Rockin’ Round the Amalfi Coast

At anchor in Cape Palinuro

Amalfi Coast, Italy

Legend, myth and history continued to journey north with us.  Our first stop was the most idyllic setting of Cape Palinuro where only 4 of us could squeeze into a delightful little harbour for a peaceful night’s sleep.  Palinurus, helmsman of Aeneas’s ship, fell overboard here, exhausted from battle with Scyla and Charybdis.  A shrine in his memory is said to have been raised nearby.  In case you were wondering like me, Aeneas is a Trojan hero, who led exiled Trojans to settle near Rome.  He is considered the ancestor of Romulus and Remus.  Julius Caesar also traced his lineage back to Aeneas as did King Arthur of Britain.  Just who could make this stuff up?

Further up the coast and anchored in the midst of a flotilla of happy day trippers, we considered popping in to Agropoli, closest port to the famous Doric temples of Paestum.  Frightened off by public transport connections and our ever-slipping schedule, we decided against spending a day at these classic Greek temples and continued on for an afternoon glide-by of the modern-day hedonistic dream, the Amalfi coast, instead. 

One of the picturesque towns along the Amalfi coast

So, these are the rocks made famous by singing Sirens!! 
Odysseus had himself tied to the mast to hear those infamous Sirens sing!

This coastline is rather steep and for many, it’s a case of looking down.  For us, it was looking up and up.  Massive cliffs drop vertically into the sea, punctuated by the odd ravine laden with quaint villages and remnants of fortifications.  After Turkey and Greece, hillsides seem lush with greenery and sculptured umbrella pines.  The famous Amalfi coastal drive weaves its way around and through all this and you can appreciate why this setting has been a favourite holiday destination since ancient Roman times. 

We joined a watery “highway” at the base of the cliffs, seriously overloaded with craft of all sizes, and learned very quickly of an apparent trend to disregard, well, rules of most kind really!  Very nearly nervous wrecks, we decided to stay for a night even though quiet spots were a rare commodity.  We lasted only 30 minutes in our first anchoring choice; life was hectic being tossed by swell rebounding from cliff walls from what seemed like a zillion passing day tripper boats,.  The next anchoring location was over 140 feet deep.  As we only have 320 feet of chain (not a good ratio for peaceful night’s anchoring in this chop always preferring 5:1) a decision to take a mooring at Nerano was easily made.  But not before the hours it seemed to take to re-raise ALL that chain back into the anchor locker.  Just as well the winch forgave us for the workout it got in Vulcano Porto. 

Capri in the early morning heat haze

You could probably guess that we still did not sleep well despite the mooring.  The chop only vaguely settled at night.  Craft whizzed around us at full speed, and Mother Nature turned on a localised thunder storm whilst mini katabatics whizzed over the cliffs right above us.  

So we set off early for a quick round of Capri and a gawk at all the super yachts and their flotilla of “toys”.  This locale, a stage backdrop, is perfect for the jet set.  DH Lawrence, perhaps a little unkindly, described Capri as “a gossipy, villa-stricken, two-humped chunk of limestone, a microcosm that does heaven much credit, but mankind none at all".  Somehow we missed the Blue Grotto (not that we could have stopped) and after threading our way through even more super yachts too big for the marina, we noted a darkening sky.  Something needed to be done about our jammed main sail as it was unable to be furled back into the mast.  Mid channel seemed the perfect spot according to the Cap’n, so we made a brief, if not tense, stop to fix it.  Well then, it’s on to Torre del Greco with just a few more things to repair.

(In case you were wondering about the Ulysses/Odysseus difference, Odysseus is the legendary Greek King and hero of Homer's "The Odyssey".  Ulysses is the Roman version of his name.  Stephen Fry (2024) has written a wonderful and easy to read version of this famous story.  His 3 other related books (Mythos, Heroes, & Troy are equally as entertaining!)

At least we don't have his maintenance (or fuel) bills!