at the Grotta del Turco
...another fine view
Back on safe territory in front of the Church
From here we walked on further round the headland to find the ruins Trabacco, Ferdinando, and Carolina.
Trying to work out what this could have been
More vertical drops
Heading back now as we've all got weary legs
Nearly home
It was a really nice walk and we think we only covered about a third of the park. When we got back to the boat we had a nice long chat with Ian on the boat nextdoor, swapping stories and information. I reckon we should make Sunday's our rambling day.
Monday 21st October... I woke up to find Dean packaging his solar panels, and after breakfast we carted the large package off to a local shop to be sent back to Spain. Cost 47 Euros, that's more than we expected but they have to go and so that's that.
It was a hot day today, the forecast said 25 degrees feeling like 31 degrees. Dean was even hotter performing his teak cleaning on deck in full sunshine, whilst i was doing the last two loads of laundry.
Well we're almost a week into our stay at Gaeta, and we've had quite a look around so far. There's so much more to see in due course and at some point we'll get a car and go further afield for sure. With Rome and Naples right on the doorstep there's an awful lot of sightseeing to be done.
Like last winter, we're now going to write the blog just once a week, perhaps on a Tuesday or Wednesday. So we hope you'll keep following the 'Adventures of Thesee'. Thank you to all our readers who've followed us this year from Almerimar, round the Balearics, back to San Pedro del Pinatar, and then up the coast of Spain, the French Riviera, then the Italian Riviera and now all the way down to the knee of Italy. What a journey we're having.
And thank you very very much to all our visitors this year. Aunty Von & Uncle Jim, who (amongst various other visits) put up with us for a whole month in July and looked after us more than we could have ever imagined. You're both so amazing, we would never be able to repay your tremendous hospitality in a million years. Then in June, Wendy & Russ with Von & Jim came to visit us in Ibiza to celebrate Dean & Russ's big birthdays. How good was that steak house? And then of course Angela, Alan & Yasi came to visit us in Alicante ending up at Pirate Island and then Santa Pola. Remember the crazy waitress and then the endless flow of Rum & Cokes on Dean's birthday? And how hot hot hot was it?
So until next week, it's Cheerio from the Three Sailors.
