We sail from Rome to Isle di Capri.

Are you leaving – now?  !!!!!

At 11.15 we slipped our lines to leave Rome (Porto di Roma) -  for Capri! Island of movies stars, playboys, paparazzi and celebrities of the 50’s.

Isle di Capri is a distance of 110 miles. The met office forecasted only light winds and so we expected an ‘over 24 hour sail’.

“Are you leaving now! ??”
“Keep well over to port at the entrance!”
Shouted one of the marine staff in a dinghy as we were leaving.

Then..

“ Keep to the green side!” 
A man from the marina control tower rushed out and shouted.

The port has a problem with silting at the entrance and the dredger had chosen our time of leaving to start work – round the hidden corner he was going to be on our starboard side complete with arms and sticky out things and no chance of maneuvering!

It seemed an eternity as we slowly slowly inched Timeless forward along the side of the channel (normally shallower than the centre right!) constantly watching the depth meter.
Depth dropping like crazy and still being egged on by marine staff.
The last 50 yards was showing a depth beneath the hull of 0.3 meters.
We held our breath.

We were clear!
Adrenalin rush to say the least.  An open sea ahead.

I wish the Met office could get their act together here

For the next 6 hours (with only 10 knots of wind) we were making over 5 knots over the ground.
It was a lovely sail especially for Bob & Cathy who had just joined us.

Then we had a wind shift and had to put the motor on for the next 6 hours! Still, we were making 8 knots and so consequently by midnight we knew we would be arriving too early to go into Capri so we set the sails for very light winds but kept the boat moving around 2 - 3 knots.

Then, there was no wind (it was 6am) and we were only 3 miles from port!
We turned the engine back on and did circles for two hours!
We never enter a place with hard objects anywhere around us in the dark!

You need to keep up a minimum engine REVs with our engine.

We found out last year that diesel engines like ours like to achieve a minimum RPM on a long run otherwise the soot (carbon) that is  produced can eventually clog up the turbo making an expensive repair. Apparently the best REVs for our engine is around 2,800 RPM which pushes the boat along at over 9 knots - but we like the sound (or lack of sound) of less than 1,000 RPM better which pushes the boat along at around 4 knots.
So you can see in practice we have a minimum speed on a longer run.

Welcome to Isle di Capri!

We radioed in to the marina and they said “Welcome!”
Nothing special about that but it was English!
We had gotten used to sign language with mooring guys along the Italian coast!

The port (of which the marina is a part) is serviced by many ferries going to and from Naples and nearby resorts. There is just a small area off to the left for private yachts  …and we couldn’t see anyone waving at us!  This is also so embarrassing. You just have to hang around around dodging ferries and fishing boats like a wall flower until you find out where to go!  

Finally we saw a person pulling on the anchor lines led to the pier and headed for him. We had to moor ‘stern to’ – they were obviously expecting hoards of people so they didn’t want us to go along side - but so far we were the only people that had turned up (it turned out that the whole time we were there we were still the only people that had turned up!).  John now had to lower the dingy down so we could use the passerelle to get off the boat and on to shore. 

We were getting a swell from the constant ferry traffic and had to move the dingy to the side of the boat. Now settled, we went to the office to do the paperwork and pay for our one night.

How much!!   ..???

Welcome to Capri!
We knew it was going to be expensive - but why it was so expensive was way beyond us.
The mooring was one of the worst we have ever stayed at! Then, with all the ferries to-ing and fro-ing not exactly comfortable and the wash room showers were less than desirable.
We wouldn’t be using those!
Oh! .. and of course no internet!

So just how much did they require for these 6* moorings?
On entering the office we were told the price of 290 Euros per night. Plus electricity. Plus water.

Luckily, Les’ instincts kicked in and felt driven to haggle!
“This is the price”     “..it may not be high season elsewhere but it is here.”    “..this is just a reflection of the charges the port levy us with”   “..no we cannot do anything on the price”   “..but there is NO one else here!”  “…it is clearly not high season”

Luckily a marina manager entered the office at the wrong time and admitted, “ it was a little expensive.” Les jumped in, “Can you do anything? It’s only one night?”
He caved, “I’ll try and talk to the owner”.
10 minutes later he came back with a new price, only – 190Euros!

Well, we would only be staying just the one night then thank you!