Tuesday 21st May:

In the morning we spent a couple of hours exploring Capri and some stunning viewpoints. The islands landscape is very dramatic, but the main town was just full of shops, which wasn’t of any interest, though there were some nice buildings and churches and an old monastery.

They call it the “Blue island” and we could see why- the sea is an amazing azure colour, and had we dropped anchor rather than been in the marina, I’m sure we would all have gone in for a swim despite the cold.

Speaking of cold, the weather was better today, but still very chilly when the sun is behind cloud and even more so in the evenings when it has gone down.

We managed a bit of a sail today, around 4-5 knots, and it was nice to get the motor off for a while, but as we wanted a bit of time to look around Amalfi on arrival, we ended up motor sailing the bulk of the journey and arrived in around 5pm. Jules, who runs the marina, popped on board each yacht to steer us all in, just as well, we have never seen such manoeuvring before! No way we could have done it without damaging a few boats and our own!

Sailing along the Amalfi coastline was very beautiful, and having seen the roads we were glad to be sailing rather than driving! Although we didn’t drop anchor, we sailed in close to the pretty town of Positano for a look and to take some photos.

The lead crew did a buffet on the marina with wine and limoncello for dinner, and everyone got a chance to chat and trade stories from our free sail day on Monday.

Well, if we found yesterday a tad “adventurous” all it did was sort of prepare us for today! It started out quite nice, a bit of sun, rolling seas, but not too cold, then as the sail progressed we rolled, and we bounced, and we almost managed to dodge the thunderstorms…. Well we dodged the first one, but we got caught right in the middle of the second one! Thunder, lightening, rolling seas…. And freezing cold! Glynis and I were literally shaking with the cold, even with fleeces and rain jackets on. Geez, it was colder than sailing in Scotland! The photos just don’t show it, but hopefully Paul’s video when it’s all ready will do.

It was what flotillas refer to as a “free sail” day, so within reason you choose where you go and do your own thing. We chose Capri, along with 4 of the 10 other yachts. Some stayed on Ischia (however they will have a very LONG sail tomorrow) and some went to Sorrento (which we decided against as we are going there in a couple of days anyway).

Luckily we got help again mooring, one of the other yachts who had chartered a skipper got in before us, and helped us out. Capri is quite a stunning island, more so when the storm had passed over…

One other thing we have become very aware of in Italy is the exorbitant cost of the marina fees, which apart from mooring have between little to no facilities. Last night was 55 Euros, no facilities at all, and tonight 130 Euros plus you pay for your electric, all they have is a couple of toilets and showers (no shower gel, hairdryer etc). One of the 44 foot yachts were charged 280 Euros! This will definitely put us off sailing in Italy again.

As we booked a food & wine flotilla, most meals are included, so tonight we decided to make an “eat on board” night. We had already pre-planned it to an extent and had brought with us paella rice and spices. It was great, and of course very cheap.

Now we are sitting on deck with a glass of wine and blankets over us to keep warm!

We have been told this is the last of the “bad weather” so fingers crossed and we will see what tomorrow brings….

Sunday 19th May:

Wow, it was a COLD night! We were kitted out with one blanket per cabin, so along with most other people on the flotilla, we asked for a 2nd blanket, much needed.

It was a bit of a hairy first day, started out ok, although we motored rather than sailed to our lunch stop at Aragonese Castle. The weather had turned a bit cold, with the odd shower and a very fresh breeze! We were glad we had all brought fleeces and jackets! Apparently it is unusually cold for this time of year. However, the occasional break in the clouds let some sun through and warmed us up a little.

We then decided to get the genoa sail out and see if we could catch some wind, which we certainly did! However, as we were more or less sailing into the wind, we had to do some long taks, which made it slow going. On top of this, the sea swell was around 2 metres and coming side on, so it was a rough ride, lots of bumping and rolling. We decided not to hoist the main sail, and after a while put the motor back on and motor-sailed to the port (Forio on Ischia), with a very brief stop in a pretty bay to bring the genoa in where the water was calmer, before reaching the port.

We had a short walk around, then dinner and wine as part of our “package” with the flotilla group – 38 of us, so possibly the largest flotilla group we have had. Good company, nice meal, but the local wine wasn’t really to our taste.

We are not yet sure if we are now going to Capri tomorrow as the lead crew indicated it could be a “rough night” as the weather forecast is not so good. Our briefing is at 9am tomorrow, so we shall see….

Saturday 18th May:

We slept so well, it had been a long day yesterday. Now we have joined our flotilla and will spend our first night in our yacht “Cerbiatta”.

It was a good day, we left our luggage at the Sunsail / Sail Italia office, did the “check in”, then explored the island, walking up to its highest point for great views, with lots of historic places to see. We then spent some time & had lunch at Corricella Marina, which was super pretty.

Our yacht was ready early, so we got the annoying / important bit out of they (checking off the “inventory” and the technical briefing) and stocked up on some provisions. As we are on a “food & wine” flotilla, we shouldn’t need to do much cooking, and tonight at the “welcome party” we were plied with yummy pizza and plentiful wine!

The other people on the flotilla we got speaking to seem really nice, I think we are going to have a great week!

Friday 17thMay:

A very early start, up at 4.15am to get to Edinburgh for our 7.20am flight to Naples.

It was a long day, but all went well. By the time we arrived at Naples airport, Glynis & Tony were already on the hydrofoil over to Procida island. Lucky for us as they were able to tell us where to get the bus (5 Euros pp) to the port etc. It was all pretty easy. We took the ferry (25 Euros for the 2 of us) rather than the hydrofoil, as some of the hydrofoils were already fully booked, both go from different ports, but the bus stops at both, so all was well. The hydrofoil is a bit more expensive.

We arrived, bought our tickets, had lunch then took the 3.15pm ferry over to Procida where we met up with Glynis & Tony, who had already sorted out a lift to our accommodation on the other side of the island.

The one stand out thing I have noticed in Italy so far is a distinct lack of toilet seats! In the airport, on the ferry, in restaurants…. I am not a particularly hygienic person, but no toilet seats for some reason grosses me out….

Our accommodation was a bargain at 50 Euros for an apartment with 2 king rooms and a balcony with views over the marina at Chiaiolella.

A fairly early night was the order of the day after a nice pizza meal. Tired, but happy…

So we decided it might be fun to buy an inflatable canoe from Amazon, at only £90 it seemed to be a bargain! Here is the link if you are interested. So far, so good!

We took our fist venture out in it this weekend, 12th May, to “test the water” so to speak (or to test if any water got into it!)
As we have not yet bought any buoyancy aids, we didn’t want to be far from land, so Inchcailloch island on Loch Lomond, just off the shore at Balmaha (near the Oak Tree Inn) was a perfect choice. Only about 15 mins between the shores of Balmaha and the shores of the island.
It was great! We probably should have topped it up before setting off on our way back, it would have been fine, but we ended erring on the side of caution and going ashore (on the stony bit, which fortunately went ok!) to just blow it up a little bit more, as it had deflated just a little bit while we had been ashore for around 3 hours.

Initially our plan was to spend most of our time on the island, and just to “test” the canoe out getting there & back via the shortest route. However, the shoreline was rocky / stony, and the closer pier was quite high above the water line, no really suitable for a low canoe to dock at.

So we ended up having a lovely trip round the island, and docking just over half way round at the Port Bawn Pier, which was perfect for docking the canoe and for a picnic on the beach, followed by further exploration of the island before continuing our trip around the island and back to Balmaha.

The island was stunning, especially with our favourite flowers (bluebells) in bloom, and the view from the highest part (an easy walk up) was beautiful!

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This is a great place to go on a sunny day, even if you are not into canoeing, you can get a boat ride over from Balmaha to the closer pier. The island is small, so you can easily hike around it from any landing spot.

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