Riva di Traiano and Nettuno
27 February 2018 | Nettuno
Carole Young
After two nights in Giglio it was time to move on to mainland Italy on the Tyrrhenian Sea to start our southwards sail to our winter destination in Gaeta, where we were booked in for the 1st October 2017. We knew that wherever we stopped along this coast it would be extortionate and none of the few anchorages seemed very appealing given the unsettled conditions; a Dutch guy on the neighbouring boat recommended that we go for the marina at Riva di Traiano rather than Civitavecchia, which is a commercial harbour where the cruise ships dock, we did see the Queen Victoria docked there as we passed. After a long slog, motor sailing for 47 miles we arrived and were welcomed in by a flock of storks flying in perfect formation. There wasn’t much of interest here so we walked to the Co-op half an hour away to stock up. At this stage we had both ‘hit a brick wall’ and were looking forward to hanging up our foulies for the winter.
On Monday 25th September 2017 we set sail for Nettuno , our penultimate leg. We started off with only a F1 wind and a smooth sea, we passed a solitary dolphin and the odd pot buoy; the plotter wasn’t working at first, which meant no AIS either, so we were relying on Captain Paul’s I Pad, if that fails then it’s good old fashioned paper charts, which I quite enjoy in calm conditions; panic over- Paul found the loose connection and normal service was resumed! As we passed Rome we saw a fairly flat unexciting coastline, who would think that such a vibrant, historical city lies beyond. We were then almost half way into our 60 mile passage; the wind was very fickle, the sun was shining down on the sea creating a bright sparkly blanket. Being an ex- aircraft engineer Paul enjoys a spot of plane spotting and so today he was thrilled to spot a formation of 10 fighter planes in front of us, made us think of the wonderful Red Arrows back home. With 5 miles remaining the sea became extremely rolly and the wind kicked up to 16k with 20k gusts, we were on a broad reach with a 1m swell on the beam; we had to negotiate a large fish farm on Anzio point whilst being tossed around all over the place, there were charted wrecks and pot buoys thrown into the mix too- certainly not a boring sail today; a French motorboat kindly came past us slowly and checked that we were ok. We arrived safely in daylight at 1730 and were thrilled to be moored up alongside, rather than the usual med style mooring, the staff were lovely- should be at 50 euros per night! This marina offers very basic facilities but is well protected and right next to the old walled town, which is rather quaint but spoilt by graffiti. The main town has many budget supermarkets so this a good place to replenish your food lockers. We found the whole town to be rather run down, dirty and unkempt; the two beaches were not particularly attractive either- we hoped that Gaeta would be better. The only pristine place in town, about half an hour walk away, was the absolutely massive second world war American cemetery which was incredibly moving. Now we just had to wait for a weather window to complete our journey to Gaeta which couldn’t come soon enough!