Going from Two to Six

As you all know to us Hermy was a mansion when we bought her but as time goes on you start to fill all the spaces with all sorts of things. Sun umbrellas cushions and more recently half baked baguettes to feed the six that were about to arrive. I had to stop Mrs K from buying a further two which would have made twelve. Now with number one daughter and number one son about to arrive with partners space was becoming an issue. This is when the fore deck becomes a sort of loft to store stuff out of the way. Dinghies have to fend for themselves under tow, bikes are relegated from the fore peak to the deck as are spare sails. We were relegated to the main cabin so that Daughter and her farmer could take up residence in the stern cabin. Son and linguist took up the fore peak.

We moved on from Castiglione to Talamone, named after some Greek hero who accompanied Jason on the Argo and became involved in Pillars. Nelson stopped here before heading for the Nile seeking out Boney's team and our old mate Garibaldi stopped here to re-provision. The small supermarket was clearly better stocked then.

All in all a lovely place and worth the 50 Euros this time. Impressive fort and a very well used kite surfing beach. Talamone has a railway station and it was here that the offspring were converging. The station was 2 KM away so a taxi shouldn't be a problem. Well it bloody was. We approached Gregory the chief boat parker and asked about a taxi and he immediately made a phone call and came back to us saying 15 Euros is that okay? A bit steep but we could run to that. No he said 50 Euros! What? It's only 2 KM. Apparently he had to come from Orbitello. I was perturbed by this and said no we will walk. 

Well just as you are about to embark on a rage against Italians ripping you off, poor old Gregory said its okay I will take you if I am not too busy. Just when you want to have a go at a whole nation someone like Gregory steps in, it's very frustrating.

He did. He was as good as his word and wouldn't take any money. And his Mrs rang him as we traveled back with the "where the hell are you?" Conversation. I bought him a reasonably expensive Rosso to compensate.

Very arty I thought. So did Mrs K that's why I had to take the picture!

Between them they have some remarkable academic qualifications with 'Firsts,' 'Masters' and 'Degrees' all over the place. The photographer however struggles in this area. His academic prowess was tested to the full when Mrs K tasked him with returning the washed inside out marigolds to their usual readiness. Took ages.

Right what to do with these youngsters? Well there are two nice looking Islands near Talamone, Giglio and Gianutri both look great one has a harbour and the other a pretty secure anchorage. What do the weather App gods say? Well as usual mine is saying not too bad but Mrs K's is showing some red so we decide to make for San Stefano 10 nautical miles from Talamone.

The Farmer took to driving, it's a big vehicle thing!

Lunch stop lead to leaping off the side. Most people feel compelled to lead with their arms but not the farmer!

After an attempt at anchoring for the night outside Santo Stefano we decided to go in as it was too roly.

Santo Stefano or Saint Stephen as we know him is a prime example of not having a pop at the Judge or Judges trying you. He was stoned to death for his insubordination. He is however, I am sure, the patron saint of overcharging. 62 Euros and they wanted 4 Euros per shower. Despite the classical regatta and the 15 minutes we were allowed to look around the castle after we had paid it wasn't worth it. Harbour was a bit smelly and services looked dodgy.

After an early morning, weird shell fish research party and a bit of shopping we left just as the regatta was starting and got out of the way quickly. It was a bit choppy but as we rounded  'Cap Argentaro' all settled down and we had a lovely lunch stop in the bay next to the island of L'Isolotto.

If people are on a beach then they want to swim out to the boat. If they are on the boat they want to swim to the beach. Crazy!

Port Ercole didn't want us or the nice Slovenian couple who had tried to berth so we went to Porto Cala Galera. Lovely clean port with very helpful staff and lots of services. 42 Euros. Much better than Stefano.

The Islands didn't look feasible as we didn't want to get stuck on them if flights needed to be caught so we opted for the jaunty sail to Civitavechia Rome's Port. We sailed over half way before the wind slowed down then motor sailed. Despite some serious fishing, pizza was back on the menu.

We had to dodge this guy at the entrance. Giving way is much easier when they are armed!

we entered the large port and made for Porto Romana and berthed successfully after being chased in by a large trawler.

Civitavechia is where ancient Rome meets social housing kind of a place. A bit grubby, no semblance of pedestrian organisation but quite a few nice medieval or Roman bits. The ice cream was good and we were able to set down our passengers for their return journeys to Blighty.

The free archaeological museum was well worth a visit. It displayed this Roman loo seat with writing on it. A sort of read while you go set up. It would also be printed on your bum to read later if you were in a hurry and if you were flexible enough! I did struggle with this and thought it far more likely that the scribe submitted this to the approver but it was rejected and they didn't have shredders so it was relegated to loo seat production. This happened to a lot of my work.

So from six now back to two, Hermy coped with six well. It's very quiet now!