2020: Time to Accentuate the Positive
“If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” – my Mum Back when I worked for a living, I used to reassure my clients that as bad as things seem, not everything is broken. With that in …
Photos: Gaeta’s Festival of Lights
Position: 41°12’57″N 13°34’23″E Among its many charms as a port city, Gaeta really pushes out the boat when it comes to Christmas decorations. Not satisfied with hanging stars and wreaths in ever-shifting combinations of red, green and blue, at some …
A Rattle Bag
Position: 41°12’57″N 13°34’23″E Kodachrome In a world rife with misinformation, it is easy to forget all the crap you learned in grade school. Take for instance John Cabot. The famous English explorer. Bankrolled by Henry VII he is credited with …
Of Humane Bondage
Yeah, I’m the taxman Pity the errant British circumnavigator. When they buy their boat they have the pleasure of paying Value Added Tax to Her Majesty’s treasury. A princely 20% of its purchase price. Having parted with significant wads of …
Minturno – Cat Sitting & Clouds
Position: 41°15’45″N 13°44’46″E Cat Sitting For the past couple of weeks we have been cat sitting in Minturno. All three of us. Marlon, ever the charmer, has learned to live with cats. More or less. In his youth, he paid …
Bathing Instinct
Position: 40°44’58″N 13°54’28″E Ischia’s most recent claim to fame is as a backdrop to Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan series of novels. Her characters escape Napoli’s summer heat for fun and frolics on Ischia’s famous beaches. Having avoided Naples, literary tourism was …
Photos: Isola di Procida
Position: 40°45’38″N 14°01’47″E Never far off the grid, it was clear from news reports things were heating up Covid-wise in Italy. Mafia incited ‘No more lockdown!’ riots added more, albeit unnecessary, justification to our decision to avoid Naples. Thick, brown …
Missed It By That Much…
Position: 40°01’35″N 15°17’43″E Without irony, the Mossad agent’s critique of America’s terrorist alert levels circa 2006 went something like this, “In Israel we don’t give the terrorists any idea of how well they are doing.” Europe has adapted a similar …
We’ve Lost the Plot!
Position: 41°12’57″N 13°34’23″E About a month ago I realized I’d neglected to order electronic charts of the eastern Mediterranean for our chart plotter. The eastern Med apparently starts on mainland Italy. Without details, Aleta now sails across beaches and climbs …