R & R in Bari

The owners left the boat yesterday. I've never been disappointed to see guests leave but they are such great people that it is really enjoyable to be able to work for them. Andrew washed down the boat yesterday (with a little of my help) in record time. This meant that we could have today and tomorrow off! We're now in Bari, Italy for a couple days then continuing toward Venice.

We took a day trip to Matera, 40 minutes inland, which is where they filmed Passion of the Christ. We saw the hill top where the cross was hung and the caves that people have lived in for thousands of years, up until the 1950's. They moved out because of poor living conditions, the caves humidity rose to 90% at times. Now 70% of the cave homes are owned by the government. There are bed and breakfasts all over this area. You can pay to sleep in a cave that overlooks canyons and a city built into the mountains called Sassi. (Pictures to come tomorrow.) It's a bit crazy to be looking through these cave homes and see for sale signs outside. Not sure that would be my 1st choice at real estate but whatever floats your boat. We had lunch in a restaurant that was half carved into stone and half was added on.

We're off to get some more of the great Italian pizza! Bon Appetit

A & B

Sea Sick

The question everybody asks so I thought I would just answer it now. Yup, we both got sea sick. Thankfully we were both able to perform our duties even though we weren't 100%. We traveled about 70 nautical miles up the east coast of Italy (Riposto to Crotone, Italy), which took us about 5 hours. The seas were a little more rough than we have been used to. Thankfully nothing broke, although glasses were chattering and the refrigerator door flew open spilling some of its containment's. We are off again tomorrow and heading about the same distance. We are praying for some calm seas and light wind. We had some time to walk around the town today nothing much to talk about, just another pit-stop on our journey. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery.
A

We'll get to Venice... Someday

We left Riposto this morning to stop in a town on the east coast of Italy. Not even sure what the name of it is.. A pit stop on the way to Venice. The captain likes to break the trip up, so instead of saililng for 2 or 3 days straight we stop in ports each day along the way. Since we're not sailing at night this makes the trip longer, allows us to see more cities but Andrew would rather be out at sea for longer periods of time. He's getting quite a bit of experience behind the wheel! I watch him in the captain's chair hitting the buttons and knobs that I'm deathly afraid of hitting each day when I dust in the pilot house. It looks easy enough but I still have no interest in taking on watches on my own. Pretty sure I could find something to run into even in the middle of the ocean.

Oh, back in Riposto the owners took the crew along with them to see Mount Etna, an active volcano. Jacque drove a huge van with the 6 of us up the mountain. The roads here are windy and make NO sense to a tourist like me so we rely on GPS most of the time, but with 6 people in the car there are so many opinions flying around as to which road to take. Left! Right! No another right! It was nuts. But we made it and it was one of the most awesome things. The temperature was at least 30 degrees colder at the top, lots of snow, and actually a pretty large ski resort. We climbed the volcano and took a sled with us to sled to the bottom.

Well, that's all for tonight, off to bed.
B