Day 125 - Lavagna - Carrara

Our trip from Lavagna to Carrara was our first day when we where heading South again and you wouldn't believe it the wind we got from 12pm onwards was SE not a strong South Easterly but all the same it was on the nose. We both think the wind is just following us around and blowing on the nose when we change direction. It was a cold start to the day but when the sun came out it warmed up, the winds where light started with NNE1-2, we where doing good speed then it changed to SE1-2 at first then increased to SE2-3. It reduced our speed to 4knts so overall we averaged 4.50knts for the day arriving at Carrara at 16.20pm.

The coastline from Lavagna to Carrara reminded us of Northern Spain lovely green cliffs it was beautiful to see. There is houses built on these cliffs, it is unbelievable the views they have must, must be out of this world. As we approached the Gulf di La Spezia we had to pass through two islands and ahead of us all you can see are the mountains where they mine "Carrara white marble". You can see where it has been mined, some pictures in the photo album. The coastline went from lovely green cliffs to large mountains in the back round, the Gulf di La Spezia is quite large and the views from the sea are very pretty.

When we arrived, we headed to fuel pontoon/office to see if we could get a berth, the guy spoke a little broken English we got by he said yes ok checked his books came back and jumped onboard and guided the skipper where to go. Another guy headed to the space, when we arrive there they both tied the ropes up they seem to know what they where doing. There were four ropes, two at stern and two at bow, we think it is because there are ferries either side of the marina, maybe on 12-15ft away and no wall or anything in between. They where very helpful, it is the first time we have had someone come onboard with us but you have to let them get on with it. The guy reminded me us of Nicolas a friend of ours in Cyprus, long black curly hair. He was a bit scruffy with his track suit bottoms falling off and lovely purple underpants showing, not your KC's hanging out on show. We went up to the office and give them our details and asked how much and they said nothing one night free, happy days we were pleased two night s free on o trot.

We headed out on the search for a super market. The town itself is a bit strange, the town of Carrara itself is up in the mountains and this town is called "Marina di Carrara" we think this may have been built because of all the importing of the marble. It looked like a new town but old, just shops and house builts in squares no main town centre, except for the square in front of the church. Looks a bit like an American town. The road just in front of the marina/port had four lanes, you take your life in your hands trying to cross a road in Italy even if there is a zebra crossing. At the square where the church was, marble paving, marble bollards, marble curb stones, most of the town had a marble covering of some description. It doesn't look like a town that has tourist's just locals, it is a little strange but there were lots of people around. We found a super market and got our provisions and headed back to marina.

At the marina there is a yacht club "Club Nautico" so we decided to stop there on our way back to have a beer. We got a surprise, we ordered our beer, beer arrived and then we got free Italian tapas, selection of pizza's, olives, grapes, nuts & crisps. That was a pleasant surprise. The marina itself is quite nice but unfortunately the commercial ferries either side lets it down.


Berthing no charge (£) - Showers free, no internet.


Day 126 - Carrara - Solvay

Our trip from Carrara to Solway was a chilly start but blue skies, the sun came up and then it started to warm up. Not a lot of wind around it started in the North with both sails up and motoring we managed 5knts. Then 11am wind changed direction to SE, but not to strong so we where able to keep our speed up. This is our second day heading SE again and the wind seems to follow us where ever we are going, we are trying not to let it get us down but it is so infuriating. The coast line here is a little flat and then we come to Livorno which is a large industrial town sort of spoils the view. I spotted another MOBY leaving Livorno I don't think it is the same one but has cartoons all over it, it does like good I took some more pictures. The coastline changed once we past Livorno to nice cliffs, very green like Northern Spain, it was pretty to look at on a sunny Friday afternoon and we could see that there was a traffic jam on the windy road around the cliffs, maybe it was rush hour. We arrived at Solvay 1630pm clocking up another 43kn miles, not a bad day.

Solvay is another big modern posy marina that we didn't like and even more expensive than San Remo for October. It had the usual modern bars/restaurants; it even had a very large purpose built car park to park your car in at the end of the pontoons. The problem is with these modern marinas they are built outside the town so there is no where to go, it is much nicer to stay in a marina within a harbour where you can go and have a look at the town. Charge here was 42euros and they can't even supply Wi-Fi but another company can at a price!!

Only thing we can say about Solvay was the guy who met us at our berth was very friendly and explained where everything was, some of these places they just take your money, nobody to assist you and you have to ask where everything is.


Berthing 42.00euros (£35.59) - Showers free and cold, no internet.
*Soulless and not worth the charge

Day 127 - Solvay - Punta Ala

Our trip from Solvay to Punta Ala started off not to bad, it was cloudy so it wasn't that cold a morning. The first couple of hours where fine until 11am then the wind turned again, this time directly on the nose from the South F3, I am not even going to talk about it as it is so frustrating, 10hours to do 44kn miles!

On our journey today we passed the "Isla Capraia" apparently this was where the rich used to go and we could also see the tip of Corsica. It would have been lovely to visit these islands but not enough time. When we started to head around another headland to cross the "Gulf du Follonica" it got very busy with ferries and ships crossing to the island of "Isle d' Elba" we didn't think the population there was big but there was plenty of traffic coming and going, there is even a "Traffic separation zone" on the chart for this part.

In the middle of the ferries and ships there was another MOBY so now I know this must be a fleet of Moby's all over the med but this one was a LOW COST MOBY it had this on the side in red writing as well as giant whale. Also in the harbour there was a MOBY CARGO no cartoons on this one. It is wonderful the things that amuse you when you are travelling around the coast for days on end. It is Saturday afternoon and there are lots of people out sailing it is lovely to see, we haven't managed to sail a whole day in 3447kn miles!!

We arrived at PUNTA ALA 1810pm just as it was starting to get dark. The marina was quite big holds nearly a 1000 yachts and again it was expensive, soulless and out in the middle of no where. The place looked a bit run down to be a newish marina, no electric worked on the pontoon, one of the slim lines not attached to whatever it is attached to under the water. Neville eventually found one electric box that worked.

We had dinner and decided to have a walk around the complex, they had the usual bar/restaurants, ATM's, a SPAR which is a bonus if you need provisions but there were no people, not one person was in any of the bars. There were lots of cars parked all around the marina but we didn't see anybody except for a nice tabby cat who wanted loads of cuddles, that was the only excitement here.

This was not a good day and this whole trip has been an up hill struggle just to trying to cover some distance in any one day, we either no wind, wind on the nose or not sailing because of gales or strong winds. For the last three weeks all we have heard on the radio is "GALE WARNINGS" everyday. We both never expected the meditterean to be as bad as it has been. Sorry can't keep the frustrations in any longer not a good day at all.


Berthing 42.00euros (£35.59) - Showers closed, no internet.
*Soulless and not worth the charge

Day 128 - Punta Ala - Santo Stefano

Our trip from Punta Ala to Santo Stefano was not where we where set out to go, again because of the wind direction on the nose we had to divert to Santo Stefano only 9kn miles from the place we where heading Ercole, but to get to Ercole we had to go around another headland and that was a no go, with a Southerly F3 on the nose. Passing around the headland which has an island just off the coast, just makes the wind funnel through the gap and speed up we would have come to a stop. Skipper decided to stop this side of the headland, so all in all another very frustrating day, but we did do 32kn miles.

We decided that we would try and not stay in anymore large marinas as they are soulless, expensive and boring Santo Stefano is a little harbour and it is in a lovely setting. We had a wander around the town first as the daylight goes very quickly these days and it is a lovely little town. We found super market, bank and there is lots of people walking around. It is so nice to see people and find a town that is buzzing with life as we are on the boat all day and it is good to get off and walk around and even better if there is activity in the place.

Berthing 22.00euros (£18.64) - Showers 3e's, no internet.

Day 129 Santo Stefano - Non sailing day Gales F9-10

We had a lovely day in Santa Stefano, it is only the second harbour we have found and all the other places we have stayed in are large purpose built marinas with no town nearby. It seems along the Italian coast there are not very many harbour or marinas they are spread quite far apart and they have built some of these large marinas to fill the gap in places.

We took a walk up to the top of the town, up a long windy road there is a castle/monastery or something up there so we went on a hike. It is lovely to walk around these narrow streets and see how the people live, they must have strong hearts to walk up these hills, the super market is in the harbour area at the bottom of the town, wouldn't want to be carrying all my shopping up here. The views where lovely at the top you could see down into the harbour where we where and around the corner was the old harbour. This is not a touristy town you can tell but the Italians must visit here in the summer, very pretty town.

All the mariners spent most of the morning putting extra lines on the boats because of the winds that where going to arrive soon. When we where leaving the next morning the guy who helped us berth came down and waved goodbye to us, he was a friendly person.


Day 130 Santo Stefano - Cala Galera

After taking one day off because of the Gales F9/10 all around the med which was currently blowing from the South on Monday and was due to turn to North on Tuesday we decided to have a short trip just around the headland 14kn miles first thing Tuesday morning before the winds arrived. If we had of stayed in Santo Stefano the Northerly winds would be blowing into the harbour as the entrance was north facing and it would probably been a bit bumpy in here.

We set off 0825am for our short trip, no wind around at the moment they probably thought we where mad, gale warnings being giving out and we where leaving. They probably thought mad British, but we decided if we could get around the headland today it would take 2-3 hours off our journey the next day and we would be able to set off down the coast and no headland to round. We put the genoa out as there was a little breeze coming off the land it helped us around the headland, the view going around some of these headlands is very nice, this one was not very big but it doesn't matter what the size they are you can have problems going around any headlands especially if there is an island opposite it. Things where going well we where half way around and the wind changed from a breeze from the North, to a South East F3-4 on the nose you wouldn't believe we could be so unlucky, so yet again it took us 3 1/2hours to finish our trip, average speed 2knts.

We arrive at Porto Ercole at 1330pm another little harbour it looked nice. There was nobody around and to call anyone on VHF it was CH16 which is a bit strange. We berthed Artemis and went looking for the Captainaire's office but we couldn't find anyone. We decided to move as, as soon as we found another place, which had no customised ropes etc on pontoon we berthed Artemis again, as soon as I jumped off onto the pontoon a guy appeared from nowhere, saying it was private and we couldn't stay. The whole harbour was half empty, we asked about others parts of the marina and he didn't know, strange so off again we tried another pontoon and again a guy appeared out of now where, where the hell where they all hiding. We must have been on the first pontoon 30 minutes and nobody came? Anyway this one said we couldn't stay it was only for Italian boats, no mention about that in the Almac!!! There was a large marina just next door that we didn't want to have to go to but we had no choice with a NE F9/10 on its way we needed tied down somewhere.

So the place not to go unless you are an Italian is PORTO ERCOLE a lovely little harbour but not open to any other yachts. I am contemplating to write a letter of complaint to someone. The thing is this would have been our destination on Sunday only we diverted to Santo Stefano and we would have done 46kn miles to be turned away as we where no Italian, we wouldn't have been happy bunnies. If there hadn't of been a marina close by we where staying put because the next place was 30kn miles away, not very good seamanship here in Italy especially with Gale warnings out all around the area.

Cala Galeria was another large marina, built in the middle of now where, it had the normal shops, bars and restaurants all closed because of the time of year and to get to the office from where they put visitors, it must of took us 20-25minutes to walk, the furthest place yet we think. After tidying up we headed to the office to find out how much they where going charge us here, we arrived only to find it was closed until 3pm so we had 40minutes to kill as we decided we where not walking back to boat again and then coming back again it was too far. We had brought our shower gear as we could see it needed a key and you have to return the key back to the office, so when we paid and got the key, we used the showers closest to the office. Returned the key about 20 minutes later and the girl in the office must have thought we where mad.

It is experience now after staying in so many marinas, you will always find the visitors berths are right at the entrance of the marina, the toilets are at the far end of the marina and if they are locked you will possibly need a deposit and card/key which has to be returned before you leave in the morning and the office is usually miles away as well.

We had a nice relaxing night on Artemis watched a couple of DVD's and cuddled up on the settee. We where sorry we left lovely Santo Stefano but it did give us a good head start for the next day.

Berthing 40.00euros (£33.90) - Showers free, internet you have to pay.