We are anchored in the Aeolian Islands north of Sicily, waiting out some really dramatic thunder storms and the coming Mistral winds, the very strong WNW winds that this area are known for. They blow from time to time at about 30kts so it was important that we find a spot that will be sheltered from them. As I have noted, there are not a lot of places along the coastline of Sicily that are fully sheltered so keeping an eye on changing wind is critical.

We also knew that a day of very strong convective thunder storms were going to hit last night and today so being somewhere where we could be well secured for strong shifting winds was critical. This harbor has lots of moorings and as waves always come from the exposed ocean side, they offer fore and aft moorings to ensure that the boat stays pointed into the waves, avoiding the terrible rolling that we have experienced in a few harbors lately when the wind completely dies and yet waves continue.

When we were anchored in Cefalu we were exposed to the worse rolling that we have ever experienced. Rolling back and forth 30 degrees in each direction. We could hear things in cabinets being tossed around and anything that was not secured ended up on the floor. It was a long sleepless night.

At least we were treated to a lovely rainbow one morning there. No, make that a double…

Yesterday, knowing that very strong winds were heading our way and that the harbor was not well protected, we decided to make a run for it, hoping that we would arrive here before the thunder storms arrived. There was very little wind but, as always seems to be the case, we ran into a strong squall about an hour from our destination with gusts to 30kts. Not fun but putting in a reef and dousing the jib calmed things down a lot. It wasn’t fun but we got here before the storms.

I am always interested in the origin of words and never though about where the word “volcano” came from. Well, it turns out that this particular island, Isola di Vulcano is the actual island that the word itself is named after. More to come on that later on.

As we approached the western side of the island yesterday, we could clearly see evidence of the still active volcano.

Some of the rock formations are other-wordly. These two framing an island to the north.

And as we got closer, steam vents were evidence of the current activity. Some of the vents can reach 600 degrees centigrade and some of the fumes can be quite toxic. the entire area has a strong smell of sulphur so I guess that the locals must just get used to it. With her super sensitive nose, I doubt that Brenda would ever get used to it. “Bob, change your shirt!”

The harbor is rimmed with dramatic rock formations and the sand on the beach is jet black.

In particular, this outcropping nearby shows multiple colors caused by the reaction of the rock stained by gasses from the volcano. Note the rows of moorings. To keep boats facing towards any possible swell from the harbor that faces east, boats are tied up fore and aft in tight rows. As we are here late in the season, we are the only transient boat tied up.

The red parts of the rock are oxidated iron deposits, the yellow sulphur and acidic gases and groundwater can create gypsum the light-colored soft rock and clay. There is a lot going on in the rocks here.

The last time that the volcano erupted in a dramatic way began on August 3, 1888, with a tremendous explosion. Over the next 20 months, a succession of violent explosions sent ash clouds thousands of feet into the sky. Rather than producing continuous rivers of flowing lava, Vulcano hurled enormous quantities of ash, rock and partially solidified magma into the air. And the explosions continued intermittently until March 22, 1890. Large volcanic bombs landed more than a kilometer from the crater, damaging buildings around today’s port.

The eruption columns sometimes reached approximately 2 kilometers high.

This image, not mine, give a feel for the scale of the crater. The area with the steam is edge of the caldera that we see from the harbor.

And speaking of darkened skies, the coming storms of last night were evident in the forbidding sky. There is a lot of ferry traffic from mainland Italy and the neighboring islands including a number of hydrofoil fast ferries.

To see a ship of this size going 30kts and it’s hull high above the water is quite a sight. It takes about a half minute for them to reach foiling speeds and the amount of diesel smoke that pours out of the engines makes for quite a show. I guess with the amount of sulphur being spewed into the air from the volcano, that black exhaust doesn’t make much of a difference.

The whole look is like a lunar landscape but with palm trees.

And the dock to take our dink ashore.

And, speaking of dinks, two RIBs met us as we entered the harbor to help us tie up. they took my bow lines and tied them to the float and then one took the stern line while the other used his dink to push our stern over to the aft float. It was all very efficient and the best welcome to a mooring I have ever encountered.

And, if we want to go for a swim, the harbor has a built in hot tub. Don’t get to close to the vent, it’s boiling, literally.

Or, perhaps a volcanic mud bath. Not so sure that’s Brenda’s style.

But as impressive as all this is, nothing is quite as unique as this shot of Pandora with a volcano, the namesake of all other volcanos in frame.

Somehow by total accident we ended up visiting the very island of Volcano that gives its name to every volcano on Earth.

According to legend, the ancient Greeks associated the island with Hephaestus, their god of fire and metalworking, believing that its smoke and rumblings came from his underground forge.

The Romans went along with that calling their fire god Vulcan and the island Vulcani Insula, or Island of Vulcan. Over the centuries, the name evolved into the Italian Vulcano and, by the early 1600s, had entered the English language as the general term for mountains that erupt with fire, ash and lava.

It’s remarkable to think that this small island, just a few miles off the coast of Sicily, gave its name to one of the most powerful and dramatic forces on Earth. And here we were, aboard Pandora, looking up at the very volcano that started it all.

Let’s hope that she continues her slumber at least until we depart in a few days with the date of our exact departure depending on how long these storms and strong winds continue, I guess.

We are really enjoying our time here in Palermo and expect to depart on Monday for points east and by the end of the month, Licata where Pandora will spend the winter. Our plans for next season are up in the air but perhaps we will head north to Croatia. Brenda will be heading to Scotland the last week of May so that suggests that I will get crew to run Pandora from where ever Brenda flies out of, likely eastern Italy, to move Pandora north to well, somewhere.

For now, i am focused in where to go and when to ensure that we get to Licata where Pandora will spend the winter and with abouit 250 miles to go and a need to be in Licata for about a week to get Pandora ready, we do have to keep moving.

However…

Palermo is a very nice place and the marina the best one we have ever spent time in. At about $100 a night, including both water and electric, it won’t break the bank, well not as long as we don’t stay too long…

It is pretty nice…

The city even has a huge reflecting pond with fountains. Nice.

Pandora on a very nice dock.

Yes, nice docks.

The view of the mountains and nearby industrial port is impressive.

It is a very busy harbor with a constant parade of cruise ships coming and going. This photo doesn’t really show the scale of these ships in a fairly small harbor. However, they do blot out much of that view when they come around the corner.

As the city is fairly large, the addition of thousands of passengers doesn’t really change much, especially since they are back aboard for dinner.

Yesterday we went to a large outdoor market and while I was fascinated by the noise and hustle, Brenda and Leslie decided, within a few minutes, that they wanted to decamp for a yarn store that was a bit less “real”.

It was mobbed although this photo doesn’t make the point. I had to wait for the crowd to clear a bit in order to even take a photo.

I stuck around for a while and had lunch. Sadly, the octopus salad that I had turned out to be raw and it had a pretty good “tooth”. I got a good amount of exercise by the time I was done. Not to worry as I was able to wash it down with a 3 euro local beer.

There was pretty much every sort of food you could imagine for sale and speaking of octopus, I have no idea if these were cooked of what made them so red.

Spices of every kind.

The spices were the one area that Brenda was interested in before she fled.

Not so much interest from Brenda in the slippery seafood. In spite of that, I did get some swordfish and cooked it aboard last night. Don’t ask, don’t tell. It was a hit.

Lots of cooked food for sale and plenty of tables to sit at. The place was hopping around lunchtime with hardly an empty seat.

Just about everything imaginable was for sale.

Lots of precooked options that looked pretty good to me. Not sure that the ever-present flies would be appealing to Brenda. Better for her not to see that…

Some of the vegetables were new to me.

Street fry, aptly named.

Liquor licenses are a lot simpler here, if there are licenses at all, than in the US. And lower prices to match.

And, of course, flowers and I do love flowers.

Before Leslie arrived, we had to do our laundry done and like so much else that feels like “first time” on this trip, the place we did the laundry was indeed “different”. It was basically a number of machines mounted directly into a wall on a street corner. No place to fold, right out there in the open with cars whizzing by. And, they really wiz, let me tell you. There are cross walks where cars have to stop but all they really do is to weave around you as you make your way across. It feels pretty risky at best.

Turn around from the machines and it was quite a view. So, while the machines were running, we decamped for a cafe on that square. Convenient for sure.

There is lots of beautiful architecture in the city worth exploring and today we plan to visit a museum before Leslie departs. I have no idea what this museum is all about but I pick this one…

This beautiful building was directly across the square from one of the knitting stores that Brenda and Leslie visited. I sat down in a cafe nearby while they swooned over balls of yarn.

We aren’t exactly sure when we will depart here but at nearly 100 euros a day in the marina, it does add up. Sadly, there aren’t many protected anchorages along the north coast of Sicily, or most anywhere we have been for that matter, so picking a good time to go is important so we don’t end up in an unpleasant or dangerous anchorage.

Looking at the weather for the next few days suggests that there will not be much, if any wind but that doesn’t mean that we will be able to avoid a north swell, which comes and goes as there aren’t a lot of sheltered places to anchor.

One service that has proven to be invaluable in understanding what to expect when we anchor and to help in choosing a marina is www.Navily.com. It is basically a free site that you can check the conditions on pretty much every possible place you might anchor and see what the weather “score” is, hour by hour, for wind and swell. And, for a modest membership, you can get the score farther out into the future, the next 72 hours. Additionally, as we spend time in any given place, the app prompts me to leave a review along with photos. It also provides a summary of reviews and specific comments from users so it’s a really useful resource.

Given how exposed many/most of the anchorages are and how variable the winds are, this service is invaluable and we generally don’t move without consulting the app.

So, our next decision is when and where we will go. As of now we are scheuled to depart tomorrow so it is time to decide.

I guess I’ll have to consult my friend Navily, not to forget Chat GPT too. Wouldn’t want him, her, they to feel left out.

Which begs the question. Do they feel? Scarry thought…

We headed the short last leg to Palermo yesterday to spend a few days exploring what will surely be yet another wonderful place. Well, I am assuming wonderful as we haven’t been disappointed yet with all of the places that we have visited, too many to cover lest I spend all my time writing and not enough time doing.

I’ll start with our 200 mile crossing from Sardinia to Sicily, about a week ago. We really hoped to sail as the two hundred mile run as it would be a lot faster with wind than motoring in a flat calm. So, we watched the weather and picked the most promising day and headed out with the hope that we could at least sail much of the time. While I don’t recall exactly how much time we sailed, it was quite a bit and for the times that there wasn’t enough wind, at least we were able to motor sail and made good time.

The nearly 200 mile run took us overnight, about 36 hours, and as we approached our chosen anchorage in the afternoon, the wind picked up to the high teens and we were hard on the wind so it felt a lot windier than that. Our landfall was to be sheltered from the wind by a massive cliff on Isola di Marettimo, west of Sicily. We dropped the sail and prepared to anchor but the winds were so gusty, sometimes topping mid 20s and shifting direction every few minutes that it didn’t feel safe to us so we decided to push on another 15 miles to the next island where it would be more protected.

All there was on this side of the island was a lone lighthouse perched on a cliff. I marvel about how these places are built, in such rugged areas.

After a long overnight we really didn’t want to go much farther but, fortunately, the next island, Isola di Favignana, wasn’t that far and we had planned to move there the next morning anyway, as it was on our list to explore. With all that late afternoon wind that last 15 miles was plenty “sporty” and annoying, but we made it, happy to be back in calm conditions. The anchorage was unmemorable, setting aside the super clear water, but it was calm. It also sported a lovely fort high up on the hill above us. Of course! EVERYONE in the Med has a fort or castle in their town.

The view of the fort as we approached the anchorage.

Oddly, in much of Italy, it is not legal to run a dink up on a beach so the only way to get ashore is to swim or go to a dock. Fortunately, there was a small marina nearby and they gave us permission to put the dink there for the day and walk the 20 minutes into town. It wasn’t much but convenient.

The highlight of this island was it’s history as a tuna fishery. Just about everywhere in Italy tuna is a major part of the diet and even though they have been catching them for centuries, it seems that the harvest is sustainable now but has had it’s ups and downs over time.

On this particular island, there was one man, Florio, that made quite a living and his factory, now a museum, was the biggest player in the area, from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s. They harvested perhaps 1,000 tuna a year in fixed nets that captured the tuna on their migration route. That doesn’t seem like a lot of tuna but they were quite large and it was not unusual to see tuna that were enormous by today’s standards.

One way or the other, big or small, there were a lot of them.

And they caught them by circling the fish in the pen with large nets and gaffing them into large open boats.

His big innovation was to can them in olive oil, a practice that continues to this day. The tuna as cooked in large open caldrons.

Then the cooked tuna was scooped out the caldrons with large strainers and sealed into the cans. Not sure, but the cans were likely soldered closed with lead. Not good but that was how it was done prior to the more typical rolled top that we see today.

The cans used were more like a gallon than today’s small cans. He also pioneered the roll top small cans with the key now common for sardines.

This was a very profitable business with a huge footprint on the island. It’s hard to imagine a factory today having such an impressive enclosed courtyard.

A lot of beautiful, if now rusty, wrought iron work.

Along the waterfront, there were bays where the tuna boats were hauled up under cover.

The scale of the operation was impressive and it is amazing that all of the tuna they harvested came from permanent nets strung nearby and harvested using these huge open boats.

This was no ordinary bland factory. The architecture is impressive.

Of course, with all that wealth, he had quite a home in town. It’s now a museum.

Florio also founded a car race in Sicily, the Targa Florio car race. Here is a photo of a Florio competing in one of the early races.

And, if your family has enough money not to ask what it costs to own one, you get a proper steam yacht, in their case, the Aegusa. Follow this link to a description of the yacht. It is a Christies auction page for a painting of the yacht. She was commissioned by Ignazio Florio Jr. and built in Scotland by Scott & Co. of Greenock, to a design by noted yacht designer George Lennox Watson. She was launched in December 1896. She was a 265 ft / 81 m long, roughly 1,057 gross tons, and capable of about 15½ knots. That is fast as even the largest yachts today generally don’t go that fast.

As an aside, Watson, the designer also penned a number of other famous boats, many more well known than Aegusa. They include…

Some of his most notable designs were:

• HMY Britannia (1893) — probably his most famous yacht, built for Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. She had an extraordinarily long racing career and won hundreds of prizes; the RNLI later described her as Watson’s most celebrated racing yacht. lifeboatmagazinearchive.rnli.org
• Thistle (1887) — Britain’s challenger for the America’s Cup.
• Valkyrie II (1893) and Valkyrie III (1895) — two more America’s Cup challengers designed for Lord Dunraven.
• Shamrock II (1901) — Sir Thomas Lipton’s America’s Cup challenger. Watson ultimately designed four Cup challengers, though none won the trophy. Science Museum Group Collection
• Meteor II (1896) — a major racing cutter built for Kaiser Wilhelm II, another indication of the royal and elite clientele Watson attracted. Classic Sailboats
• Rainbow (1898) and Gleniffer (1899) — large, prominent racing schooners from the height of the big-yacht era. Classic Sailboats
• Mayflower — another important Watson design that later served as a U.S. presidential yacht.

The name Aegusa was the ancient name for Favignana. She didn’t remain with the Florios long. In 1898–99 she was sold to Sir Thomas Lipton, the tea magnate and famous America’s Cup challenger, who renamed her Erin. She later served as a hospital ship during World War I but ended up sinking when she hit a mine and sunk off Malta in 1916.

And a proper yacht of this scale, especially when steam powered, needs a big crew. Steam yachts were very complex and that alone necessitated a large technical crew. A huge boiler, under pressure, came with big risks of a major explosion.

Sunk, she is now a dive site but only for the most experienced divers as she is in deep water off of Malta.

And speaking of dive sites, the waters near Florio’s factory have seen a lot of action over the centuries with his factory a fairly recent newcomer.

There was an important battle fought near the island, the Battle of the Aegates Islands (Egadi Islands), (the link gives background and information on the discovery of the battle remains) fought on 10 March 241 BC just west of Levanzo, near Favignana. It was the decisive battle of the First Punic War, and it effectively ended Carthaginian control of Sicily and cemented Rome’s dominance of the area.

In particular, these huge, oar powered boats had a large bronze ram affixed to their bow and they would ram the enemy boat to sink her. This is an image of the battle.

Some years ago, the actual site of the battle was discovered, not very far from where we anchored, and more than a dozen of these rams were found along with other artifacts. They are now on display in a number of museums in Italy including at the Florio museum where a large number are on display. These rams were attached to the bow and when in battle, the crew would row like crazy and hit the enemy ship broadside. The ram would crush the hull below the waterline, sinking the ship. The design was specific, broader in the front and fluted to ensure that after impact, the attacker would be able to back up and free the ram from the stricken ship. If they were to get stuck they would be pulled down along with the damaged ship. With 300 oars, that’s a lot of coordinated rowing. I wonder how many rowers make for one horsepower? “Ok men, all forward on my command…. ok, ok, NOW back away, back away, faster, faster. Tonite there will be an extra measure of wine for you tonight. Only, kidding, as we will most likely be sunk too…”

Of course, many of the crew didn’t get that wine as they wend down with the ship, along with a large number of amphora, surely filled with that undrunk wine, discovered at the site.

Life wasn’t all that easy for these guys and contrary to the Hollywood version of crew as slaves, chained to their oars, these were a highly trained paid crew, hundreds of them rowing furiously, along with several hundred soldiers ready to battle in close quarters.

These were very crowded boats with no real option to sleep aboard. They generally went along the coast and stopped to camp ashore every night. Never the less, not a very comfortable life. And, as Brenda likes to say, “sailing is like being in prison with the possibility of drowning.” and a lot of them did…

And, speaking of “going along the coast”, it is just amazing and as we made the last 15 miles to Palermo yesterday, we passed some remarkable scenery.

I am always fascinated by how the haze makes the coastline look in the early light.

Of course, yet more remains of coastal defences.

And the scale of the cliffs with towns nestled along the coast makes me appreciate how small we really are.

This photo gives a good feel for the scale of the cliffs along the coast. Note the tiny fishing boat at the base of the cliff if you look carefully.

And there are plenty of fisherman out looking for tuna.

And some bigger boats too. These carry skiffs and deploy a long net around a school and close the bottom to capture the fish.

Anyway, we are now in Palermo and it is wonderful. The marina, the best that we’ve been to anywhere and all for about $100 a night, and not a lot more expensive than a mere mooring in New England. One thing that is REALLY expensive here is diesel, which costs 2.50 euro per liter, the equivalent of over $11 a US gallon. Painful given how much motoring we are doing.

There is even a huge reflecting pool right outside of the marina that puts on quite a show after dark with jets shooting high in the air. I’ll bet that the crew of those open boats, duking it out thousands of years ago, would have loved to pull (and they did a not of pulling) into this place for a cold one after a hard day of fighting.

I wonder if they were subject to testosterone testing to be sure that they were tough enough? “Ok boys, line up. Sorry, you’re count is a bit low. Toss him over the side. Next…”

Anyway, today Leslie arrives for a few days and it will be fun to watch them swoon over balls of yarn. I understand that Palermo sports a LOT of yarn stores. Perhaps Brenda will tell about how she and Leslie met years ago in an AOL chat room, remember those days? And how Brenda explained to our boys, very young at that time about why they should NEVER connect with “creepy people” in chat rooms.

Well, after decades they are still both knitting and I don’t think either one of them is creepy at all 🙂

We are really enjoying all the old stuff, for sure.

Before I get into what we have been up to for the last few days, yesterday we headed east and spent the night in a lovely little cove. The view at sunset was spectacular.

We were nearly alone with the exception of a few other boats that all left earlier today when we headed out.

There was a small beach but we didn’t have time to go ashore. We did spy a flock of sheep though. Brenda was impressed but not enough to go to the beach.

We had read that the water was very clear and it was. Not a great photo but even in 20′ of water we could see the anchor chain snaking along the bottom.

We passed this Moorish lookout tower, one of many that dot the coastline here dotting the landscape, all within sight of the next one so signals could be sent to warn of bad dudes coming their way. Under the category of “they don’t build them like they used to” these towers look pretty good for being thousands of years old.

At the recommendation of a fellow Cruiser aboard SV Cataleya, who I helped pick up a mooring in Calette di Mare, on the west coast of Sardinia last week, where we had seen the Roman ruins, we decided to stop for a few days in Calaforte, a small island off of the west coast of Sardinia.

The marina, Marinaforte, was beautiful and we also met a lovely couple, Selene and Joe, who charmingly introduced themselves as “Selene as in Celine Dion and Joe, as in GI Joe. We hit it off immediately and had some very nice time together. They split their time between their catamaran Turquoise and home in Switzerland.

We enjoyed our time there so much that we immediately decided that we’d plan on keeping Pandora there for the winter and cancel our reservation in Licata, Sicily, where we put a deposit on months ago. Even though we were told that they were totally booked for the winter Simona, the lovely office manager, pulled some strings and found us a spot. We were thrilled.

Not so fast…

Somehow I thought that I could cancel up until October 1st and get the 1,200 euro deposit back. Not possible…

As much as we enjoy Marinaforte, spending an additional $1,500 so back to the original plan and Licata for the winter it is.

To complicate things further I left our two damaged alternators with the marina in Calaforte for repair and true to form, for such a friendly marina, they are sending them via courier to the marina in Cagliari tomorrow morning. It’s hard to imagine this sort of service in the US and certainly not at Nautica Pinna where even getting a small electrical part from behind the counter we met with a stare that seemed to say “seriously?”.

We so enjoyed our stay in Cartaforte, a beautiful and reasonably priced marina that cost about the same as a mooring in Essex for one night and that included electricity and water. Such a deal.

There is a lovely plaza adjacent to the waterfront. Shade in an impossibly sunny place was welcome.

We had what was perhaps the best meal so far at a lovely little place on one of the narrow streets. Tuna is a specialty here so we had a wonderful simple meal of grilled tuna and some local white wine.

There were countless narrow streets to wander and they took on a very romantic image after dark.

Beautiful buildings, but alas, no castles…

But lots of towers just about everywhere. Just passing another one.

This particular tower was constructed around 1595 during the period of Spanish rule as part of Sardinia’s chain of coastal watchtowers. An armed garrison could warn neighboring towers of approaching Barbary corsairs using smoke by day and fire at night.

And finally, a lighthouse that is nearly new by local standards, built in the mid 1850s a mere 170 or so years ago. The Faro di Capo Spartivento lighthouse was constructed by the Italian Navy. It was damaged by American aircraft during World War II and later served as the lighthouse keepers’ residence. The light remains operational and is now automated.

After years of neglect, the building was restored and converted into a very exclusive small hotel—apparently the first Italian lighthouse converted for luxury accommodation—while continuing to function as a navigational light. The dirt access road is restricted, so ordinary visitors generally approach on foot. It may be fancy but to get there you will have to work up a sweat before arriving. Hopefully, the offer an adult welcome drink. And when you see the bill, more than a thousand a night, You’ll need it.

More to come from our few days in Cagliari so stay tuned. And no, we won’t be staying at the lighthouse, if you were wondering.

After that, an overnight to Sicily. Who know what that will bring. More changes in the wind, I expect.

But hopefully, no more broken stuff.

We finally left Bosa a few days after I finished the installation of the new inverter and alternator along with a number of other “to do” items, I felt pretty worn out. For a few days after that, Brenda and I just relaxed and enjoyed Bosa.

The last day that we were there turned out to be a special holiday for Catholics with processions that wound through the narrow Medieval streets. Brenda did a wonderful post that gives a great feel for what that last few days were like before we departed. I won’t repeat all that here so click to see what Brenda wrote.

I will, however, put up this photo of her. We had stumbled on this lovely restaurant earlier that day. It turned out to be the best meal we had in Bosa. What a charming spot.

The streets were full of the faithful.

Definately check out Brenda’s post above or you will miss a lot.

We topped up the fuel and headed about 25 miles south to well protected bay that has been used for thousands of years.

For the first time since we entered the Med, we had a spectacular day of sailing. Hardly a ripple and a lovely breeze. I did a short video as we glided along on a broad reach.

You can see our location as the red spot about half the way down the coast. The end of the course is where we will head after our two day stay here.

The bay, the Gulf of Orisanto, is one of the few on the western coast of Sardinia, has been used for thousands of years as witnessed by ruins of a significant Roman settlement, complete with two reconstructed columns. Nice view from the bow of Pandora. Brenda told me that the bay was called the Dead Sea by the Romans as it was always “dead calm”. Calm is good…

We chose this spot in large part as a well sheltered harbor but as a plus, the ruins of Tharros are amazing. People have lived in this area for nearly 3,000 years, beginning with a Nuragic settlement before the Phoenicians established an important trading center here in the 8th century BC. It later came under Carthaginian control and, following Rome’s conquest of Sardinia in 238 BC, developed into a substantial Roman city.

The site is well organized with carefully constructed walkways winding through what was once an important Roman outpost. I found it humbling to know that as Pandora rides on a mooring (you can’t anchor here as it is a protected area and they don’t want anchors to damage the underwater grass areas) and it is humbling to share spot where boats/ships have anchored for thousands of years. The site includes the remains of streets that Romans walked nearly 2,000 years ago as well as foundations of houses, temples and baths along with an amazingly sophisticated water and sewer system.

Of course, what is a visit to Roman ruins without a shot of Pandora framed by the remains of a building thousands of years old. She’s a tiny spot on the right hand side of the left column. The view reminded me of our own insignificance.

The setting is spectacular on this narrow isthmus with remains on both the protected harbor as well as the sea on the narrow peninsula.

High above the Roman city is the massive stone Tower of San Giovanni, built centuries after the Romans left by the Spanish as part of a coastal defense system intended to provide warning of raiders approaching from the sea. I climbed the tower and can only imagine what it was like to be there when invaders were a constant menace.

Brenda watched, I climbed.

The view extends for miles along the coast and across the Gulf of Oristano. On the ocean side wide sandy beaches. The color of the water is hard to believe.

Tharros remained inhabited for centuries after the Roman Empire declined, but by about 1070 the settlement was largely abandoned and its inhabitants moved inland to what became Oristano. I guess that was because there weren’t as many bad guys pestering them. Standing above the ruins and looking out over the sea, it isn’t difficult to understand why this beautiful and strategically important spot attracted one civilization after another and is still a draw today.

As the sun rises in the east, the morning light casts a beautiful warm glow on everything. Not a bad view to wake up to.

But it really gets interesting in the evening as the sun sets to the west.

After dark they light it beautifully.

Made even more magical as the moon rises.

I’ll admit that after how hard it was to work my way through the equipment issues this spring along with the trials at the marina in Bosa, and not to forget getting attacked by orcas near Gibraltar, it is more than worth it now that we are underway and visiting places that I could never have dreamed of when Brenda and I started sailing together on our 20′ catboat back in the late 70s. She looked pretty fetching if you ask me.

As we sailed, what we thought was a long way, the 15 miles between Norwalk and Port Jefferson on weekends, the idea that someday we would cruise much of the US east coast, Cuba, the Bahamas, eastern Caribbean and now across the Atlantic Ocean, would have seemed like a pipe dream. And yes, it would have been.

And, as I have remarked, it really wasn’t until we landed here in the Med, that Brenda has felt at least a little bit “at home” visiting places we couldn’t have imagined when we were just starting out as a newly married couple. Actually, come to think of it, had I mentioned dreams like this I think that Brenda would have run for the exits.

Glad she didn’t.