Category Archives: Activities

Things we have done during our travels.

Welcome to Stromboli Island, Aeolian Islands, Sicily, Italy

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We found out that while we were in Palermo, we had missed a festival in Trapani. There were apparently fire eaters, which impressed Bill. Oh well.

Yesterday we did the usual get ready to go routine, including a trip to the grocery store. The day before, when we were in the first market in Palermo, Christi had said at least 5 times that we should stock up on fruit here, where there were zillion of produce vendors selling every type of produce imaginable. Most of it looked lovely. But we didn’t. So, we stood in a grocery store, staring at a small selection of nasty looking fruit. The apples and bananas looked edible, so we got some of those. Every grocery store we have been to outside of the US there is a person whose job it is to weigh the produce and print a little sticker with the total before you get in line to check out. This grocery store has a self use scale and sticker printer machine. The directions are, of course, in Italian. Tai and Christi couldn’t figure out how to use it. Mind you, Tai is involved in producing cutting edge software, and the scale baffled him. So, we gave up on the grocery store and drove around town in search of a street fruit vendor. This was a blessing in disguise. The street vendor’s fruit was beautiful and a fraction of the price of the shriveled up fruit in the grocery store.

Anyway, once we had taken out the trash, stocked up on food, stowed away the things that like to go flying at sea, and checked the weather one last time to make sure conditions still looked good, and we were ready to go. We said our goodbyes to Bill and Ellen and pulled out. At first, the sea conditions were rocky and rough, which was odd given that the wind speed was low. We figured the waves are leftovers from yesterday’s storm. At one point, Tai was standing outside the pilot house with the pilot house door open. Eric shut the pilot house door, telling Tai he didn’t want to chance a wave coming over the side and getting the pilot house wet. No more than three minutes later, a big wave came over the side and drenched Tai. Tai looked rather surprised and said “I guess I should have clued in when you shut the door”.

As the day wore on, the seas got Continue reading →

Food and Fellow Nordhavn Friends in Trapani

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We spent this morning doing chores. Eric washed the exterior. Much to his dismay, he found that the fine red Tunisian sand/clay/dust does not come off without serious scrubbing. The boat washing was a much bigger job than anticipated.

Christi decided to it was time to do a serious spring cleaning. We have a guest coming tomorrow, so she was feeling inspired. She deep cleaned all the carpets and upholstery on board.

When we finished the tasks at hand, we rode into the historic section of town for lunch. We went to a place that Lonely Plant said is frequented by a lot of mafia types. We ordered one fish carpaccio (raw fish) appetizer. We have ordered many a carpaccio before in our lives. It has always come out as very thin, ready to eat slices that look nothing like the fish it once was. But, apparently, they do it differently in Trapani. Out came a raw fish cut in thirds. Yes, the main skeleton in the center had been removed for us, but the head, skin, scales and smaller bones were all there. The waiter set the plate on the table and the fish stared at us, obviously angry about having to die for our culinary pleasure. We found out that it is much harder to get fish meat off the skin when the meat is not cooked (especially when using a butter knife), and also that scales have a magic ability to get into everything. We wrestled with the fish over the meat, and we are sad to say that the fish won. After several rounds over many long minutes, both of us gave up the fight, deciding that getting the meat away from the bones, skin and scales was just too darn hard.

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In America, Continue reading →

Passage to Trapani, Sicily, Italy

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By yesterday the storm had passed. Skies were clear and brilliantly blue, and while it was warmer than the previous two days, it was by no means hot. We languidly got ready to go to sea and headed out around 2:00 pm.

The passage was pretty uneventful. Winds varied from 11 -17 knots apparent, always on the nose (which makes real wind speed more like 5 11 knots). The seas were the typical Mediterranean small, sharp swells at rapid intervals. Not the smoothest ride of all time, but certainly not a bad ride, either.

We arrived in Trapani around noon today. From the distance, it looks like a series of blocky mid-rise apartment buildings on a flat of land. A large hill rises in the distance, and the hill is mostly barren, both in terms of construction and foliage. The hill is basically a big mass of brown, much like the hills of southern California at the end of the summer. From the distance, the harbor area looked to be primarily industrial, and the farther into the harbor we ventured, the more industrial it became.

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We called in and were told they had space in the marina. The marina is Continue reading →

Boat Maintenance and Tunisian Foods

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It rained more throughout that night we woke the next morning (yesterday) to dark gray skies, intermittent light rain, and cool temperatures. It was almost cool enough to need a thin long sleeve shirt, but not quite. Shorts and tees are still comfortable, but barely. We are so happy about the change in the weather. After a year and a half of perpetual summer, we are ready for the cooler temperatures of autumn. We are most happy for those celebrating Ramadan. Life without water will be so much easier with it being relatively cool out.

Since our trip to the desert had been long and exhausting, yesterday was a quiet, relaxing day aboard Kosmos. Our big adventure was going to eat. We tried the Tex-Mex place. Turns out there were a few Mexican food items on the menu, but they hadn’t posted them outside for some reason. The rest of the menu was pretty standard western fare, with pasta, seafood, steaks. The Mexican items looked a bit scary. Fajitas and burritos were listed under the “cold appetizer” section. The main courses were totally non-descript, such as “Mexican Fiesta Platter”. Christi decided to stick to normal western fare. Eric, ever the optimist, ordered a burrito. Out came Continue reading →

Quad Riding in the Sahara and Lightning Storms

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Continued from yesterday”¦ From the hotel/set we walked over to another one of the privately owned underground houses that the owner has turned into a “museum”. This house was similar to the second house we saw, except that the living room was at the end of the entrance tunnel, near the outlet to the courtyard, rather than at the front of the tunnel. This is the owner in her living room.

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We found out that several families used to share these houses, with communal kitchen and storage areas, and each family lived in one room. The rooms are Continue reading →