Vibo Valentia, Italy

Photo: Fresh fruits and vegetables from the market in Vibo Valentia, Italy. Credit: Lisa Borre.
A sampling of provisions Lisa brought back from the market on her birthday in Vibo Valentia: cherries, mulberries, peaches, tomatoes, peas, basil and other goodies to welcome David home from a brief side-trip to Switzerland. Credit: Lisa Borre.

Logbook Entry

Dates: 05/13/09 – 06/14/09
Distance: 120NM 
Lat: 38°43’N
Long: 16°08’E

We arrived in Vibo Valentia Marina Stella del Sud just after dawn this morning after making an overnight passage from Agropoli and only one week since leaving Gaeta. Although there was no wind, we had a nice passage and were treated to a beautiful sunset, starlight, moonrise and sunrise in dead flat calm seas. With the engine on and time on our hands, Lisa produced some delicious food in the galley: egg salad sandwiches for lunch and spaghetti with a homemade garlic-anchiovy-tomato-basil sauce for dinner. She also went to work making limoncello with the lemons from Amalfi. Once the rinds were soaking in alcohol, the remaining lemons were put to use in fresh lemonade. What else do you do when life brings you Amalfi lemons? Several schools of dolphins paid us a visit, but we were very sad to find a dead sea turtle enroute to Vibo Valentia which appeared to have been strangled by a weighted fishing line still around its neck.

We booked a slip for the month here so David could attend a two-week retreat at Rabten-Choeling Tibetan Center in Switzerland, and so Lisa could help our friend Jayne transfer Aorangi, her classic Swan 47, from Gaeta to Sicily with a one-week stop in the Aeolian Islands.