Cruising Croatia

29th departed Tivat for a drift in Kotor Bay, then anchor off Budva.

Kotor Bay is the next fiord inlands from Tivat. There are strict regulations of not allowing washing on ships and also not any other discharges. Most likely due to pollution prevention as the water circulation I suspect is not that fast. In addition they have exorbitant charges for anchoring in place, hence we were drifting as per the advice from our pilot (which also was compulsory).

Sea entrance to Tivat and Kotor, old guard tower

Voyage Italy - Montenegro

On the 24th morning we leave behind the shores of Macaronia. It was a short and hectic visit, not much to write home about but whats done is done.

Stromboli (Copyright John Seach)

Climbing Mount Vesuvius

Art at the roadside

Pompeii

Last time I did not have enough time to discover Pompeii so I decided to join the other crew on their excursion to the ruins.

Climbing Mount Faito

As I had some time on my hands I went ashore for a walk, in flip-flops. I ended up to the cable car and bought a ticket to go up to the top of Mount Faito. While waiting for the scheduled ascent I had an Italian Peroni beer at the station bar. Finally the car came and we inserted ourselves into the "bubble". People could only stand and I was clever enough to go stand in the aft so I could get a good photo shooting view.

Castellammare di Stabia

Back to Italy

We arrived Porto Cervo on the 14th and I had the luck to meet Chelly, an old colleague from m/y Silver. Later in the afternoon we move inside the marina and during the mooring our keel touched a rock on the bottom of the marina. Luckily no damages were discovered when I dived to have a look on the bottom. It was just a matter of shallow water due to weather circumstances.

Mark in Elba

Cruising South of France

On the 10th we departed Monaco for St. Tropez and did the usual morning anchorage at Pampelonne beach and evening in front of the town for two days. On the 12th we moved in front of Juan les Pins and on the 13th we departed for Porto Cervo.

m/y Predator

Sailing the Italian riviera

So 30th July we departed Valletta for Monaco and arrived there on the 1st August early morning and were kept busy by provisions and last minute setups. We moored in the corner next to the cruise line jetty next to Niarchos m/y Atlantis II.

M/y Christina O

BBQ in the country side

Anil had been invited to a BBQ in the Maltese country side and he asked me taggle along. On the menu was rabbit stew and other stuff to eat. We met up with Anil's friend and we drove off to the hills and soon enough we arrived to a country house that was rather rugged. The surroundings were quite rocky too, not difficult to understand how the stonewalls on the Island have come about when clearing land for farming. Food was good although the stew was medium but, overall I did not have anything to complain about a free day in the nature.

Anchor swivel project

Today we had a bit of a project to replace the swivel on the port side anchor. As we were alongside but our bow was overlapping the end of the jetty by some 25m we could not simply lower it down and hoist it onto the pier. 

New swivel

Maltese festa

Rockets in skyline

Jetski to Gozo

As we had new jetski's onboard we needed to run them in a bit to reach the 10h service mark and me and George decided to take a sight seeing trip to Gozo while getting two flies in one blow. We set off and the seas were rather calm and we could keep up good speed. While getting to the NE corner of Malta Island the seas coming in through the sound between Malta and Gozo became quite high. The view of Comino Island and Gozo were breathtakingly beautiful with their rugged cliffs. We stopped on the way to Baia beach lounge as some crew was there spending a Saturday in sunshine.

Mgarr ix-Xim

Diving HMS Maori

HMS Maori is probably Malta’s most famous wreck, although she is far from the best dive in Malta, a visit to this ship is a significant brush with the island’s history.

HMS Maori

Job offer on m/y Serene

I had been a few days ago offered a job on m/y Serene (134m) through Russel Stockil from YCO and had been having some careful consultation and deliberation. The position offered was as Chief Officer cum Relief Captain with the Captain having no rotation.

m/y Serene at Capri

BBQ in Sliema

Went in teh eevning to Sliema to meet Diaz and Jasmond and they had whipped together a Vietnamese and Maltese BBQ with Rose' to flush down the good food.

Sightseeing Malta

As it was Saturday I go out to meet my friend Diaz in Valletta at the Triton fountain, the meeting is happy and we had lunch in the Old city while catching up. I ate a Maltese dish that was rabbit stew. Although the restaurant was impressive with 15m high rooms I think the food left much wanting.

One of the many staircases in Malta

Arrival Valletta

We arrived in front of Valletta around noon and we took onboard a compass adjuster before going alongside. After the swing we made ready to go alongside and started our approach.

Valletta

Castellammare di Stabia - Valletta

On the 7th early morning we hoisted anchor and set course for Valletta, Malta for a little downtime. More maintenance and jobs to be done as usual. My old Bosun once said: "the work is never completed on a ship" and he was right to his words, once you get to one end you can start anew from the other.

Last view of Capri 

Cruising Italian riviera

On the 30th we depart Castellammare di Stabia for Naples. It don't take us many hours before reaching there and we anchor off "Molo Luise" (Mergellina Sannazzaro), the local yachting mafia's marina. They claim we could come alongside but all publications we have suggests a maximum length of 70m and I'm also agreeing seeing the small rathole and how packed it is with yachts. 

"Molo Luise" (Google satellite)

Pompeii

As I walked out of the port in Castellammare di Stabia I was trying to look for a taxi but there was none at all. I was a bit perplexed as it was my first time walking about in Italy. As soon as I asked someone for directions I almost burst out laughing as their English sounded exactly like the Mafioso's in the Godfather movies. 

IE at Castellammare di Stabia

Valencia - Castellammare di Stabia

Having our business in Valencia concluded we leave on the 27th for Italy for our next engagement. The weather is fine and we embark pilot as usual and clear the "S" bend without any hitches. Soon we are on the high seas setting engines on cruising speed and heading for Italian riviera. The trip is uneventful and we make good speed for our ETA.

Castellammare di Stabia (by Google satellite)

Day on the beach

This Saturday I was invited by Sasha, my Carpenter from Ukraine to join him on the beach for some sun bathing and sea bathing while getting out of the ship to prevent cabin fever. To make matters easier we had also a few pegs of Russian Standard to grease the wheels and soon we are on our way walking to the "playa".

View of America's Cup basin from our agents rooftop office terrace

Valencia Science Museum

This day decided to visit the Science Museum of Valencia. As it was close by we decided to walk over there, the museum could be seen far away. The pedestrians were not very much favored as we ended plodding down paths in no mans land but eventually we made it on the road to the museum. 

Science Museum

Valencia Old City

Went walking in the old town of Valencia for about 4 hours, interesting architecture and what they have done with the dried out old river bed. Also the restoring of old buildings is remarkable.

Being touristy I also fell for a 185€ folding knife that was a copy of something highway robbers used in olden times. The knife is hand made by Jose Exposito Picazzo. It was described as: This kind of knife was very much used by the bandits in the end of XVIII and middle XIX centuries. Raw materials used are s/s 440, engraving by etching, alpaca & cebu horn scales.

Bridge over river