Tradition – Sailing Azure Seas

Beauty Spots, Italy

Let’s face it, as countries go, Italy is bella; beautiful and glorious. Here were are racing by its magnificent coast to meet a ship in Genoa that will bring Mercier to Oz. We had a wonderful day in Ischia after saying goodbye to gorgeous cousins in Minori and Sorrento. Ischia is one of our favourite islands because people are just as likely to break into song as to say ciao.

Waterfall & mosaic of King Neptune at Poseidon Thermal Spa, Ischia

The Thermal Spa is wonderful, with mineral springs running hot and cold. The waterfalls act as massage therapists.

The next morning we sailed past another favourite, Procida, because we just didn’t have enough time to stop. We are already planning another Italian sojourn, using ferries and pensiones. Procida, Ponza and Ventotene are three of the Pontine Islands, south of Rome. We anchored in nearby Ponza and had a wonderful swim.

From Ponza, it was a nine hour day sail to make it to Porto Turistico, because we had a lovely south westerly breeze to help us on our way. You know there has to be a reward for that much sailing. A day in Rome, with shopping at Castrioni, scrumptious lunch at Romeo, a stroll down the Pont S’Angelo and a gelato fix.

Gelateria del Teatro, watching them ready the fruit for the ices.

Two days ago, we were stopped by the Guarda Finanza or border patrol of Italy. We were just motoring past Cittavecchia, we were asked quite a few questions. “Where are you going?” “Ercole”, we answered, he looked confused. More questions about our intended trip, while the other officer was checking us through their computer. He asked again,”Where are you going?” “Ercole” we said smiling. A few more questions, then he says “erCOle”. Si, mystery solved.

There are not a lot of ports or anchorages north of Porto Ercole on the mainland coast, so we sailed out to Elba, This is a wonderful Tuscan island and we have been here three times.

Yesterday, we arrived to about 8 yachts at about 3PM. By the time we went to bed, there were literally 100 yachts in the anchorage. not counting the boats in the marina. It was like the Sydney Harbour Bridge at 8:00am, just about bumper to bumper. Many yachts had their fenders out at anchor, just in case.

Off to Portoferraio!.

Messina Straits to Tropea

Two years ago, we sailed from the Aeolian Islands through the Messina Straits going south. This morning at 6:30am we sailed the straits going north, sailing from Reggio to Tropea. The Strait is 20 miles long and from 2 to 10 miles wide, funneling the Ionian Sea into the Tyrrhenian Sea and vice versa. You are able to see the energy in the water. look long enough and you are bound to see a whirlpool forming. We began so early because we knew the current would be flowing south by 7:30am, 4.5 hours after high tide in Gibraltar.

Frosty was a bit skeptical at being underway by 6:30 am, even with a Nespresso in his hand but soon we were surrounded by the ‘passarelles’ or felucas, for the swordfish fisherman. Watching them move towards a sword fish at a rate of knots is quite startling.

Felluca or passarelle, a swordfishing boat

The boats are about 40 feet long and the mast is about 50 feet high and the skipper steers from that lofty position.

Captain and first mate up 50 feet into the air, Messina Straits

The harpooner walking out on the passerelle — The harpooner walking out on the passarelle. Look at the rooster tail.

After getting through the Messina Straits with a sighting of one swordfish( or was it a tuna?), a slight whirlpool trying to form and quite a bit of current. We sailed up the coast to Porto di Tropea. Only 30 miles from the Aeolian Islands and a charming, neo-classical town, in a slight state of ruin, there is a lot to like. The outstanding feature has to be the beaches. Surrounded by tufa, the beaches are superb. Odysseus never talks about beaches, does he? The beaches here are sensational. There were incredible beaches up the coast from Reggio di Calabria.

I tried to get James and Frosty smiling while in the Messina Straits, but in that photo they looked liked they had seen Charybdis. They liked the beach though.

Our journey so far (sorry, you have to copy & paste the link)

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zkkfRzDGj2mE.kO4m-3hTL-cs

Taormina, a jewel of Sicily

On occasion, James and I think, “Wouldn’t it be nice?” and the next thing you know instead of sticking with our plan, we abandon it. In this case, we turned left 90 degrees south and headed for Taormina. There are moorings run by George Risso ‘en vicino’ to the Taormina railway stop. This meant we could leave Mercier on a mooring and be ferried to land by the very friendly Branko and take a bus up the hill to Taormina. Perfetto!

Mount Etna is our backdrop. Today she was shrouded in mist and clouds.

As we are on a mooring, there is no electricity, hence no coffee. As soon as we walk through the Porto Messina arch, we head for the sumptuous Hotel Timeo and their perfect coffee. We gaze over the Botanical gardens of Taormina with the stunning Mount Etna as the back drop.

We walk through Taormina after the coffee and call into churches and shops. Then we jump in a cab and ride up the tortuous road to Castelmola for a visit to the castle village and lunch. Etna was completely ensconced by cloud and wispy clouds seem to be floating up to us too.

The bus down the hill deposits us at the Arch again and we wait for Frosty to arrive. After Frosty arrives we arrange a quick tour of Taormina, which includes a short visit to the Greek Theatre, which is hosting a film festival but not tonight.

Then we head down to Mercier, move to a quiet anchorage and row ashore for dinner. Frosty’s celebratory birthday dinner was the main event. Today we have motored over to Reggio di Calabria and we found a berth in the Legale Navale.

This meant we were able to visit the Riace bronzes (circa 450 BC) at the Reggio Calabria National Museum. The Riace Bronzes were found by a scuba diver, vacationing in Riace, lying on the seabed and they had been there for thousands of years. There was no evidence of a ship wreck, although they may have been thrown overboard in a stormy sea. Their restoration is wonderful. It is close to miraculous.

In this part of Italy, you can not be non-plussed by the beauty, the grittiness or the surprising. You can only enjoy it.

Church in Taormina, Note the skull and cross bones over the church door.

The heel of Italy and the soul

Once we had landed in the marina at Santa Maria di Leuca, the village on the very heel of Italy, we wandered around the town we had visited two years ago. By chance, as the tourist season doesn’t seem to have started, only Gelaterias were open. We have a gelato test – if the gelato is piled high out of the container, we walk by. If it is level or just slightly higher than its container, we order. The second test is pistachio ice cream must be a dusty olive green and not bright or flouro green. These two tests are fairly fool proof.

Needless to say, the gelato was wonderful at Crema and Cioccolatta Gelateria and afterwards we walked down the street and noticed a medieval fort built to protect against the Saracens. The fortress is covered in beautiful caper plants, which must self seed into crevices of the hot, dry stone walls.

Fortress - Santa Marina di Leuca — Fortress – Santa Marina di Leuca

This part of the journey finds anchorages and marinas few and far between, we are sailing or motor sailing for 60 miles a day, leaving at day break and getting in late afternoon or early evenings.

Two years ago, we went into the Porto Vecchio at Crotone on a Sunday. There wasn’t much open and we only saw the very gritty area near the fish markets.

Yesterday, we walked up to the beautiful castle built by Carlos V and the old town, then down to the beach with beautiful sands. We commented that it didn’t look affected by tourism at all, except perhaps Italian tourism. As we were departing this morning, we saw a cruise ship come into Crotone. We realized we were doubly lucky: we weren’t there on Sunday and the Cruise ship was not in town.

On our Western track, we passed the Promontorio di Capocolonna. In a very small area, we see the ruins of the Temple of Hera Lacina, the Tower of Nao, a XVl century fortress, a church sanctuary and a light house.

Sailing the Inland Sea, Ionian Islands

If your route constitutes sailing to windward, there may be no better place to sail/motor than the inland sea. Sailing from harbour to anchorage through this area is a dream. Why you ask? You can easily get up early and get to your next anchorage with light winds, get anchored in time for morning coffee before the wind gets fresh. Get off the boat for the afternoon sightseeing and have dinner ashore, then by about 9:00 the wind has died down and the boat is quiet for a good night’s sleep. We call it the Gentleman’s Breeze. You have plenty of time then to walk around and enjoy the sights, shop or find a bakery.

If you want to sail, hopefully going south, then you have a sleep in, morning coffee, sail to a lunch spot, swim and in the early afternoon the breeze comes in and you can sail for miles under fresh breezes.

Jimbsail.info is a wonderful resource for sailors sailing in the Mediteranean and he has information about the Inland Sea of the Ionian enclosed by Kephalonia, Ithaka, Mainland Greece, Meganisi and Preveza. In all the Med, this is sailing that most reminds me of Sydney Harbour. The Inland sea is good area for novices and families. It is a great place to sail in Greece and not have to work around the Meltemi or struggle going to windward.

The captain and crew on Mercier, have wooden boats in their veins. Squadron friends know Ric and Sandy have the lovely classic yacht, Rapunzel. On Ithaca, both In Vathi and Kioni, we spotted the classic wooden yacht Rubicon, and Rubincon’s owners, Lance and Charlotte. They are also members of the Cruising Association. Hello quickly turned into a chat about wooden boats and their beautiful Rubicon, which they will keep in Greece. Lance calls this “resonance”, finding people with a shared interest and continuing to bump into them.

Saint Nikolas's Cave — Saint Nikolas’s Cave

So our last few days have taken us to Vathi and Kioni on Ithaca as well as Porto Spilia, Meganissi after a swim near St Nicolas’s Cave. We are enjoying the trip, even though we are moving, but Sandy and I decided it is just the right pace.

Meanwhile, fair winds to Rubicon, Charlotte and Lance. We’ll see you in Sydney.

Zakynthos with Friends

One morning in April, we were having coffee with Sandy and Ric Lawson at the Careening Cove room. They had met fellow Squadron members and Mediterranean sailors, Arti and Dimitri (Artemis V) at a RSYS Cruising Experience meeting and invited us to meet them for a coffee. This turned out to be a great plan.

If you like cruising, hearing about other cruisers’ experiences can be beneficial in so many ways. You can learn about the best ports and anchorages, how to avoid a pitfall, new equipment and even which is the good restaurant or supermarket. Talking over coffee or wine about a shared passion is a veritable icebreaker. Let me assure you, sailing in the Mediterranean is a true passion and yesterday proves how effective a meeting over coffee can be.

Just let me go back a few days, Ric and Sandy met James and I in the Peloponnese harbour of Katakolon. The next morning we motored over to Zakynthos and made plans to meet Arti and Dimitri the next day, upon their arrival from Cephalonia in the afternoon.

Zankynthos is a beautiful island, so we hired a car and drove north. First we drove over hairpin turns to Kampi, which overlooks Schiza Bay, for a coffee. We saw a sign pointing us to Mycenaean tombs, which were carved out of rock on a hillside overlooking a verdant valley.

We continued up to the lookout of Shipwreck Bay. Here the limestone cliffs fall down to aqua milky water and a beach the colour of cream below. It is a place of incredible beauty, which always leaves me full of joy.

In the afternoon, back in Zante town, we see that Artemis is tied to the town quay and we go and say hello and make plans for dinner. Drinks on Mercier, Giostra di Zante – a local festival of Aeolian and Ionian dancers and then dinner.

Take it from me there is nothing better than Greek friends taking you to a Greek restaurant. We had local food: wild greens, briam, melanese, rabbit,beef, cockerel and pork. This was Yiayia’s cooking.

James, Gaila, Arti, Dimitri, Sandy and Ric — James, Gaila, Arti, Dimitri, Ric & Sandy

We had local music too and before they turned the lights out the ladies were being shown how to dance – in a Greek style. We might just have to find a Greek restaurant in Sydney.

Fair winds and good sailing to Artemis V. Arti and Dimitri, we think you should have joined us.

Knossos – home of the Minotaur

Do you remember the myth of Theseus slaying the Minotaur? The Minotaur was half bull – half man and liked to feast on the children of Greece. The children who were good gymnasts could stay alive by leaping over the bulls back, but in the end Theseus slayed the Minotaur and escaped the Labyrinth. There is conjecture that the Palace of Knossos was the labyrinth because it was so large and had so many rooms and corridors.

The frescoes are painted in rich, vibrant colours. They are so large and bright, their effect is visceral. The buildings are almost modern in construction. Here are some photos.

Charging bull fresco shows the building shape — Charging bull fresco shows the building’s modern shape

Olive groves flourish in the volcanic soil

One’s eyes are drawn to the green in the distance and then to the bright, intense colour of the frescoes surrounded by cream stone buildings.

Cappadocia Beginnings

During last year’s travel through Turkey, we were amazed at the history. We were fascinated by the various peoples who lived here over the millennia and fascinated by the Hittites, Lycians and Carians. This year, we decided to start our season in the geologically rich area of Cappadocia.

To say it was otherworldly, magical and surreal seems almost like an understatement. There were three volcanoes that threw tufa – a pumice-like stone, over the area of 160 square miles and later lava covered the tufa. Over the course of thousands of years the soft tufa eroded and left fairy chimneys, which were later transformed into rock hewn cave houses.

We had flown from a storm tossed Sydney to Cappadocia, with its cool April weather and blue skies. We stayed at Koza Cave Hotel in Goreme, on a hill overlooking Pigeon Valley. Our cave hotel was reminiscent of the dreamy movie, Winters Sleep. It was like walking onto a movie set: Turkish carpets on limestone floors and carved lintels and rustic artifacts. Koza Cave is family run hotel with personal attention to guests, recommendations and help with bookings. It was a lovely place to base ourselves, with views of Pigeon Valley from our room.

Between the 10^th and 12^th Centuries, monasteries and churches were carved into the tufa and a great example is at the Zelve Open Air Museum at Goreme. We viewed frescoes that have been partially restored and also saw the skeletons in their opened graves in the church floor. As busy as the Open Air Museum is, you feel it is sacred ground.Our tip would be to plan to be at the Open Air Museum at Noon, because the tour buses take their groups off for lunch and it is quickly quiet.

We ran into Mustafa*, a taxi driver, with great local knowledge. For a reasonable price, he took us to view Love Valley, Pag Basa and an old church on the Goreme-Avanus Road, which has not been restored. Mustafa was able to drive us to these sights, so that the sun was always behind us for photos and he was able to tell us about the different sights we were seeing.

There was one downside with our stay in Cappadocia. We were signed up for a balloon trip and at 5:00am found ourselves waiting to be ferried out to the balloon field, but the wind came up strongly and Butterfly Balloons weren’t able to take us up. This means that Cappadocia has to go back onto the bucket list. Now we are off to Marmaris.

*Mustafa C works for Goreme Muze Taxi.

Ten Things we did in Istanbul

We have more Istanbul fun to share, so we are going with fewer words more photos.

1) We tried new food and drinks. Here we are lining up to try pomegranate juice. We were walking back to Sultanahmet, after we had been to the Grand Bazaar. The pomegranates were picture perfect.

Drinking Fresh Squeezed Pomegranate Juice

2) We visited a Harem.

Visiting the Harem at the Topaki Palace — Visiting the Harem at the Topkapi Palace

The Harem conjures up erotic images, but most of what we have seen are the beautiful Iznik tiles. You do begin at the hall of the Eunuchs before wandering through the chambers of the Sultan and the concubines. It is clear that it was the Sultan’s Mother who was the ruler of the Harem. There is a sense of enclosure and mystery behind these colourful tiles.

3) We visited the Spice Market and the Grand Bazaar, to see shops full of fruit & nuts to gold.

4) We missed the demonstration at Taksim Square, but this small boy hanging on to the trolley gave me palpitations.

5) There are so many churches in Europe. In Istanbul, we visited mosques and listened to the call to prayer. You feel transported to a more exotic location just by hearing it. In Istanbul we saw young women in scarves together or with friends in completely secular, modern clothing. There were a few burqas but I had the feeling they were sightseers like me from other countries.

6) We met the nicest Turkish people. They are friendly and proud of Turkey. Here we met lovely work colleagues who insisted we share Pandeli’s famous walnut cookies to have with our coffee. We had a great conversation and we were warmed by Turkish hospitality in Istanbul and all through Turkey.

Friendly engaging Turkish people — Friendly, lovely, engaging Istanbulites

7) Bosporus Ferries & Castles

8) Street Food

Not really street food because they cook it straight from the boat, ‘Balik ekmik’ – Fish in bread, with a big serve of onions. For over a hundred years, the fisherman had been bringing their catch here from the sea of Marmara and the Bosporus Strait. At some stage they decided to value add and serve the fish cooked. This is right at the Galata Bridge underneath the gaze of the New Mosque.

Mackerel Sandwiches at the Galata Bridge

These fishermens' kitchens are very ornate and the sandwiches fly out. — The fishermen’s kitchens are very ornate and the sandwiches fly out.

Meat is also an option — Mussels or Meat are also possibilities

9) Visited Galata Tower in Karakoy. This medieval stone tower was built as Christea Turris by crusaders from Genoa in 1348. The nine story tower is a quick tram stop over the Galata Bridge from Sultanahmet. You have a 360 degree views of Istanbul and the Bosporus Strait. The coffee shop on the square at the bottom of the Tower was the best coffee we had in Turkey.

Visited Galata Tower - the medieval Genoese stone tower. — Visited Galata Tower – the medieval Genoese stone tower.

10) We didn’t queue.

The interior of the Blue Mosque is still a mystery to us, because we couldn’t make ourselves wait for the two-hour queue, even at 8:00 am. We saw it from so many other angles, but not the interior. Suggestions on beating the queue will be happily received.

That is probably it for Istanbul and Turkey until next April, but thank you for joining us.

The next post is all Sydney. Hooroo til then!

Carpet Museum at Haghia Sophia, Istanbul

We had a few more things to talk about in Istanbul. Now that we are back at home and respectably moved in, I thought I would share a few more photos. While I am sure I should blog in order, I enjoyed this museum so much we will start here.

One of the first things you should do in Istanbul is buy a 3 Day museum pass and you can have entry without queuing for tickets at each site. Having said that the museum pass doesn’t include the carpet museum. The carpet museum at Haghia Sophia is absolutely worth a visit and if you go early, as we did you will have the museum to yourself with the guard’s full attention, which was wonderful because he shared his knowledge of the rugs and carpets with us.

Restored carpet on display at the Haghia Sophia's Carpet Museum — Restored carpet on display at the Haghia Sophia’s Carpet Museum

Louise and Frosty were scouting out Istanbul and sending us wonderful tips, including visiting the Carpet museum. Their photos convinced us it was worth a visit.

The Carpet Museum is now housed in the circa 1742 Imaret attached to the rear of Haghia Sophia, immediately adjoining the Sultanahmet entrance to the Topkapi Palace and the Ahmet lll fountain. The Imaret was used as a soup kitchen for the poor with sinks, ovens and stoves to prepare food for the poor.

Rare and beuatiful piece from Carpet Museum

The Hurriyet Daily News describes the three different chambers lining the courtyard and their carpet: The first gallery displays carpets from the Anatolia Seljuk, the second gallery displays Central and East Anatolian carpets from the Ottoman era, while the third gallery contains carpets from Usak,along with the ovens.

The Ovens at the carpet museum. Feeding the poor in its earliest form. — The Ovens at the carpet museum. Feeding the poor in its earliest incarnation.

If you have children or you are still a kid at heart, you will enjoy the interactive carpet on the floor in front of the oven. As you walk over this space the tiles illuminate a carpet under your feet. Our wonderful guide showed James how to spread his arms to attain the full effect. There was a bit of laughter as these two men tried to assist me in getting the perfect photo.

There are plenty of English displays, so you learn about the different carpets with the aid of our very able guide. We enjoyed this museum and we loved the fact that we were able to learn more about the carpets, musing about how long they have survived.

Our favorite Istanbul guide in front of beautiful prayer rugs, each square for a person

Category: Tradition