Showing posts with label Italian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Italian. Show all posts
Thursday, 11 October 2012
The Island of Capraia – A hidden Italian Gem
June 7-8, 2013
It was unusual to be able to have a sleep in on a sailing day but on Friday June 7 we were leaving Corsica and making our way eighteen nautical miles to the Island of Capraia, handily located a third of the way to Italy’s Tuscan coast. The forecast predicted no wind before around 11am so we didn’t lift the anchor until 10.30. This gave us enough time to motor clear of the huge wind break of Corsica’s Cap Corse and be in clear air to take advantage of the expected eight to ten knot breeze, if and when it arrived. Yes we’re still sceptics when it comes to weather forecasts in the Med.
This time the weather gurus were pleasantly spot on the money. Within twenty minutes we turned into the slowly building wind to raise the mainsail, eased back onto our course, turned the motor off and enjoyed a glorious broad reach in warm sunshine almost on a direct line all the way to our landfall on the southern tip of Isola Capraia.
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| Marc trying to get a phone pic of our Italian landfall to post on his facebook |
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| Isola Capraia is a great stop when crossing from Corsica to Italy |
And what a land fall it was. Punta Zenobito is a spectacular geological formation. The western cliffs feature well weathered granite, contrasting red rock infusions with a sporadic coverage of dense, low green foliage and bright yellow wild flowers. Rounding the point we were completely sheltered from the breeze and sailed into dead calm waters. We discovered a fellow cruising yachtsman anchored in a tiny indentation in the cliffs where the aged granite met a sheer cliff face of red rock. It was certainly a picturesque spot to say ‘Hello Italy’ for although the island is closer to French territory in the form of Corscia than the Italian mainland, Capraia is very Italian.
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| Karen enjoying the sunshine and sailing as we approach Isola Capraia |
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| The contrasting rock colours, vegetation and wild flowers were dramatic |
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| What an anchorage under the cliffs of Punta Zenobito |
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| No Karen. There is not room in there for us too. |
It’s known to have been settled in Roman times and the ruins of a Roman villa can still be seen near the village at Porto Capraia. It was later settled by monks who over the course of time apparently slipped into what Pope Gregory the Great referred to as ‘unorthodoxy and loose behaviour.’ It must have been very loose because the said Pope dispatched an armed force to show them the error of their ways and ‘encourage’ them back into line. Like much of the Mediterranean, the island was also ravaged by pirates for centuries. Lord Nelson captured it, which no doubt looked good in Admiralty dispatches at the time, but in the end there was no point in keeping it so he sailed away and onto the next conquest we guess. These days the small population of islanders earn a modest income from a little tourism.
Capraia is part of the Tuscan Archipelago Nationals Park with the island and its waters a marine reserve. No access is permitted at all to a large area off the west coast while in the waters around most of the remainder no fishing of any sort is permitted with all diving and anchoring regulated. The harbour at Porto Capraia itself is the only landfall permitted on the island but we chose to make the most of the incredible looking water and anchored in Ansa Ceppo, a bay surrounded by sheer cliffs on the south eastern side.
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| In the clear waters of Isola Capraia Karen had her first swim of the summer. |
It was glorious. Marc and Rob had no sooner got the anchor on the bottom then there was a loud splash at the stern. Karen wasted no time getting in for her first swim of the summer and was in even before the engine was turned off. Rob followed soon after in snorkelling gear. Checking the set of the anchor in the sand was a simple matter as the bottom could be seen clear as day over eight metres below the surface. He also took the opportunity to give the boat’s waterline a quick scrub to remove a bit of the marina grime that had built up since she went back into the water in Ceuta back in March.
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| A guy's work is never done. Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. |
The rest of the evening was spent enjoying the serenity, with a few sundowners of course and a great BBQ dinner in the cockpit. It’s so nice to not be living below all the time now the weather has warmed up. We love summer.
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| OK. So it's not all hard work. |
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| Macinaggio to Isola Capraia - 18.2 Nautical Miles - 3 Hours 55 Minutes Average speed 4.6 knots Max 6.6 knots |
Next morning we raised the anchor and headed offshore a little to try and pick up some phone service. Back home in Australia our Daughter, Yasmin, was expecting our fifth grandchild anytime now so we hated being out of reach. Unfortunately our French sim card couldn’t quite connect across the 33 kilometres of water back to Corsica so we gave up and turned for Porto Capraia.
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| Wow! Approaching Porto Capraia we rounded a point as found this. |
What a gem of a place. With the weather predicted to stay very settled, we were able to safely anchor in a corner of the harbour beside some cliffs topped by a medieval watch tower. We soon had the dingy down and made our way the short distance past an unusual sculpture of a sea nymph on the end of the breakwater and into the inner harbour and marina area to the waterfront village.
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| That's what you call anchoring under protection. |
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| Looked like this little sea nymph at Porto Capraia was deep in thought. |
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| Anse Ceppo to Porto Capraia - |
It was a very attractive spot with just a few dockside cafes and a small general store. Our priority was to find some WiFi to get an update on the state of play with not only the impending birth of our soon to be youngest grandson, but also to catch up with how our elder two were faring with their racing in the Junior Dragster Class at Australia’s biggest event, the Winternationals.
We adjourned to one of the cafes and ordered a nice bottle of Tuscan wine as we made our connection with the outside world. First things first, Yasmin was able to inform us that she was still regrettably in one piece rather than two. However she had been experiencing some labour pains so said she was expecting to evict Junior sooner rather than later. Like all mums to be in the final stages of pregnancy she was clearly over it all and looking forward to the idea of sooner much more than the possibility of later.
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| Things are pretty relaxed on Isola Capraia. This how you change a tyre. |
On the racing front, Ethan had driven exceptionally well but unfortunately his car didn’t match his performance on this occasion and he’d been beaten very narrowly in the first round. Caleb on the other hand was going gang busters and was moving through the elimination rounds quite nicely. He had one more race to win to reach the quarter finals and get to be part of the huge main finals day of the event.
Our fingers were crossed that things went smoothly for both Yasmin and Caleb but as we were sailing for the Italian mainland the next day we were going to have an anxious wait until we reached port and could connect again to get the next instalment of news from home.
While we handled all of our communications with family, Marc went off in search of a teller machine to get some cash. A friendly local provided the info that there wasn’t one in the village and said he’d have to go ‘to the city’ pointing to the walled fortress and it’s surrounds on top of the hill. An hour or so later Marc reported back that the city was in fact a very nice, but sleepy and very small town atop the hill overlooking the harbour entrance.
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We found Capraia an absolutely delightful, unspoiled place, with extremely open and friendly people. It would have been nice to spend another day there and explore the old fort and long closed prison along with some of the national park area but the weather gurus were predicting a very good sailing wind to push us the rest of the way to the Italian coast the next day . You have to make the most of the wind when it’s in your favour, and besides, Pisa, Florence and the hills of Tuscany were calling us.
For more about our travels and lots more photos check out and 'like' our Dreamtime Sail facebook page at Dreamtime Sail on Facebook
If you only recently discovered our blog and would like to read how it all started, click the link to go back to our first blog entry. Stuff it. Let's just go sailing anyway. We hope you enjoy reading the previous posts to catch up on our story.
Friday, 30 July 2010
Gaeta a nice surprise on the Italian coast
July 25 - 26 2013
The next stage of our meanderings down the Italian coast was a reasonably long, 50 nautical mile (92 kilometre) run south to the town of Gaeta. We chosen it as our destination by virtue of the fact that it was located on a narrow peninsula with anchorages on either side so regardless of where the weather was coming from we expected to be able to find shelter rather than having to go into a marina.
Considering the distance we had to go, we were awake early with the anchor coming up before the sun. The pre-dawn provided plenty of light for us to get on our way under motor in very calm glassy conditions. We were expecting some wind later but initially it was all up to our 75 horsepower Yanmar diesel to push us southwards but discovering we were being slowed by an adverse current wasn't what we wanted for breakfast.
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| This castle south of Anzio looked fantastic from the sea in the early light |
Not far along our way, we passed a really cool looking castle built on a low rocky point. In the early light it appeared very atmospheric with its arched bridge to the shore and remnants of an ancient harbour. Sailing along the coast we never really know what we will see along the way and on a nine or ten hour passage like this one it was great to spy different things which broke up our day.
A couple of hours further along we rounded a high headland with its peak cloaked in wispy cloud which took on a whole different look as the rising sun backlit it. Next came an interesting tourist development that had been built around an old fortified tower. One thing we didn’t appreciate coming across was a complete refrigerator floating along in the water. Unbelievably this was the fourth we’d seen this summer. By now the breeze was just starting to freshen so we were motor sailing along at near seven knots and very thankful we’d spotted it early. The idea of being unsighted at night and punching our fibreglass bow into one of these at speed doesn’t bear thinking about.
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| Not where you expect to find a refrigerator - except in the Med. |
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| That's actually an ancient temple on the shore. Guess we need a bigger lens. |
The north westerly continued to pick up and, as we passed by an ancient temple in the distance on shore, we were enjoying a nice downwind sail maintaining six plus knots quite effortlessly. We were approaching the high, castle topped cliffs of Gaeta before we knew it.
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| An interesting spot to put a light house. |
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| Approaching Gaeta we had a steady 16 to 18 knots but rounding the point got a little more interesting. |
As we rounded the point and turned more beam on, local affect channelled and accelerated the wind accelerated giving us some exciting moments of 25 to 30 knots with full mainsail and genoa out. We chose to sail well out into the protection of the wide bay before turning into the wind and getting the sails down.
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| Our anchorage in Gaeta was very calm with great views |
The area we’d originally planned to anchor looked very industrial and quite grungy so we motored in and had a look in a small bay just south of the hilltop Castillo and were very pleasantly surprised to find a perfect anchorage. It was well sheltered with good holding in only five metres of water just off the esplanade of the very attractive medieval town. It wasn’t marked on our charts as an anchorage but a small handful of local pleasure boats were propped in there so, when in Rome do as the Romans do. We were a little concerned when about half an hour later a police boat approached us. Once they confirmed we were a British registered boat they wished us a pleasant stay and moved across to an Italian yacht where they proceeded to do a very thorough check of all his papers and safety equipment on board. Funnily enough, by the time they'd finished with that poor bloke, all the other boats had scarpered and we were left on our own.
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| Anzio to Gaeta - 49.6 Nautical Miles - 9 Hours 53 Minutes Average Speed 5.0 Knots - Max 6.7 knots |
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| Behind the peninsula at Gaeta provided great protection from the strongish westerly blowing. |
Our spot in the bay was perfect for a very relaxing BBQ dinner and glass of wine or two watching the foreshore come alive with locals in the early evening. The town looked so nice we decided to stay the next day and have a look around. That night we could see what looked like a small bush fire high up on the mountain slopes to the north. By the time we awoke next day the smell of smoke was in the air and a light haze covered the whole bay. The fire had obviously spread quickly because before too long two aerial water bombers were in operation, swooping down in the centre of the bay scooping load after load and flying into the hills to dump it on the flames.
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| Two water bombers kept flying through the smoke haze were picking up water throughout the morning out in the bay |
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| The old seaman's chapel by the harbour was run down but very atmospheric. |
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| We guess these guys need a fast, stealth boat to sneak up on the fish. |
After catching up with a few boat jobs in the morning we headed ashore just after lunch. The old quarter around the harbour is really very quaint. The narrow streets, twisting stairs and vaulted passage ways climb steeply up the medieval village built on and around the promontory under the walls of the Castillo. The cathedral, originally built in 1106, and the 10th century church of San Giovanni a Mare are close neighbours while down in the harbour a character filled old seaman’s chapel was well worth a look. After a good wander around the place we settled into a nice café with a bottle of local wine and made the most of their free WiFi to catch up with emails, facebook our blog etc.
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| Alcheringa resting at anchor off Gaeta |
For what was intended to be just shelter for the night, Gaeta proved to be a very pleasant way for us to spend another day in the Mediterranean.
Sometimes we’re so busy out doing things we don’t have enough time to write about doing things and our blog slips a little behind time. To stay right up to date with what we’re up to these days and see lots more photos check out and 'like' our Dreamtime Sail Facebook page at Dreamtime Sail on Facebook
If you have only recently discovered our blog and would like to read how it all started, or work through our previous adventures, click the link to go back to our first blog entry. Stuff it. Let's just go sailing anyway. We hope you enjoy reading the previous posts to catch up on our story.
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