Arrivederci Italia

Approaching Gaeta from the sea

After a couple of days back in the Trapani anchorage we finally weighed anchor happy that we had sorted all the leaks. We were on our way to the island of Ischia some 180 miles away. We were making good progress with a nice southerly forecast when suddenly, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the Tyrhenian sea, with not another boat in sight, our speed dropped significantly. All hands and torches on deck showed we had careered straight into a huge unlit surface fishing net which appeared to stretch out for miles on either side of us. We nervously reversed praying that it hadn't wrapped itself round our propellor. Thankfully we slowly moved ourselves away from the net and decided to head south for a while before turning east in the hope of losing it for good. No such luck. Whichever way we turned we were surrounded by this nasty net. Out of the pitch dark a fishing boat emerged with its flood lights upon us. We sat and waited. A lot of screaming and shouting ensued and our non existent Italian and their non existent English didn't help. Finally after a lot of gesticulating they persuaded us to take a line and they

Gaeta old town from the sea

slowly towed us over the nets. We are not quite sure how they managed to drop them but we were over and they assured us it was safe to continue. We are pretty sure it is illegal to lay unlit surface nets and before heading off themselves the fishermen produced a huge 4ft tuna which they wanted us to take as a parting conciliatory gift. Neither of us could cope with dealing with a fish that size at 4am so we gratefully declined. We made it to Ischia and with a strong southerly breeze still blowing we dropped anchor on the north of the island and hoped for the best. At midnight the wind was due to blow strongly from the north so we were in for a bumpy night. We managed to get some sleep and rose at dawn as the wind picked up for the 30 mile crossing to Gaeta lying on the Italian mainland between Rome and Naples.

At anchor in Gaeta harbour

Gaeta old town

Gaeta cathedral bell tower

Needless to say we soon had another problem. Our 12 volt adapter blew and with it our computer. It now would not start at all when plugged into the inverter. Looks like we were going to have plenty of time to get to know Gaeta! We anchored in the harbour which is very conveniently located adjacent to the centre of town. We soon met Jayne, a delightful American lady who keeps a boat in Gaeta marina, and is a fountain of local knowledge. She directed us to the cheap gas store, the best restaurants and very importantly a local computer whizz. While the geek did his thing we spent our time getting to know this beautiful city. The medieval old town and its maze of alleys is set on a promontary which is dominated by the massive Aragonese-Angevine castle. It has also had an important military history. Its fortifications date back to Roman times and today NATO maintains a naval base here. While at anchor the USS Ross, a guided-missile destroyer, snuck in to harbour right behind us. We felt very safe!

                                              Gaeta's pedestrian shopping street

USS Ross from the anchorage

Our trusty geek finally discovered we had a faulty inverter. Happy that the computer was ok we decided to put the problem on hold. It was getting unbearably hot and it was time for some chilling and swimming in the crystal clear Corsican waters we were heading for. A Mistral was blowing in the Gulf of Lion and with it some strong westerly winds were heading our way so a direct crossing was out of the question. We decided to continue on up the coast of Italy anchoring off Anzio beach the first night and then behind the breakwater at San Marinella harbour for the second. The forecasted north easterly winds for the next day filled in and we had a very fast, thankfully uneventful, 20 hour sail across to Corsica.

Gaeta bay