Meanwhile back in the UK.........

As Dave is writing the blog for the time he spent with Chris and Desi while I was in the UK, I thought I would just pop in some pictures from places I had been. It was lovely to spend time with family and friends and we are looking forward to catching up more later in the year.

The Glorious Lake District

I went up to stay with Dad for a while in Loweswater. This picture was taken on my walk down the lane from his cottage and along the side of Loweswater.

The view from Dad's garden with his cottage on the right. This is looking across to where Katy, Irvin and I walked up to the tarn - see later.

One of the red squirrels that visit the bird table every day to collect hazelnuts and peanuts and also enjoy sunflower seeds. This picture is taken through the kitchen window.

At the weekend Katy and Irvin came to stay.

We went to Grange-in-Borrowdale  for lunch and then had a walk along to the Bowder Stone - a huge free standing rock.

On the way back we stopped at Lakeside on Derwentwater and fed the Canada Geese.

Katy and Irvin hired a rowing boat and went out on the lake.

This is the view from the path to High Nook Tarn looking back across to Dad's cottage.

At the tarn - a beautiful spot and not another soul in sight!

Spot the sheep! 

Who will give way to who?

On the way back with Crummock Water in the distance. A well earned chocolate biscuit break! 

The forest path back down to Loweswater.

Ightham Mote

A lovely day out with Orbit to Ightham Mote near Sevenoaks, Kent

We started with a guided tour of the gardens which meant that we could go to places not usually open to the public and this was the view back to the house.

A sunny day to wander around the gardens. 

We then had a tour up the tower and this is looking back down to Sue and Anne in the courtyard.

Poole and Brownsea Island

Harry and I caught the ferry from Poole in the pouring rain and arrived on Brownsea island in glorious sunshine! 

A good time of year to go with the heather in full bloom

Peahen with her chick

Someone would like to share our pasty picnic! 

Yes we did spot a red squirrel! 

From the end of Brownsea Island looking across to Old Harry Rocks.

On the way back we visited Compton Acres Gardens - beautiful!

An evening walk down to the sea, looking across to the Isle of Wight.

Rome to Elba

I arrived in Rome at Fiumincino airport, at about the same time as Chris & Desi were arriving in Campino airport. Car hire for a day was a great idea, as the shops were a 3 mile walk, note to self " check that the car hire company is on the terminal" unfortunately it was 10 minutes away by shuttle bus, easy you would have thought but with nobody in the car hire area in the airport knowing the car hire company it took half an hour to find it. On returning the car we found that the 10 minute taxi ride to Tecnoma marina from the airport was going to cost €45, Chris and I had a very enjoyable 1 1/2 hour walk back to the boat. I asked Desi, who was on the boat to BBQ the sweetcorn so it would be ready when we arrived, forgetting that Desi had no idea where anything was kept, which included the torch! Desi managed to light the BBQ in the dark, but the corn caught light. When Chris and I returned to Serenity, we found some very black corn, but after the outer leaves were removed, perfectly cooked corn, and a very welcome beer,thank you Desi, life saver.

Porto della Concordia 02/08/17

An unfinished marina at the entrance to the river Tiber, a safe port with no mooring fees! The traditional fishing huts still lining the bank.

Santa Marinella 03/08/17

Anchored just off the Marina wall for the night, Chris with a well deserved coffee. 

Cala dell Cannelle 06/08/17

We sailed to Orbetello and then on to Cala dell Cannelle on Giglio. A beautiful bay and very popular with the locals.

Pen Shell

These shells were anchored in sand at 7metres, Desi looked them up in the Cruising Chef and found that they were a delicacy in the time of Nero. So we just had to try one! the article also explained that the only part you can eat is the adductor muscle, the rest was disgusting, a smelly brown mess, so that was soon discarded and the white meat fried in butter, very good albeit a little tough.

Sunset in Giglio 

I finally found a dive centre to fill the fairly empty dive bottles, I keep 50 bar in them for emergencies. I was told that I could have the bottle filled at 08:30 the next morning, so decided to take Serenity into port Giglio and have breakfast there while the filling was done. On arrival we were told to leave, but after some bargaining, we were allowed to stay for 15 mins, we were there for 40mins, much to the announce of the harbour master, but did just manage to have a wonderful breakfast of ekoori (curried eggs) produced by Chris in record time. It always amazes me at the dive tank pressures, a full tank is at 200 times atmospheric pressure(3,000 psi) and contains several kgs of air.

Happy Skipper

Porto Azzuro 08/08/17

A very safe anchorage, we needed water and supplies, but the marina was charging €90 a day, so we stayed on anchor and made many trips ashore by dinghy. We managed to get 100 litres of water, 40 litres of fuel and a full week of supplies.

Portoferraio, Elba 10/08/17

When Napoleon was exiled to Elba, this was his residence.

Fortifications in Portoferraio

Portoferraio lighthouse from Napoleons gardens

From Salerno to Ponza Island and the River Tiber

The journey continues........

After dropping off Harry, Eimile, Cat and Chris in Salerno town to catch the train to Naples, we then went back out into the bay to anchor for the night. 

We watched as four fire planes worked continually to pick up sea water and drop it onto one of the many fires we saw along the coast. 

The fire plane flies out of the smoke to collect yet another pick up of water. 

We sailed back to the island of Procida but this time we anchored on the south coast off the main town. Here we met up with Wolfgang and Ursula again.

This is the view of the colourful town looking back down from the castle.

Interesting skyline seen from the castle. 

The main church in town.

Part of a town model in the museum.

A close up showing the amazing detail created in the model. 

Bloomers and other artefacts in the house museum.

Wolfgang, Dave and Ursula on the way back down to town.

I love this quaint, quirky house we passed on the road back to the harbour.

Serenity and Pruveda in the distance.

Procida town is where they filmed The Talented Mr Ripley which we then watched and spotted familiar places. 

Back to the coast on the mainland and we spotted this strange building set into the cliffs. Not the best place for a lighthouse but not sure what its purpose was.

On to the town of Gaeta for supplies, fuel and laundry.

Dinner with the Swiss before going our separate ways. Really hope we can meet up with them again later in the year.

Another very colourful town - this time Ponza on the beautiful island of the same name.

We anchored in this bay and, in the evening, took the dinghy round the corner to a beach cafe for a bite to eat. On the way over we had passed a film crew filming people on another boat. After having ordered our food the whole film crew and cast came into the cafe. They fitted the owner/cook/waitress with a microphone and asked if we would mind if she served us with two local speciality dishes while they filmed and interviewed her. This they did and then this lovely old chap called Oswald Drinkwater (not a very Italian name) interviewed us. He told us it was for a documentary about areas of Italy which he had been doing for 39 years. It was due to be aired in August but we didn't get to see it!

We were then served with the meal we had originally ordered so we did rather well that night!

The cemetery and caves outside the town of Ponza.

Strange rock formations along the coast of Ponza. We would have loved to stay longer on the island but it is very small and, with bad weather coming in, firstly from the west and then at midnight due to turn to the east, there was nowhere to shelter.

We reached the River Tiber in good time and so decided to anchor in an unfinished marina just round the corner from the river entrance. These are the huge fishing nets they lower down from the huts.

Serenity then stayed at Technomar boatyard, rafted alongside other boats on the riverside while we returned to the UK.