Dan and Robyn's Adventures

First, I would like to apologize for leaving you all hanging.  I know I dropped the ball in wrapping up our 2024 sailing season, and who likes an unfinished story.  So as the saying goes…..better late than never. 

Sadly, September of 2024 was not shaping up to be a great month for sailing.  We were constantly being hammered with thunderstorms, high winds and big seas.  We were so excited to show my sister and her husband all the treasures of some of the islands and Italy by sailboat.  Apparently, Mother Nature had other plans.  Once we found a quick break in the weather, we headed to the town of Rossignano Solvay, on mainland Italy, where we parked Zoe in a marina and headed out for some fun on land. 

Our first land outing was renting a car and heading to Siena.  We had booked a cooking class in the countryside where we picked farm fresh produce and herbs to be used in our cooking class.  During our class, we learned to make gnocchi, tagliatelle, and several different bruschettas.  Of course, we got to eat all of these delicious dishes while enjoying lots of wine from their vineyards.  Our luncheon was topped off with some great accordion music played by our chef/owner.  It was truly an awesome experience. 

From there we made our way to the heart of Siena where we had a room booked for the night.  We explored some of the night life that evening before digging into more of the sights in the morning.  We started at the Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta as we knew this would get very crowded, and we had more places to go see.  This is a UNESCO World Heritage site and definitely worth the visit.  It was designed and completed between 1215 and 1263.  What made our visit even more special was discovering that the incredibly decorative floors were only uncovered in the month of September which was when we were there.  All the other months of the year, these beautiful floors are covered up for their protection. 

After visiting this heavenly place, we decided to take our adventures to the bowels of hell.  Just kidding.  Well, sort of.  We decided to tour the Museum of Torture.  The exhibit contains unique and gruesome instruments of torture.  It shows the worst side of humans throughout history and the unspeakable ways they found to punish one another from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Age.  I’ll let the pictures tell the story.  It’s more fun that way.  You know you are curious.  We’ve included a few pictures here, but we will include a link to many more for those of you with a morbid curiosity (like me)!

http://www.torturemuseum.it/en/permanent-museums/siena/

After Siena, we headed to the next hilltop town of San Gimignano.  This beautiful town is encircled by 13th century walls and lined with medieval houses.  We wandered the cobblestone streets taking in the sights and many medieval towers that create the skyline of this lovely town.  Unfortunately, the rain and wind had begun, so our time here was cut a little short. 

It was time to make our way back to the marina.  As we pulled into the entrance, our mouths dropped in shock.  The beach just outside the marina was no longer visible.  Huge waves were battering the shoreline and washing over the boardwalk.  They were very short period and relentless.  As we looked toward the marina, the sea was crashing over the very large sea wall built around the marina.  I felt bad for the boats that were tied to that outer pier as they were getting doused in the waves crashing against the outside of the wall.  Boy were we grateful to be tucked in so deeply in the marina.  As we made our way to Zoe, we had a tight grip on all our things.  The wind was howling and the dock swaying.  Dan tried to get our passerelle (the gangway that runs from the dock to the boat) down in all of this chaos, but it slipped and hit the dock knocking the wheels off which now meant the slats that are walked on started to fall off.  Oh no!  This was bad!  This was our way back onto our boat!  Luckily there was a spare wooden passerelle laying on the dock, so we used it to get us all back on board.  Fortunately, we still had our old wooden passerelle on board, so we were able to use that until we could get our nice metal one fixed. 

We rode out the worst of the storm before deciding to head out once again.  This time, our destination was La Spezia and Cinque Terre (5 towns).  Cinque Terre consists of 5 different towns perched high on the cliffs in the  northern part of Italy.  We had originally planned to sail the boat to La Spezia, but the seas were still rough and the marinas that were in the heart of town were outrageously expensive.  The four of us hopped two different trains, rode through the beautiful countryside of Tuscany into Liguria, and soon arrived in the town of La Spezia.  This part of our adventure would involve trains and walking….no rental cars.  We checked into our hotel and hit the ground running (not literally…haha).  Our first stop was the Naval Technical Museum of La Spezia.  The focus of this museum is the specialty equipment of the Italian Navy special forces which is still stationed in La Spezia.  Within the museum, you could see the history and evolution of ships, gear, and weapons.  On higher ground outside of the museum, you were able to see the modern day military ships nestled in the harbor. 

The following day, we took the train up into the mountains of Cinque Terre.  We spent the day exploring 4 of the 5 towns, each with their own charm and style.  The one thing they all had in common, lots of hilltop climbs and gorgeous views.  It was a long, full day logging many, many steps.  We enjoyed specialized cocktails, delicious food, and of course gelato.  We were all worn out when it was time to hop the train and head back to our hotel in La Spezia.

We returned to Zoe where the weather was still looking rather ugly.  The skies were heavy with storm clouds, and the seas were still nasty.  We even saw several waterspouts out on the water.  I was super glad we weren’t out on the water!  We were down to our last day with my sister and her husband, so we made the most of it enjoying delicious food and cocktails at a few beachfront bars and restaurants.  In the middle of the night, my sister received a call telling us that our mom had passed away.  She had been in a care facility for a number of years due to Dementia, so we knew this would come at some point.  However, she had been stable for so long that this was completely unexpected.  The next day we walked my sister and her husband to the train to get them to Rome for their flights home.  It was a very sad ending to what had been an amazing few weeks of cruising with them.  What made things worse was that the weather was still bad, we needed to get Zoe to her winter storage location (no where near us), and the marina could not keep us more than a few more days.  That evening, the rain came in.  As I sat inside feeling very sad at the loss of my mom and the departure of my sister, I heard bagpipes playing.  As I listened closer, I realized someone was playing Amazing Grace on the bagpipes outside on a boat.  I jumped up and ran to the bow of our boat in the pouring rain.  A few boats down, on the bow, stood a man in a kilt playing this haunting song.  This was one of my mom’s favorite songs.  I stood there in the rain with tears streaming down my face.  I felt like it was a sign from my mom.

The weather finally cleared a couple of days later, and we got Zoe underway.  Dan and I sailed 24 hours straight to get to our final destination.  We pulled up the Tiber River outside of Rome and spent the next couple of very long days getting Zoe shut down for winter.  Once Zoe was safely on land and ready for our extended absence, we headed to the airport and began our long journey home.

I’ve tried to keep this somewhat short and sweet with words but loaded with pictures.  At this point, Dan and I are planning to head back to Zoe toward the end of March.  We have never gone out quite this early in the year, so this could be very interesting in terms of weather.  So, I hope you will rejoin our Zoe adventures coming your way very soon!

As we bid a sad farewell to our son and daughter-in-law, it was time to start making our way north for the arrival of my sister and brother-in-law.  They were not due to join us for a few more days, and our goal was to get to a marina just outside the Rome airport (which was still quite far from where we currently were).  We left the town of Cetara on the Amalfi Coast and headed 7 hours north to the island of Procida, outside of the Naples area.  It was a cloudy and overcast day, and by the time we selected our spot in the busy anchorage, it was pretty late in the day.  The surrounding town was very nice, but the anchorage was very rolly with local boat traffic.  It had been a long day, and we were both feeling kind of blah, so neither of us felt like taking the dinghy into town to explore.  This, of course, would be a decision we would kind of regret later.  Oh well, we can always go back later or next year.  Little did we know, our plans in the sand were about to begin their slow erosion.

The following day was going to be a really long one, so we were underway by 7:00 a.m.  We were headed to the island of Ponza.  It took us nearly 9 hours to arrive at our next destination.  This island had a great looking town on one end and sheer rock cliffs on the other.  Thankfully it was a much bigger anchorage than the one we were in the night before, and we quickly selected our spot.  For those of you that know me well, I like a respectable amount of space between me and my neighbors and usually choose the most remote area (which also means we get some really amazing backdrops….in this case, the towering cliffs behind us).  Once again, there was a lot of powerboat traffic making for a very rolly anchorage.  Sadly, we really had no desire to head into town after our long day.  I guess after a few weeks of milling through very crowded towns bustling with tourists, we really needed some quiet downtime and solitude.  So, another island has been added to our “must return to” and explore list.  Darn!  Another island we have to make our way back to….haha.

On the third day, we made the decision to get all the way to Fiumicino, Rome.  We had a reservation in a marina the following night, so we put in a request for an additional night tonight.  This was going to be a very long passage, and we would be racing sunset.  Once again, we got underway early in the morning.  About half way through our nearly 12 hour passage, we heard back from the marina….there was no room at the inn tonight.  Uh oh.  That was a serious miscalculation!  We were along the coast of mainland Italy, in an area where marinas and safe anchorages were few and far between.  Dan searched incessantly for options as we continued our way north.  No luck.  Finally he found a possibility.  About a half hour north of our intended destination, Ostia Marina, was an area where a breakwater had been constructed for a new marina that was never completed.  Never completed, as in the only thing there was a very nice breakwater with great holding in mud….that’s it.  The sun was very low on the horizon, and the race was on to get in before it completely set.  There was only one other boat in the anchorage as we rounded the corner.  The bay was surrounded by these very interesting “houses” on stilts which gave the whole place a bit of a creepy vibe.  We were soon greeted by a resident swan looking for handouts.  I threw him some toasted bread.  He was obviously well trained as he would tap his bill on our swim step to ask for more.

The next day we headed into the marina to get the boat ready for Kim and Don’s arrival.  Once we had Kim and Don on board, we got them settled in for the day before our departure the following day.  The weather the next day was cool and cloudy with very little wind.  We got underway fairly early for our 4 1/2 hour journey.  Unfortunately, the winds were calm which meant no sailing.  We anchored off the town of Santa Marinella.  We enjoyed some swimming before heading in to explore the small town.  Since it was now September, we carefully watching the weather multiple times a day.  It was becoming very evident that transition season had arrived early, and it did not look pretty.  We were carefully plotting our destinations to try and show our guests as much as possible.  Our plan….make our way up the western side of Italy, cross over to the island of Elba, and then head over to the eastern side of Corsica.

Our next destination was 6 1/2 hours away, so we got an early start once again.  Today was sunny and hot with very little wind….no sailing again.  We arrived in Porto Ercole.  We secured an awesome spot below some towering rock cliffs, very close to the town.  No one really felt like swimming, so we took the dinghy into town to walk the waterfront and surrounding town.  It wasn’t long before we had seen all there was to see.  This would be an early night since we were headed to the island of Elba the next day, and this would be close to a 10 hour passage.  Our guests were awesome troopers given the very long passages we were making each day.  As I said, transition season was upon us, and the weather was getting more and more questionable.  We still felt that we had our window to get to Elba, wait out some strong winds, and then head to Corsica.  The west side of Corsica was looking uglier and uglier with high winds and seas (not overly unusual), but the east side still showed some pockets of fair weather (notice I did not say great weather!).  Our plan was to leave the anchorage at 6 a.m.  At 2 a.m., Dan and I woke to the boat pitching around violently as large swell came rolling into our little nook.  To make matters worse, we were on a lee shore close to the rocks (if the anchor let loose, we would crash into the rocks).  Did I mention there was thunder and lightning as well?  At 3 a.m., I attempted to lift the anchor in 3 foot swells and white caps.  It was pitch black, so I had to try and use a flashlight in order to keep track of the position on our anchor chain and anchor.

The seas were choppy with 3 foot swell but no wind once we rounded the peninsula from the bay.  We enjoyed the sunrise and some much  needed coffee.  The afternoon winds made their arrival allowing us to actually sail the back half of our journey to Elba.  As we approached the harbor of Portoferraio, we entered the freeway of very large ferries and cruise ships coming and going.  Before long, we were tied up on the city quay right in front of the old town and all the hustle and bustle of a busy tourist town.  Our first adventure was to rent a car and go explore the area, including Napoleon Bonaparte’s villa where he had been exiled.  Tourist season was in full bloom and everything was very busy.  We decided to head up into a mountaintop town.  Heavy, dark clouds were rolling in which were limiting what we could do and see.  Unfortunately, we did have an “exciting” moment as we rounded a corner, in the heart of town, where it narrowed to one lane of traffic for cars going in both directions.  While Dan tried to avoid the concrete planters on one side, a young guy came around the corner (not really hugging his side) and we scraped down each other’s side.  Well, that put a huge damper on everyone’s mood.  We also wandered a huge fortress with great views overlooking the island and sea.  After exploring the area for a couple of days, we were ready to get underway.  Our plan was to head over to an anchorage about an hour away on Elba.  The seas were calm, but the skies were threatening with thunderstorms.  Our plan was to stage at the anchorage before crossing over to the island of Corsica.  More wicked weather was coming, so we were keeping a close eye on things.  Best laid plans…..

We found a nice spot in the anchorage and got settled in.  There was enough wind to keep the water moving at a pretty good clip.  We dropped the dinghy to go over to the beach bars and some cool looking hikes.  As Dan was motoring about checking the engine, it quit.  There was no getting it started.  He ended up rowing back to Zoe where he and Don set about trying to fix it.  No such luck….it was a goner.  This now meant we were trapped on the boat.  Trying to row 4 people on our dinghy (we were not close to shore or town) in windy conditions was not going to end well.  Without a dinghy, this also meant we were stuck going to marinas unless we fixed it.  We made arrangements to go back to Portoferraio where there was a marina with trades to work on boats.  The following morning we made sure they had room for us to come in early.  They told us they did.  The wind was now picking up and clouds were rumbling with thunder and lightning.  Once again, we navigated the gauntlet of cruise ships and ferries.  We hovered outside the marina trying to reach them.  The winds were already 18 knots.  That’s going to making docking an adventure.  When we finally reached someone at the marina, they said they had no room for us!  What?!?  Dan quickly scrambled and managed to get us a spot back on the wall we had just left the day before.  OMG….we were trapped on Elba!  Long story short….no one could fix the dinghy.  The weather around Corsica got worse, so we wouldn’t be going there, and the seas to get back to mainland Italy were not pretty.  We settled into our new home for a few days to wait out the weather.  Apparently this weather hell was going to be our new norm for the remainder of our time.  Our plans in the sand were now eroding more quickly.

We finally got our weather window to make our way to mainland Italy (Corsica continued to look worse and worst).  It was a very cloudy, cold, and long day.  After a 7 hour passage, we rode the swells into a marina in Rosignano, Italy.  Since we were tracking yet another weather system, we made the decision to come in to a marina and use it as our base to explore on land for a bit.  Our best laid sailing plans were being blown up left and right with weather systems.  So, when life hands you lemons…

The marina was amazing.  We were safely tucked up deep in the marina where there were numerous shops and restaurants.  The surrounding area had many beach bars, restaurants and a nice long boardwalk along the sea.  I could definitely enjoy hanging here for a while….which we did.  I will close this here since it’s getting rather long.  Our next episode will take you on our land adventures in Tuscany, so I hope you will stay tuned!

We arrived in Trapani, Sicily on Saturday, August 17th.  We pulled into the marina where we were tied up next to a 90 foot sailboat and two even bigger boats on the other side of him.  Another 90 foot sailboat soon came in and tied up on the other side of us.  Here we were sandwiched in between 2 mega yachts.  We were literally the littlest guy in the marina! The nasty weather was due to arrive on Monday, and the kids would arrive on Tuesday.  Since we had decided to drive to Palermo to pick them up and show them around, Dan and I rented a car for a couple of days to do some exploring of our own and take care of some necessary errands.  He put out 10 requests to various local rental car places, and one got back to him with availability.  This was actually quite lucky since August in Italy IS their holiday time.  This also means everywhere is overrun with people….lots and lots of people.

We picked up the car on Monday and headed for the town of Marsala.  This is the region known for the Marsala wines.  After bumbling around, we stumbled on a winery and popped in for a tasting. The winery welcomed us in with open arms despite us not having a reservation, and a big group of people already well into their tour.  They had a huge table laid out with nibbles, and a multitude of bottles of every variety of Marsala.  The owner pulled aside a young woman who spoke very good English, and she quickly brought us up to speed.  When they cut people loose for the tasting, it was like a free for all.  It was a pour your own tasting and taste as many things, as much as you want.  Everyone bellied up to the banquet tables where they proceeded to park themselves and strap on the food and drink bag.  I stood off to the side, quite overwhelmed by the whole scene.  Our young hostess kept telling me to get in there and try some things.  I told her it was too crowded for me.  I am accustomed to people going in and putting some food on their plate, filling their glass and then stepping aside for others.  Nope!  Not here!  They parked two deep all around the tables like the goodies might run out.  I did eventually get in there and taste some things that were quite yummy.  She then took us outside to see a truckload of grapes coming in and being dumped into the hopper for crushing (only some of us opted to leave the “trough” to see the sight).  We were told that due to the very hot and dry conditions this year, the grapes had to be harvested now instead of in September, or they risked losing them.  After we had more than enough samplings of Marsala, we got a private tour (the part we missed with the group) of their facilities.  It was quite fascinating.  Then we ended our experience in the wine shop where of course we purchased a lot of goodies.  It must’ve been a lot since they kept giving us free stuff!

The rest of our day was spent running around doing errands (not fun).  We hit a sporting goods store to buy a new SUP (ours blew up in the heat a few weeks earlier) and a new pump (also blew up).  The salt water and salt air environment are definitely hard on everything.  We went to a hardware store for some materials for the boat, a home goods store for some new pillows, and the grocery store to get provisions before the kids arrived.  Definitely not the most fun part of our day, but the winery closed at 3:00 for the day, so we had to get that in early.  Trapani is a very lovely town.  At night, the streets come alive with people and music.  Beautiful lighted decorations arched from one side of the pedestrian area to the other creating a very magical atmosphere.  Of all the places to hunker down for 5 days, we truly enjoyed both our marina and the town.

The following day, we had an hour drive to the Palermo airport to pick up Richard and Denise.  They had left Phoenix, Arizona the day before….flew to Atlanta then Rome then Palermo.  It was a very long journey for them, but they planned to hit the ground running until they could go no more.  We headed into the city center of Palermo, Sicily where we wandered the streets taking in all the sights.  As is everywhere here, tourist season was in full swing, and the streets were mobbed with people.  We wandered the sights for a couple of hours and then headed out in the direction of the boat.  We made a stop at a sight called Segesta which housed a beautiful archeological park.  Here we explored one of the most amazing ruins complexes in Sicily.  The temple itself is remarkably well preserved and has sat unfinished for over 2500 years.  It was built in the 5th century.

Once we had our fill of the ruins, it was time to head to the boat.  We got the kids settled in, and after a much desired shower, they were perked up and ready to go again.  Since we would be leaving the following morning, we wanted to show them Trapani and the hilltop town of Erice.  At the base of the mountain is a gondola which takes you to the top of the mountain.  The views were incredible looking out over vineyards, farmlands, city, and sea.  We had a reservation for dinner at a panoramic restaurant with similar views.  We enjoyed a very nice dinner overlooking Trapani and the sea while very ominous, storm clouds rolled their way over top of us.  By now the kids were running on fumes, so we headed back down the mountain and back to the boat.

The next morning we explored a little bit of Trapani, took care of formalities for the boat and our crew and were off once again.  We had about a 4 hour day down the west coast of Sicily to San Capo Lo Vito.  Fortunately the winds had died down, but the forecasted seas were not as slight as they were suppose to be.  Before long, we were rolling around in 6 foot seas hoping the kids didn’t want to jump ship as soon as we hit solid ground.  We opted for a marina again since the anchorage is known to be quite rolly, and we wanted them to be comfortable as they adjusted to boat life.  This was a popular beach town, and it was quite adorable as well.  All the streets and alleys were strung with lights; shops and restaurants were bustling; and music was playing all around the town.  We had some dinner and wandered the streets enjoying the night life.  Before long, we headed back to the boat for an early morning start.

Our next leg was going to be a long one for our new crew.  They had agreed to do an overnight passage with us.  It didn’t require them to do anything, but it would mean being trapped on the boat for an 8 hour run followed by 24 hours.  We decided to break it up the best we could which meant an  8 hour journey to the island of Ustica.  Dan had reached out to see about reserving a mooring ball, and they said yes.  Nothing else.  That should’ve been our first sign.  The sea swell had also not died down like the forecast said (and we told the kids).  So, we spent 8 long hours trudging through 3-6 foot swells.  When we finally arrived, we saw no open mooring balls.  There was no room for us to anchor given the depths surrounding the island.  We also buzzed by the tiny harbor.  Nope, no way we were fitting in there.  Dan finally reached someone by phone, and we were promptly told there were no mooring balls to fit us (biggest one we saw said 5 ton limit….we are 16 tons).  Our crew looked very crushed when we told them we were unable to stay here and had to press on.  This meant a 24 hour passage after already doing 8 and the excitement of being finished for the day.

We rolled into Minori on the Amalfi Coast late in the afternoon the following day.  The marinero’s came out and helped tie us up to forward and stern mooring balls, and we were finally settled in.  This was a very popular spot for locals on speed boats and other motorized watercraft which meant it was incredibly rolly. We bounced around in 2-3 foot swells which was NOT fun.  The day hot so we tried to make the most of it and swim anyways.  At night time, everyone in the area left and the water was calm and quiet.  We had amazing views of the town and coastline.  The next day, Dan’s niece and her boyfriend came out to the boat to spend the day with us swimming, jumping off the boat and a nearby cliff, and having a great time.  That evening, we wandered the town of Minori taking in the sights and enjoying drinks and dinner on shore.

We were all in this particular location (and why we were covering so many miles at break neck speed) to attend Dan’s nephew’s wedding in the hilltop town of Ravello overlooking the Amalfi Coast.  We arrived Thursday evening, and when Sunday rolled around, we were all meeting in Amalfi for a 4 hour boat tour of the coastline along with swimming.  We took the ferry to Amalfi where we met up with the group (60 people!).  We were loaded on to several different boats, and off we went.  This turned out to be a very rough, 4 hour adventure.  We made 3-4 different swim spot stops, and each one got worse in terms of the sea.  Ironically, this had nothing to do with weather conditions.  It was all caused by the massive amount of power boats and ferries transiting all these hot spots and kicking up 3 foot swell and waves.  Unfortunately, this meant a lot of people were not feeling well and some became very seasick.  Many powered through and enjoyed swimming, exploring sea caves, jumping off the larger boat’s roof, and even a cliff (much to the horror of the mother of the groom and mother of the best man).  Luckily all was fine.  We returned from the boat trip in the late afternoon and then needed to move Zoe about an hour away in order to put her in a marina.  We would be heading up to Ravello for a few days and were not comfortable leaving her on a mooring ball in case weather came up.

We were tied up in a very small marina Sunday evening in a town called Cetara.  Once again, we headed out into the town to check out the scene.  The next morning, our crew headed to Naples to go explore Pompeii while Dan and I did boat chores.  Ahhhh, the joys of owning a boat.  We would meet them in Ravello in the late afternoon at our B & B.  Getting to Ravello from where we were turned out to be a very painful experience…..especially late afternoon.  We took a 45 minute ferry back to Amalfi and then hoped on 45 minute, very crowded bus to Ravello.  This entailed some one lane parts of the road and switchbacks the whole way up.  Once we arrived, we had to lug our bag up the hill some more before finally arriving at our room, a hot sweaty mess.  Tonight would be another wedding event…..a welcome party.  We wandered up to a pizzeria set on beautiful gardened grounds.  At midnight, Dan and I wandered back to the room while some of the others looked for places to after party.

The following day was wedding day.  We wandered the town with Rich and Denise exploring the views; all the beautiful, little shops with their handmade wares; and a stunning villa perched on the side of the hill.  We found a spot offering limoncello tasting and tried a variety of flavors before purchasing a few of our favorites.  We enjoyed a nice lunch, where we paid way too much for way too little, but the views were incredible.  It was time to go back, cool off and rest, and then get ready for the main event.  This was a black tie optional affair, so we were all decked out to the nines.  All the guests convened in one location until we were given the signal to make our way up to the venue.  Once again, the venue grounds and views were stunning.  The wedding was quite special as it was tailored very specifically to the couple.  We then enjoyed a cocktails and small bites reception before being escorted into the main tents for the dinner portion of the event.  Yep, you guessed it….it was breathtaking as well.  The dinner was multi course, very yummy, and beyond what a normal person could consume in one meal.  There was of course dancing afterwards, and at midnight, Dan and I said our goodbyes while everyone else went inside for the after party that lasted until 2 a.m.  We would have liked to have joined, but we had a 7:30 a.m. bus, followed by a 45 minute ferry, and a 10:15 departure from the marina for a 6 hour passage north.  Ughhhh.  I am worn out!

I have taken you on a rather long journey this go around, so I will leave you here for now.  The day after the wedding, Richard and Denise left us to go explore Rome and then head home to the U.S. the following day.  Dan and I are headed north up the coast of Italy toward Rome where we will meet my sister and brother-in-law in a few days.  Stay tuned for more adventures along west coast of Italy and various islands along the way.

We finally made it back to Zoe in mid-July.  This was definitely our latest season yet, but we had two grandkids celebrating first birthdays this year and could not miss being with them.  When we finally arrived at the boat yard, we were quite crushed to see how filthy the boat had become.  If you will recall, we had spent days polishing her up really nice.  While we did not expect her to still be clean a month and a half later, we did not expect the magnitude of dirt and mud that coated her (all the result of Saharan dust storms).  We had only given ourselves a couple of days to prep the boat before putting her in the water, and it quickly became evident that we needed an extra day.  We had a lot of work done on the boat while we were gone, some of which had problems when we returned.  We had put in new underwater lights and only 1/2 worked.  We had new standing rigging done (the cables and wires that keep the mast up) and now our anchor light did not work.  That was probably the biggest problem.  No anchor light, no anchoring.  Luckily, everyone was very responsive, and we were back and running just in the nick of time.

Once again, we had our eyes on another nasty windstorm and needed to quickly leave the area in order to meet our first guests of the season.  The wind had already begun when they slid us into the water, and we rapidly got underway.  We needed to get to the Italian island of Sardegne (Sardinia in English) which was quite a distance away.  We made our way nearly 7 hours down the south coast of France to an anchorage in order to stage for our overnight (and open water) passage to Sardegne.  I couldn’t believe we were making our first overnight passage the 2nd day of our sailing season while trying to outrun a wicked wind!  Talk about jumping into the frying pan….ugh.

At 6:25 the following morning, we were underway for the 175 nautical mile passage.  Our destination was a very beautiful island (Asinara) off the northern tip of Sardegne, and well protected from the incoming Mistral.  Unfortunately, the last 6-7 hours of our 33 hour passage were spent bashing into the waves, reducing our speed greatly.  We grabbed a mooring ball in Cala d’Oliva, in Asinara, where the donkeys and goats wandered the landscape freely.  The water was crystal clear, and the scenery was idyllic.  Ahhh, back to my happy place.  The next day we decided to explore a new cove, slowly moving us closer to our exit point but remaining protected from the Mistral.  Once again, we tied up to a mooring ball.  Here was a much bigger town with a lot more activity.  The wind had long since arrived, and this particular cove was not very well protected from the incoming swell.  By the next morning, we were pitching around in 3 foot swells hitting us on the side.  This meant that things were falling and crashing off the shelves.  We decided to abort a 2nd night here and quickly moved around the corner to another mooring ball field with better protection.  While the wind still howled, there were no waves on the bay making for a much more peaceful stay.

After 3 days of waiting out the wind, it was time to get moving.  Unfortunately, our departure did not allow enough time for the seas to die down after multiple days of very strong winds.  As we exited the small cut between island and mainland Sardegne, we found ourselves riding the bucking bronco of 3-6 foot swells.  We painfully took them on the nose for a few hours before finally being able to turn and take them from the back corner.  This made for a much more pleasant ride and gave us quite the speed boost as we surfed down the swell.  After a 7.5 hour passage, we arrived in one of our favorite towns, Alghero.  We tied up in a marina, outside the walls of the old city, and began preparations for the arrival of our first guests the next day.

Our friends, Chris and Heather, arrived the following afternoon.  This was their first visit to Zoe, and we were super excited to be able to share our adventures with them.  Once we got them settled and oriented on the nuances of boat life, we grabbed a cab and headed for a winery to enjoy a tasting.  The winery was set on beautiful grounds, and we had a great time trying a variety of different wines.  Of course that resulted in stocking Zoe’s wine coffers for the rest of our trip!  We returned to the boat to drop our goodies, and then headed into the old town where we wandered the cobblestone streets.  Alghero is a beautiful old city with lots of small alleyways containing shops, restaurants and homes.  We took Heather and Chris to a favorite restaurant that we had discovered the year before.  Heather decided to have the lobster dinner.  Much to her dismay, the waiter insisted that she come “meet” her dinner.  He tried to convince her to have the lobster with all the eggs (a delicacy) to which she politely declined.  Dinner was delicious, but I think she could’ve done without the face to face meeting of her dinner.

Since our guests only had a week with us, we were on the move every day in order to show them as much as possible.  By 8:30 in the morning, we were on our way to another one of our favorites….the town of Bosa.  This was a short 3.5 hour hop down the coast.  We found a nice spot in the bay and dropped anchor.  Once settled in, we hopped on our paddle boards and headed into the beach bar.  Dan and I were a little slow going since our pump blew out before our SUP was fully inflated.  That was a slow slog!  We returned to the boat where we hung out in the crystal clear water on our floats enjoying some Sardegne beer (Ichnusa).  Yes, this would become a daily ritual.  After, we jumped in the dinghy and headed up the river to the town of Bosa.  We wandered the streets enjoying the scenery (unfortunately it was blistering hot).  Luckily, Chris found us a dinner spot with a table right in front of a giant fan!  As the sun began to set, we jumped back into the dinghy for our cruise back down the river and back to the bay where Zoe awaited.

The one nice thing about the Mistral (nasty wind in this part of the Med) is that it is always followed by beautiful weather….this time was no exception.  Because the weather was so calm, we decided to go to an island that you can only safely visit in the calmest of weather.  It is known as Isola Mal Vente (island of bad wind).  This was another 3.5 hour sail, but the island did not become visible until we were quite close.  Apparently, everyone else had the same idea as the anchorage and mooring field were packed with boats.  We continued on to a further bay which was a little less crazy.  We grabbed a mooring ball and snorkeled the crystal clear waters.  The boys decided to go explore in the dinghy where they got into a little mischief when some very drunk girls jumped into the dinghy with them, spilling wine all over Dan from head to toe. The boys worked hard to extricate themselves from the situation without causing an international incident.  When they returned, we all jumped into the dinghy and circumnavigated the island which has some spectacular rock formations and land features.  Needless to say, Dan gave a wide berth to the Spring Break scene that was taking place on the sandbar.  We had a wonderful steak dinner on board and then headed into the beach where we had an awesome beach bonfire to top off our evening.

The following day, we were on our way again.  I told you this was a whirlwind journey (I think we wore our guests out)!  Our original plan had been to anchor in a beautiful bay surrounded by incredible rock cliffs with caves to explore.  Unfortunately, an onshore wind had kicked up making it feel very unsafe to spend time at anchor.  It had already been a very long day, but we decided to pull up anchor and head to the town of Carloforte where we would tie up in a marina.  In the end, it was a 9.5 hour passage (too long for any of us) and getting tied up in a crosswind had all four of us on our toes.  Finally, we were safely tied up and ready to relax.

We had a little later departure the next day as the wind was still a little rambunctious.  Once there was a lull, we got underway to our next destination, Porto Pino.  The wind did kick up once again, and we were cracking along, under sail, at almost 8 knots of boat speed (really fast for our big girl).  The boys decided this would be a great time to fly the drone over Zoe to catch her under full sail.  We had never done this before for fear of losing the drone in the water.  With just two of us, you can’t fly the drone, land it on a moving object and drive the boat.  This was the perfect time with me driving the boat, Dan flying the drone, and Chris ready to snatch it from the air when we brought it back down.  Problem was, Dan lost sight of it and the drone returned to its launch position.  With the motors on, I flogged the genoa (front sail), spun us around and motored back in the direction we had come from.  Before long, we spotted the drone high in the sky, and Dan brought the drone down with Chris snatching it from the air.  We realized later, we had done all of this with a fishing line still in the water…..oops….that could have wrapped our prop and ended badly!  Soon, we were back on our way to the bay.  Porto Pino is a very large, beautiful anchorage in white sand, making the water stand out as a beautiful expanse of turquoise blue.  The beach itself had a  number of lovely beach bars and sand dunes.  Since it was still a little windy (with choppy water), we decided to take the dinghy up the canal to the town and swim later when the wind died down.  We cruised up the canal and wandered the quaint little town checking out the local specialty shops and bought some goodies.  We then headed to a beach bar for some cocktails, calamari and fries.  That evening, Heather decided to do some hand fishing off the back of the boat.  We turned on the underwater lights as she dangled some tasty beef fat in the water.  As the evening got later, more and more interesting things started to make their way to the lights.  Before long, we had an octopus checking out what was happening in the water under us.  Then, something big darted in and out of the darkness.  It moved too fast to figure out exactly what it was, but everything scattered, including the octopus which buried itself in a sand divot, trying to stay out of sight.  Our best guess is that it may have been a small shark.

We were down to 2 more nights with Heather and Chris.  Boy did time fly.  We headed to our final anchorage of their visit, Malfatone.  We tucked up deep in the bay across from another nice looking beach bar.  Once again, the water was crystal clear with lots of sea grass below us.  You can usually find a lot more sea life when there is sea grass present, allowing the fish to hide.  We snorkeled and played in the water before calling the beach bar for a pick up.  At this point, we were all craving a nice burger and fries.  Unfortunately, when we opened up the restaurant menu, it was not your usual bar fare.  It was a lot of seafood and pasta with a very gourmet flair (and gourmet price).  Sadly (I know….poor us), we all found something we could live with to eat for lunch.  Don’t get me wrong, the food was very good….just not what we were all craving.  Chris managed to sweet talk one of the staff members into selling the boys a couple of their staff shirts which were quite nice.  As the sun began to go down (and it became a little cooler), we took the dinghy into a cove and hiked up the hill to the remains of a watch tower.  The 360 degree view with an ice cold beer was spectacular!

Well, the dreaded day had arrived.  It was our very last passage with Chris and Heather on board.  We were headed to the big city of Cagliari where they would leave us the following morning to make their way back to the states.  We tied up in a small marina which was half the price of the ones closer to town.  We soon learned why when the electrical breaker continuously tripped every time we turned on the air conditioner.  Uh oh…..this was going to be a long night!  We decided to head out to the heart of the city where there was a huge indoor market and called for a cab.  This was a bit of a disaster as one company kept hanging up on us.  In the end, we almost had an international incident when 2 different cabs showed up.  Dan managed to sort it out (with a little money for cab number 2, of course), and we were on our way.  Unfortunately, by the time we got to the market, they were 15 minutes from closing, so a lot of the shops had already closed.  It had everything imaginable, and I was disappointed to not have had hours to spend time shopping.  We did manage to buy a variety of yummy cheeses.  We then walked to a highly reviewed restaurant that was definitely off the tourist beat.  It was very good.  We then struggled (we cannot use our usual Google translate when talking on a phone) to get a cab back to the marina.  Luckily, a Brit had come by and spoke in Italian to the cab company for us, and we were all set.  As we sat in the cockpit relaxing that evening, the fish in the marina were going crazy.  Something very big was thrashing around making quite a ruckus in the water.  No mater how hard we tried, we could not see what was causing the commotion.  Whatever it was, we could see that it was very big as it bumped into the boats during its hunt.  We needed to make this an early night as Chris and Heather had a 5:00 a.m. cab booked to catch their flight to Rome.  The time had gone by way too fast.

Dan and I had our own dilemma.  We would be leaving Sardegne for Tunisia in order to get our boat out of the EU.  Since our boat is American flagged and not tax (VAT)paid, we are only allowed to have her in EU waters for 18 months before either leaving or paying the tax (24% on their perceived value of our boat!  No thank you!).  Our dilemma was that another big Mistral was on the way, and the marina in Sardegne had no room for us to stay until it was over.  The mistral was bringing very high winds followed by very nasty seas (6-10 feet).  Our choice was to leave as soon as possible after Chris and Heather left (Friday) or wait until Tuesday for the seas to die down.  I had no desire to anchor out during that mess, and Dan didn’t want to move to the nicer marina for 200 euro per night (can’t say I blame him).  The passage to Tunisia was going to be 20 hours, and we would barely be in front of the weather as it came in.

We walked our guests out of the marina at 4:50 a.m. and sadly said our goodbyes.  Dan and I returned to the boat to catch a couple more hours of sleep before our overnight passage.  Once up, we walked to the other end of town to start the process of checking ourselves and the boat out of Italy.  Turned out to be a fairly easy process (for once).  As we got Zoe ready to go, we soon discovered what had been making all the ruckus in the water the night before.  Swimming through the marina were 4 dolphins!  It was so great to see.  Our final challenge was getting underway early enough to stay ahead of the weather, but not so early that we arrived in Tunisia in the dark.  We were underway at 11:30 a.m. with the hope of arriving in Tunisia at 7:30 a.m. the following day.  With that, I am going to leave you here, hopefully on the edge of your seat, and we will return soon with tales of our crossing and adventures in Tunisia!  Thanks for following along with us!