Category Archives: Food

What we are eating and where we mention food.

Welcome to Monaco

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By 0300 this morning, the wind had picked up to 9 10 knots on our beam. The waves picked up, too, of course. It still was not a bad ride. Despite it being wavier, our speed increased, and we were flying along at 6.5 knots with only 1600 RPM. We had a current with us.

By 0800, we could clearly see Monaco in the distance. It is a cluster of tall and midrange buildings, which start along the shore and creep up the green mountain. But the major development only seems to go part way up the mountain — there is almost a clear line where it changes to a scattering of small buildings. That must be the northern border of France. The top of the mountain was covered by a cloud, so we couldn’t tell what was near the top.

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Off to the right, in France, it is mostly smaller buildings, both along the coast and creeping up the hill. To the left, also in France, the tall buildings creep down the coast, but above the shoreline there are a few smaller buildings and not much more.

We approached the Hercules Harbor entrance. We imagined how the call on the radio would go. “Do you Continue reading →

Adjusting to the Italian Way of Life

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Today was chore day. Eric changed generator oil. Christi cleaned. Our big outings were lunch and dinner in the marina complex.

A few weeks ago we had complained about the short number of hours “real” restaurants are open in Europe. Today we found out it is not our imagination that restaurants only open for like an hour. The day we arrived, we had gone to the restaurant closest to our boat for lunch. It was a few minutes before 1400. The kitchen was already closed. Today we went in at 1215, confident they would be open, and were told the kitchen didn’t open until 1300.

And, while we are in complaining mode, here is another interesting story. In Italy and Malta, we Continue reading →

More Cleaning Up the Mess in Lipari

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Yesterday, we woke up to dark gray skies and heavy rain. The combination of the ugly day and the inability to open the doors and windows made for yet another depressing day. It was also really cold out, meaning we needed long pants, sweaters and jackets. Louis had asked us for a statement for his insurance, so Christi spent the majority of the day doing laundry and writing the blog post for the volcano/emergency rescue and gave the post to Louis as our official statement of events. That was one long story and took pretty much all day to write.

Eric spent the day cleaning the engine room and flushing it with fresh water. He cleaned out the manual bilge pump and the high water bilge pump. Both were clogged with pieces of a small cardboard box that had gotten wet and disintegrated into the bilge. We normally keep cardboard out of the engine room. This was a relatively small box of rubber gloves Eric uses for changing oil and fuel filters. It had just gone empty. So it was tucked between two oil buckets waiting to be thrown in the trash. Instead that small box clogged two bilge pumps and caused no end of trouble. The third bilge pump turned out to be clogged with sawdust. We have purposely flooded our bilge to clean out sawdust, but never quite got the water as high as it got this time. We view the saw dust removal as another silver lining. While we were terrified, it turned out the situation wasn’t dangerous once the portholes were shut. Now the bilge is more cleared out so hopefully the bilge pumps won’t get clogged should a genuine leak develop.

Eric also set up the emergency bilge pump in Continue reading →

Flood Aftermath and Touring Lipari

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We all woke up feeling like total zombies. Despite excessive amounts of sleep last night, we were all tired. Probably more emotionally than physically, we suppose. We were also worried about getting sick from the combination of freezing up on the volcano and the long, stressful night. Christi thinks she has found at least a dozen new gray hairs.

Tai went shopping for souvenirs. Eric went to the coast guard station to file an official report. He met the coast guard commander, the English speaker, and had a good chat with him about the events. After he finished with the coast guard, he got to work on the boat. He opened up the generator through hull, checked the generator to make sure all looked OK, then fired her up. Then he started cleaning up in the engine room.

Christi stripped the linens off the mattress, moved the mattress off the base of the bed, then started cleaning out the storage space under the mattress. Everything was Continue reading →

Boats in Danger and Emergency Rescues – Part 3 of 3

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Continued from yesterday… Now that the coast guard was done, the police said Tai, Christi and Elizabeth could finally go to bed. The rest of Louis’s crew had checked into a hotel and already gone to bed, leaving Elizabeth as the group representative. It was 0300. The police told Tai and Christi the first ferry was at 0500. Elizabeth went to the hotel, but with only two hours until the ferry, it seemed pointless for Tai and Christi to check into a hotel. Christi and Tai laid down on a couple of concrete benches located near the bar. Tai passed out. Christi was freezing. Remember it was windy and cold, with light intermittent rain. She went to various corners of the outdoor bar in hopes of finding a spot sheltered by the wind. She finally settled on the front stoop of a nearby apartment, terrified they would open the door and freak out that a vagabond was lying in front of their door.

On board Louis’s boat, Senza Freni (which, incidentally literally translates to “without brakes”, and figuratively to “unstoppable”, yet another omen)”¦ Louis reached the anchorage at about 0315 and dropped anchor. This is where the story really becomes unbelievable. The anchorage had poor holding and 20 minutes after Louis anchored, his boat dragged and hit a rock. The rudder made a huge crunch and was destroyed. Louis said it was a sickening sound. He could only go forwards and backwards, he could not steer side to side at all. The boat was zigzagging backwards. At 0430, Louis spotted a boat in the distance and hailed it on the radio.

On board Kosmos”¦ it had been about 45 minutes since Eric had turned around. Eric hears someone on the radio calling a ship passing from Point Chiappe. Eric thought it sounded like Louis, but knew by now Louis would be anchored and sound asleep. Then Eric realized he was the ship being called. He got on the radio and said “Louis???”. Louis replied “Eric??? I was calling the ship passing me.” Eric replied “I am the ship passing you.” Louis had thought Eric was tied up in Scari. They decided the best plan of action was for Eric to tow Louis into Lipari. Louis prepared a line and Continue reading →