Hi Folks,

Just to let you know that we are now on the Island of Procida on the North West side of the bay of Naples on the West coast of Italy making good progress towards the South of France .

The Drive

We left Tarbert on 23^rd April, drove to Policoro in the instep of Italy via Dunoon , Norbury (thanks Dave n' Anne, the Channel Tunnel, Reims, Mont Blanc and Rimini. Lessons learned on the drive were:-

-         Don’t eat in British motorway service areas 2 stale bacon rolls and 2 teas £15.00

·         Do eat in French and Italian motorway service areas. 2 fresh cooked pizza pasty things and delicious coffee E6.30 in Southern Italy

·         Do eat in French Supermarket restaurants – Carrefour’s canteen in Sallanche has food to die for.

·         Avoid Milan’s motorways. Nose to tail anarchic Satan worshippers with a death-wish are the order of the day here. It seemed like the entire Klingon empire had been beamed into wee Fiats and huge artics & told to go for it . Gina drove this section while Rob closed his eyes and fondled his Buddhist icon - energetically!

·         The Alps are glorious but don’t expect it to be populated with characters from Heidi novels. Heidi no longer frolics in the Alpine meadows fondling wee lambs and calves. She now wears the latest teeny-chic and hangs out in MacDonald’s .

·         Rimini may no longer be the Jewel of the Italian Adriatic Riviera. It’s a bit more like Clacton but with some great wee restaurants.

·         The French and Italians do great Motorways, even in some of the remotest parts of their countries. Scottish Government please take note – Argyll has less than 2 miles of dual carriageway in its vast and beautiful landscape.

·         By the bye, don’t trust vehicle SatNavs. Ours managed brilliantly till we got to Policoro. Subsequently it has developed an evil sense of humour by diverting us down tracks fit for only the most serious off-roaders . We even ended up in a convoy of cars & trucks equipped with similarly mischievous navigation devices glibly proceeding , en masse,down a farm track. The locals must be pissing themselves at such sights!

The Sail

We arrived in Policoro on 28^th and launched Tiercel on 30^yj. She was pretty well ready for sea on the 4^th of May when Rob’s cousin Tim turned up on 4^th May. One notable incident was that Tiercel was used as the backdrop for a local wedding which took place on the quayside. We set sail on the 6^th and headed 40 miles westward to the wee port of Cariati on the Gulf of Taranto. The sail took 7 hours and was a good shakedown cruise.

Cariati is a working town with a huge commercial boatyard. On arrival Rob went to the harbour office shack and tried to pay. The charming lass in the shack didn’t speak English and Rob struggled with his limited Italian. She managed to tell him that the mooring fee would be E35 then called a guy across who spoke to him in German and told him to come back at "Sieben" . A tad puzzled Rob left and said he’d be back.

Tim and Rob went to the boatyard looking for a length of bog hose (don’t ask!) and found themselves among a fleet of beautiful wooden boats under construction. They ranged from 50ft commercial fishing boats to 4ft rowing boats done as a project by the local school. If you were wealthy and deranged enough to desire a wooden boat, this is where you should have it built. Also bought a sim card for our on board wi-fi system here. The shop where we bought it was like something out of a Dickens tale (the Old Curiosity and Hi tech Gadget shop?) It sold everything in its wee, dingy interior. There were hats of all varieties, make-up, stationery, pots, pans, mobile phones, Airfix model kits, threatening looking knives, pet accessories and loads more. It probably had more stock than Harrods!

When we got back to the harbour Rob went to pay and found the lass from the office sitting outside with a a couple of guys, one of whom spoke quite good English . He asked Rob where he was from . When he said Scotland they fell about with laughter. “We thought you were German” he said. They then reduced the mooring fee to E20!!

Crotone was the last port we visited before heading over to Greece when we passed this way in June 2007. It is a big commercial port with a substantial number of small boat berths as well. We went shopping for food and bits for the boat (including bog hose). Got all the food we needed but still no bog hose.

At this point it is worth mentioning that Gina has been suffering from labyrinthitis, a strange problem whereby the brain wrongly translates messages from the inner ear, making her feel dizzy and out of balance. This is bad enough on dry land but on a rocking bouncing boat it is not to be recommended. Nonetheless she has not let it get in the way of our journey. She has been the most hard-working and driven of all of us.

Our dog, Marley (AKA his cutenesship) has settled into life at sea very well . Nothing really phases him except being carried off of the boat down the gangplank which is attached to the anchor on the bows of the boat, This generally takes 2 people – one to pick him up on the deck and pass him down to another on the quay. Everything else he takes in his stride and will hereafter be renamed “Sea Spaniel”. He has also found a favourite place on deck to complete his daily ablutions and almost does so to order!

Tropea was our next port of call, some 160 nautical miles away. This involved a 30hr journey around the toe of Italy, through the fabled Straits of Messina and up the West coast to Tropea.

Rob worked out the best times to get favourable tides through the Straits of Messina. Thus we left Crotone at 08.00 and headed for Tropea. While on passage we were invaded by a number of North African immigrants – of the feathered variety. They were tiny birds, about the size of a sparrow. They’d see the boat and make a bee-line for it . They’d settle for a few minute – totally impervious to our presence and, having recovered their breath would shoot off towards land, There were seven in total, one even landing on the neck of Tim’s fleece while he was steering!

Throughout our trip we have had other frequent visitors in the form of dolphins who play and gambol through the azure waters in search of fish. They also love to play chicken with the hull of the boat as they swoop under and around it.

As night drew on, and we approached the toe of Italy, a strong quartering swell started up which caused Tiercel to take up a maddening twisty motion for the next few hours. Once we had turned the corner and headed up towards Messina it disappeared. As the dawn appeared at around 05.00 we saw that the boat’s speed over the ground was increasing rapidly as the favourable tide crept in. At one point we recorded our speed across the ground at 10.1 knots.

As we zoomed through the Straits we went from the Ionian Sea into the less salty Tyrrhenian Sea . As we were ejected from them the wind picked up and we had a delightful sail into Tropea.

An ormeggio (marinero) directed us to put Tiercel among some charter boats and helped us to do so. We opened the beer and organised lunch. As we relaxed and chatted a large charter boat with a German flag came along & the skipper shouted, in quite good English with all the anguish of a tormented soul that we were in his berth and would have to move. Rob told him that the Ormeggio had put us there and we would move if HE directed us to do so. The skipper said something along the lines of “you are in my home”. We then heard him berating the ormeggio who seemed to win the argument & promptly put him in another berth. It was only then that we noticed the German flag on his boat. We wondered f he had recently visited Cariati!

Tropea is a delightful medieval town very popular with Northern European visitors. The old town sits above the harbour on impossibly steep cliffs. That evening we headed up the 220 steps to explore it.

It has many beautiful tall old buildings with intricately winding alleyways between them which eventually led us to the town centre and the drop dead gorgeous views down the precipitously steep cliffs overlooking the ridiculously blue sea. Wonderful!

Had a pleasant meal of beer, ice cream and pizza in that order. The waiter even brought Marley a bowl of frankfurter and then water. Being so cute really does have its advantages.

We took a 2^nd day here to complete the work on the boat’s heads (toilet). The chandlery in the marina looked like one of those where you could get a nice set of cups for your boat and an expensive suit of yachting clothes for yourself, and not much else. However they came up with the requisite length of bog hose to repair our leaking system. Tim heroically volunteered to fit this while Rob took 'Super Spaniel’ in search of provisions. Tim finished the hose in about half an hour while Rob was over 2 hrs finding food.

Maratea was our next destination 40 miles away. About 2 hours out of Tropea we were hit with very strong winds – somewhere over 30 knots. This gave us quite an exciting sail for about 2 hours and then disappeared. Super Spaniel took all this in his stride fast asleep on his bed. When the wind died and the sun came out he deigned to join us on deck for a further doze in the sun.

As we left Tropea we noticed that another boat had left about half an hour after us. Just as we got tied up in Maratea it appeared in the harbour. She was a Brit boat owned by Chris and he was sailing single handed around the Med. His boat was called ‘Airy Mouse out of Helford’ . Chris lives in Helford, Cornwall. He was also a ‘Meatloaf’ fan. Apparently the Cornish term for a bat is ‘Airy Mouse’. Thus the boat name was a tribute to one of Meatloaf’s greatest hits – work it out for yourselves. It had us in stitches when he explained it over dinner.

Camerota . We followed ‘Bat out of Helford’ out of harbour the following morning aiming to get to Camerota some 40 miles away After an enjoyable sail and less enjoyable smash to windward we. arrived at this pleasant, friendly port, refuelled , re-victualled and got our heads down for an early start the following morning. We said au revoir to Chris who was heading to Sorrento.

Salerno was our next destination. The wind kicked in after an hour or so of motoring and we were able to set our sails for a rather lumpy but fast sail to Salerno. On arrival we looked at 3 of the 4 marinas here, made our choice, moored up and booked in. Rob got a shock when he paid the bill. It was only E13 per night so booked 3 nights before they changed their minds.

Salerno has made an enjoyable stay. The city centre is reached by wee alleyways with all sorts of small shops we would have liked to explore further but the rain has bucketed down.

By the looks of it we now have 7 more sailing days before we arrive in Nice on the French Riviera. Weather permitting we should arrive there by the end of May.