The adventure for 2015 started with a slightly sad departure from our beautiful little house on the water at Lower Snug for our journey back to Isabella in Brindisi. But weddings and warm weather are beckoning so we said adieu to Lower Snug and headed to Melbourne to catch the plane to Brindisi. It was a fairly frantic and lengthy trip from Hobart to Brindisi, due to the Qantas flight to Dubai being one and a half hours late which led to my missing connecting flights. Things got a bit exciting including lots of angry arm waving from the locals at Rome airport as I skipped queues to catch hastily reorganised flights. In the absence of any skills in Italian I did a lot of disparing gestures and bemused shrugging which at least got me through unscathed.
So it was with a huge sigh of relief I was met at Brindisi airport at midnight by the owner of the Buena Vista B&B who was a veteran of Sydney having spent 20 years there and run 3 restaurants. We had a great chat and I'd highly recommend the Buena Vista.
This next photo is the 20 m high Roman column built about 100 BC to mark the end of the Appian Way which the Romans had built to speed up their supply lines to Africa. Ironically the little green sign on the left-hand side is the entrance for the Buena Vista B&B which, at the time I stayed there, hosted a number of senior delegates to the UN conference in Brindisi an international relief. Brindisi is a major UN site being used for similar logistical purposes that the Romans had for their armies - that is the supply activities not the world domination part of the endeavour. (As Monty Python has pointed out - “What did the Romans ever do for us - apart from roads, sanitation, education, public health, water management etc").
This photo is of Isabella just after dark on Wednesday, 27 May. This is after she was dropped back into the water and having been put through her paces around the harbour to check for leaks and for things didn't work as they should after the winter list of maintenance jobs.
There's lots to do and so cleaning her up and getting organised again will be fun and a challenge.
The adventure begins! “To infinity and beyond".
Accompanying us on this years voyage is the Joe White Trophy - making his way to the UK to attend the wedding of Chris and Sophie. On way he will take in the sights of Italy and Greece before heading to London and on to Somerset for the big day. Here are some photos from the early morn of 29 May
JWT CHECKS THE RIGGING
JWT CHECKS OUT THE NAV STATION
JWT RELAXES ON THE POOP DECK
30 May finds us still in Brindisi dealing with the various demands of the boat which seem to be endless. Much work has been done and we thought it was all over when one of the pumps died...... only 10 months old and there it is - ready for replacement.
Todays photo then is pretty much from the marina where we spend 99% of our time. But it is a reminder of the history of Brindisi as a port city from ancient times. The photo is of the old fortress/castle of Brindisi with a much more modern form of defence parked in front of it. These days the invasion of Italy takes a different form with 170,000 refugees making it across the Mediterranean from North Africa in 2014. In the week we have been here 4200 have arrived.
Sunday 31 May 2015
Today we declared a day of no work - no pumps, no stuck valves, no electrical problems, - just a wonderful day wandering the streets of Brindisi. We are definitely in that land of quaint streets and back lanes -beautiful and ancient buildings emerge just to surprise you. For example today we stumbled on a 10th century church of St Benedict with the romanesque arches and faded murals of over 1000 years ago. And then just to surprise you a 21st century graffitti artist tells of his/her broken heart.
