Phone booths I am old enough to remember phone booths. You may not be. Your loss since I’m about to expound on them, briefly. Commonplace in cities around the world until the 2000s, phone booths housed many indecencies, including dirty …
Position: 38°06’59″N 13°21’48″E Palermo holds a central place in modern American mythology thanks to Mario Puzo, Francis Coppola and the rise (and fall) of the American Mafia. Founded in 734 BC, it is Sicily’s capital and its largest city. Heading …
Position: 38°47’43.8″N 15°12’54.1″E Rod Heikell, author of The Italian Waters Pilot, proposed the area bounded by Ustica, the Straits of Messina and the mainland be designated the ‘Aeolian Triangle’. A part of the Tyrrhenian sea where unpredictable winds come together …
Ragusa: 36°55’33″N 14°44’26″E Leaving the Valley of Temples and heading southwest along the coast road took us through a couple of towns that we’d considered staying in for the winter. In the end we were happy we decided to look …
Trapani: 38°00’47″N 12°31’03″E Trapani is the main city on the west coast of Sicily. From here ferries ply their way back and forth to the Egadi Islands, filling and emptying them with tourists. Fishing fleets are maintained in the extensive …
Position: 37°54’56″N 12°19’41″E Learned Advice During the winter in Cartagena I had a long chat with a fellow named Peter. Peter had a low opinion of most cruisers in the Med and dismissed charterers out of hand. He encouraged me …
Position: 39°12’39″N 9°06’50″E A month ago we crossed from Menorca to Sardinia. A whole month has flown by! If it weren’t for the cooler nights and empty anchorages, we’d swear it is still summer. But the French and German tourists …
Context Setting the anchor is a skill. It is a combination of knowledge, practice, and technology. Entire books have been written about anchoring. Petabytes of online discussion forums have been consumed by the topic. Hundreds of thousands of seadog-years have …
Position: 41°20’12″N 9°15’23” “There is no such thing as accident; it is fate misnamed.” – Napoléon Bonaparte In the little graveyard on the uninhabited island of Lavezzi there is a plaque carved in crumbling white marble. Translated from French it …
