Our First 9 days Back in Gaeta, Italy May 9 - May 18, 2018

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We made it back to Gaeta, Italy. It was a long trip but it went well. We left our place in the US at 8:15AM on Wednesday and we arrived in Gaeta at 6PM on Thursday (Italian time) so in reality it was only a day and a half, but with little sleep and a 6 hour time difference we were pretty tired when we arrived. We actually got back earlier than we thought as we arrived in Rome almost an hour before the scheduled time even though we left Newark late. At first we started to unpack the many things we brought back with us, but we soon ran out of steam and laid down “for a little while”. That turned into all night except for the few hours in the middle when we were both awake again. Oh well, our bodies will get used to this time zone soon.

Tsamaya looked like she came through the winter without any problems. It did look like a line had worn through but the marina staff look after the boats well and changed out the line with extras we had left “just in case” so everything was fine. Definitely dirty, but that is expected and our new power washer will take care of that.

Our first full day back was a beautiful sunny day. We were told by friends here that it was the first one in a long time so they thanked us for bringing back nice weather. Hope it last as we are pulling our boat out of the water on Monday to check out the bottom and have the anti-fouling paint applied.

We decided to start the day with stopping at a local café and having a coffee and a coronet (this is similar to a croissant) for our breakfast. There are numerous vegetable and fruit stands so stopped for some beautiful strawberries as well as other offerings so we now have fresh produce on board as well. I continued on to the store to get some more basic provisions and Bob returned to the boat to start the cleaning process.

At 5PM we were invited over to friends we met last fall for “drinks and nibbles” which was a welcomed invite. Got to meet another Brit that had lived in Plattsburgh and has family in the US so nice to make a new connection. After that we stepped out to a local pizza place where you buy pizza by weight. They have every topping you can imagine. We did even see one of them with cut up hot dogs – we passed on that one! When we went to sit down a guy spoke up and asked where we were from and invited us to sit down with them. Found out one is Italian but born in the US and the other is Italian but lived in the US for a couple of years. It was wonderful connecting with them and learning more about this area. Found out that one (Nicola) of them had written eBooks – one is a guide book to Gaeta and other is a cookbook teaching you how to make a local food, the tiella. He very generously gave us both books as a gift - how wonderful! A great ending to a wonderful first day back to Gaeta. The next day I also received another cookbook about making Italian desserts – wonderful to add to my collection and try out some new recipes.

The plan when returning this year was to pull Tsamaya out of the water to get her bottom painted as well as do a few more maintenance items that can only be done when she is out of the water. We arrived back in Gaeta on a Thursday evening and the following Monday morning at 8AM we were moving out of the slip and over to the haul out location. Thankfully Tsamaya started up first time – it is always something to worry a little about the beginning of each season after sitting still for the winter, but her Yanmar engine is a workhorse and has been very dependable. It isn’t that much fun to live on the boat when she is out of the water as you always seem to be pulling every compartment apart getting at tools, etc. so we rented a lovely apartment for a few nights. It was located in the old section of Gaeta, giving us a lovely walk to the apartment and a way to separate the day into the work portion and a place to relax for the evening. The weather was calm in the morning that we pulled out but the wind picked up a little later so glad we were first on the list in the morning. The 2^nd day we were out of the water was a rainy one so they couldn’t sand the bottom. Yes, we used to do this work ourselves, but as we get older we seem to be getting picky about what we want to put our time into and what we are willing to pay for. Also, this yard typically doesn’t want owners working on their own boats (only minimal work) and we were fine with that as they have a very professional staff that does great work.

One thing we are finding here is that many that we meet have American connections. The person that was sanding and doing our bottom paint, Vittorio, was born in Boston but is definitely Italian with a true love of the US. He took extra special care with sanding the bottom and applying the bottom paint – he truly takes pride in his work and it showed. Bob had decided to give him a pocket knife as a small token of our appreciation and when he did, Vittorio, took out a coin from his pocket and gave it to Bob. We weren’t sure of why, but accepted the coin. We asked our friend Jayne (an American living in Italy for years) about the coin. She told us that if anyone receives a knife you must pay for it (it doesn’t matter how much) for good luck. I did a google search afterwards and found that the giving of a coin when receiving a knife is common in quite a few different cultures. Two different reasons were mentioned. One was that if you give a coin, the owner will not get cut with the knife, but another which seemed to be quite common was that it was to ensure that the friendship between the two is never cut. Not sure positively what the reason here, but either way we were glad to be able to learn of a new custom just by the small act of providing a knife as a token of our appreciation.

Tsamaya was out of the water on Monday AM and on Friday AM we were back in the water and at the same slip that we were at previously (with a side tie!) We have today and tomorrow to work more on the boat and getting her organized inside as well to prepare for the sailing season. On Sunday we decided to take a land trip to Siena as it has been recommended to us by many. We will take the train there and use it as a base to explore a few more villages/towns in Tuscany while in the area. We have only given ourselves until Thursday in Tuscany which we know isn’t much, but when we look at the calendar we realize that the end of the month is coming quickly and our contract here ends the last day of May. It will then be time to push off and start exploring other areas of this beautiful country and beyond.

We have only been back a little over a week, but we are already getting into the routine of buying our fresh vegetables and fruit almost daily, stopping at the bakery for bread, enjoying a piece of pizza once in a while, trying some new to us local cheeses and catching up with friends that we made last fall. The one thing we haven’t indulged in yet is gelato – not quite sure where our willpower is on this one, but with the extra walking that we are doing every day we are hoping that we can shed a few pounds (even with the addition of some great Italian food) . We did take time on Wednesday to walk to the farmer’s market with our friend Jayne. It was great as she taught us more about the various foods that we were seeing, how to prepare them and gave recommendations on cheeses. A real bonus as always want to learn more about the local foods that we encounter. We also had a wonderful meal at Jayne’s on Tuesday night and we were able to have her on Tsamaya on Friday night. It has been great having more time to get to know her now that we are back in Gaeta.

I know that there is still a gap of time in the overall blog entries, but will keep trying to fill in the “holes”. It may be hard with starting to do some land travel as well as our sailing season, but all I can say is “I’ll try”. Figured it was at least worth getting something up that is current so you know where we are now. It is nice that sailing season is here – hope you have a wonderful summer wherever you are spending it. We will definitely do our best to do the same!

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Photos

Our Return Evening Flight, Seeing the Coast of Italy
and the train ride back toward Gaeta

Tsamaya Was Still Safely In Her Berth in Gaeta
when we returned, dirty but safe

Meeting New Friends Is What It Is All About
Nicola and Angelo made us feel at home in Gaeta

Walking Past This Church Every Day to Our Apartment
decided to take a photo of some of the details

We Have Been Having Wonderful Weather
with a few rainstorms once in a while

Pull Outs Are Necessary - The Rudder Was Packed
with "critters" making it difficult to turn the wheel

Vittorio Did an Excellent Job on the Bottom Paint
and was wonderful to work with

Saw These Models in a Store Window
just thought it was an interesting combination