We are back to Zoe once again after a fun filled “off season.” We did some incredible hikes with new friends, hit the Christmas markets in 3 European countries (reconnecting with some old friends), spent a week exploring the beauty of Japan, and spent time with friends in Vancouver, Canada on their beautiful boat. If all that wasn’t enough, we also learned that we have 3 new grand-babies and a grand-niece all arriving between June and September. While I can’t tell you how beyond excited we are, the writing on the wall has now become very clear. Spending 3-6 months living in the Med. is no longer in the cards for us, and we have made the very heartbreaking decision to sell Zoe. With that in mind, we decided to come back to Zoe much earlier than we ever have to test out spring sailing.
We arrived in Rome on March 26th and got checked into our Airbnb before heading to the yard where Zoe spent her winter. It is always a very sad moment to see just how dirty she has gotten sitting on land for 6 months. The amount of work ahead of us always feels a bit overwhelming. We spent the next week getting Zoe cleaned up and put back together for living, sailing and selling. When we got a break in the weather, we got her launched and tied up to the yard’s wall on the Tiber River. At least now, we could move on board. We quickly discovered that March and April are quite windy, rainy and COLD. We made the most of being stranded in the Rome area by exploring the local town of Ostia, frequently walking the Lungomare along the water, and going to explore Ostia Antica. Ostia Antica is an ancient Roman city and port of Rome on the Tiber River. These ancient ruins are very well preserved and provide a fascinating glimpse into life in Ancient Rome. Among the ruins, you can also see some very well preserved mosaics and frescoes. We have seen many archeological sites in numerous countries, and Ostia Antica is definitely one of the best. We also had the pleasure of meeting another American couple with a catamaran in the same yard and quickly became friends.










As I said, spring has been very cold and wet, so we have used our heater more during this time than we have in all the years of owning Zoe. The good news is it worked amazing. The bad news is we spent almost 3 weeks tied to the wall because we could not catch a break in the weather to head south. We were starting to go stir crazy, so we decided to get off the boat and head inland for some adventure. Our next adventure was the hilltop town of Tivoli. After a 1 1/2 hour drive, we hoofed it up the hill and through the narrow alleyways to our cute little apartment in the heart of the town. We spent the next 2 days wandering the narrow streets and following a trail system down to Hadrian’s Villa. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site containing the ruins and archaeological remains of a villa built around 120 AD by emperor Hadrian. The grounds cover more than a square kilometer which is larger than the city of Pompeii. The site is considered the most imposing and complex Roman villa known and much of it is still unexcavated. The following day we visited another UNESCO World Heritage Site called Villa d’Este. This was a 16th century villa famous for its terraced hillside garden. Each room inside the villa contained ornately painted walls and incredible sculpted ceilings. The grounds were spectacular with rich and exotic plants, statues, and an endless number of fountains and water features. You could definitely while away hours wandering the grounds.












We returned to Zoe after our relaxing adventure and reconnected with our American friends. We were more than ready to get underway, but the nasty winds we had escaped from on our road trip meant the seas outside the river were running 6-8 feet (almost 3 meters). It would take a couple more days for the seas to die down, and we would finally be on our way!
It was finally time to go. We had spent almost a month trapped in the town of Ostia. It took us over 30 minutes to free our lines from the dock due to the strain from the very strong winds. Our lines had literally worn deep grooves into the wood poles they were tied too. At one point, we were afraid we might just have to cut them and leave them behind. Dan eventually got them worked free and off we went. Our plan was about a 5 hour sail south to the town of Anzio, but the direction of the winds was not quite what was forecasted which meant the anchorage would not be a great stop for us. We quickly made the decision to get to the island of Ponza. We had anchored there before and knew the anchorage was a wide open area of sand and well protected. However, this did mean our first sail would go from 5 hours to 11 hours and a nighttime arrival. Eesh…..talk about baptism by fire. Of course the wind and seas were higher than forecasted, but the seas were behind us and the wind was a good direction, so we had a great sail for the majority of our journey. Things got a little hairy when darkness fell and we were passing between the two islands. All of a sudden, we were playing frogger with fish traps in the dark…..Dan driving and me perched high on the helm telling him which way to steer (or put the engines in neutral) to avoid the traps that did not become visible until you were right on top of them. Before long we rounded the end of Ponza, and the wind came howling down the hillside at 20+ knots. Then came the fun of dropping the anchor in the pitch black of night and windy conditions. Lucky for us, there were only 2 other boats in the entire anchorage. Gotta love early season.







We spent 3 days on the island enjoying some clifftop hikes and wandering the cute little town. We were watching another weather system coming in and decided to head back to the mainland and into a marina in a town called Gaeta. We had read lots of great things about the area and were excited to explore the town. We tried the local specialty known as Tiella. It is basically a stuffed pizza (top and bottom crust), served lukewarm, and the fillings are not remotely related to the pizza we know. The most popular one was the one filled with octopus (yes, we tried it). We also tried some other odd ones like salted cod. In the end, we both decided we did not care for Tiella. Our first adventure in Gaeta had us walking to an amazing grotto cut in the cliffs. From there, we went down into the stone cliffs to a small, old chapel. In the smooth stone of the wall coming down the stairs was a deep handprint left by a pirate back in the day. We came out of the chapel to an incredible viewpoint that surrounded the dome of the small chapel. We continued on our trek through wooded areas that took us to ancient weapons bunkers, what looked like the remains of castle walls and alleyways, and up to the high point where a mausoleum stood. Unfortunately, it was being restored so we were not able to go inside. We continued our way down a country road which eventually spit us out back in town overlooking a castle and a beautiful cathedral. We had such a great time (and it was such a beautiful hike), we decided to do it again the next day but in reverse direction. We quickly discovered that our exploration the day before had been brilliant. It was rainy and a Friday, so there were very few people around. When we went the next day, the trails were packed, and there were huge lines to get into all the sights that we had to ourselves the day before….yikes. On our last night in Gaeta, we left the marina and anchored in the bay under the castle and cathedral. It was a spectacular view.












We sadly said goodbye to Gaeta and made our way to the island of Ischia. We were looking forward to meeting up with our friends once again. Unfortunately, there was no sailing this time. It was 6 1/2 hours of motoring. We struggled to find a good spot to anchor due to rocks, restricted areas, and sea grass. Our first night, we unknowingly anchored on rock. Since we were renting scooters the next day with our friends, we decided to take a look at our anchor with the dinghy to make sure it was well set before leaving. That’s how we discovered our anchor lying on a rock….crap! We took the dinghy around the anchorage looking for patches of sand and finally settling on a small patch that we found. We pulled up the anchor, had a moment of worry when it refused to come up, but adjusted the position of the boat and up it came. We headed to the spot we had chosen, dropped the anchor, made sure she was well dug in, and then checked it with the dinghy. It was perfect. We picked up our friends from their boat and headed to town to get some scooters. Off we headed to explore the island of Ischia. We stopped in several cute little towns as we circumnavigated the island. We then explored Giardini la Mortella, a magnificent privately owned botanical garden on the island. The garden was terraced along the side of the hill and has around 3000 different species of exotic plants and flowers. Parts of the gardens were surrounded by ponds, greenhouses, streams and fountains. In the end, we spent 7 hours cruising and exploring the island.













On our last day in Ischia, we climbed up the hill to explore the Aragon Castle. We started in the torture and weapons room. Once again, we were stunned by the horrific ways humans come up with to torture others. We wandered into the various rooms and hallways taking in the sights. We wandered into one room that housed what looked like a bunch of stone toilets all in a row. They were high backed with a cross carved into the stone, stone armrests, and what looked like wax residue from candles. Boy, were we way off! Turns out it was a nuns’ cementary (I won’t mention the sign outside the door said “cimitario”). It gets worse. Those stone structures were not toilets. They were called draining seats! They would take the lifeless bodies of the nuns and put them on the seats. Their flesh slowly decomposed and then the fluids would be gathered and placed in special vases. Their dried up skeletons would then be heaped up in a special place. This was done because they saw the body as useless other than housing the spirit. To make matters worse, every day the nuns would congregate in prayer at this site. They would spend several hours in prayer and meditation in this unhealthy environment and often fall victim to horrible and deadly diseases. The castle grounds also housed numerous small churches and cathedrals, a prison, a convent, wine cellars, and a crypt. The crypt contained beautiful artwork and frescoes (but it was kind of stinky). I really enjoyed Ischia quite a bit.



After 4 days in Ischia, we headed to the island of Procida (a short 45 minute hop from Ischia). It was a nice big anchorage with lots of sand, so we picked our spot and got settled in. Procida was another cute little town, but we found it very difficult to find a place to park our dinghy which made going to town less than desirable. We did sneak it into a spot among the fishing boats and explored the area on foot. The next day was Labor Day for Europe which meant that morning, boat after boat came screaming into the anchorage. Big power boats roared in and out making the whole anchorage a churning mess of swell. By the afternoon, there were probably 100 boats anchored in the bay having a party. The wind had also switched direction, so a continuous swell was coming into the bay as well. Luckily most of the boats left in the evening leaving just 4 of us anchored in the bay for the night. The wind and swell continued to grow, and we decided we had enough. The next morning we lifted anchor and headed to the mainland where we anchored in a small bay outside of Naples. We will be heading in to a marina in a couple of days to do a reset and deep clean of the boat to be ready to continue our journey south. Stay tuned as we resume our adventure down the Amalfi Coast next week!