Roma to Gaeta
Posted at 9:22 AM, Nov. 2, 2006
Well time to kick start another edition of the blog now we are back on Savarna again. After 2 months sitting with the Hanse dealer in Rome rafted up on the Tiber River (no less) we were on board after a quick 27 hour flight. The weekend of our arrival produced great weather, warm, sunny, clear and little wind. The Hanse dealer here seems to also run the local yacht club so there was plenty of action on the river on both Saturday and Sunday with boats departing for a series of Olympic courses off the coast. We were about a mile up the Tiber River I would guess and both sides for about 2 miles up were full of mostly yachts rafted up to 3 deep on both sides with a number of boat yards and marinas. At the entrance to the river there are what can only be described as fishing shanties, again on both sides with huge nets on poles that the fisherman could swing out from the front deck into the river. The whole area is low lying and seems prone to flooding so none of the facilities anywhere could be called flash – I came to the conclusion it was all a bit like Popeye’s place.
Entrance to Tiber River - Roma
Roberto the moderator of the Italian Hanse owners website forum had his new 400E just along from us and came and introduced himself. Through the Hanse forum we also met Alan and Judi Silverman from Kalamazoo in Michigan, USA and they met us on the boat one night (after we had vacated the river) at Porto Turistico di Roma near the river entrance. The following day they joined us for what we hoped would be a fast beam reach southwards to Nettuno about 26 miles down the coast. Lovely warm day again (an Indian summer here thank goodness) but mostly a motor sail. Alan and Judi took delivery of a Hanse 370 earlier this year and are Hanse converts. Great day, good company and we pulled into the marina at Nettuno mid afternoon.
Alan & Judi Silverman
Pam and I explored the old town of Nettuno, had a beer and wine in a local bar. Yet another walled town but famous for the lovely cemetery at the top of town where 7400 Americans are buried following the assault on Monte Casino in early 1944.
Today 1 November and All Saints Day (a public holiday) we decided to head southwards for a 35 mile sail to Ponsa in the Ponti Island group about 30 miles off the coast. With a worsening forecast (gales, thunderstorms etc) we wanted to get into a good anchorage where we could hold for a few days). Pulled out of Nettuno at 0845 hrs and headed SE in 20 knots, odd showers and a fast beam reach in lumpy seas (sorry Alan and Judi). Great sailing, 9 to 10.5 knots and reached Cape Circeo 22 miles down the course by 1100 hrs. The latest Navtex weather reports were not looking good, and with Ponsa looking more and more like a marginal anchorage we headed into Gaeta instead, a 25 mile run in from Cape Circeo. Thunder and lightning, very heavy rain, low vis wind moving from NW 20 to NE 25 and then dying with left over seas will give yachties the general idea (really just like a SW beat back to Auckland on any Easter Monday). Gaeta looks stunning, the cathedral was built in 1106) also a naval base but the marina was full. So we headed a couple of miles down the coast to Formia where we are hanging off a seawall on the pilot boat berth with the local police turing uo and giving us until 0800 to move off. Formia is a port of entry so the police turned up and wanted the registration papers and the skippers certificate of competence. So Pam produced the Boatmaster certificate issued by the NZ Coastguard and they seemed happy with that. Hopefully we will get across to Gaeta tomorrow and have a look around. The book says that Formia was a popular seaside resort for the Roman aristocracy and Cicero was killed here by Mark Antony in 43 BC shortly after murder of Julius Caesar.
Cheers
Keith