Sundowner II log – 2006 update 26 – Gaeta

Back in Gaeta and the scenery of mountains, castles, churches, old and new towns felt so familiar and after the two, which felt more like six, months of relative isolation there was a sense of apprehension for the coming months back in civilisation. Now six weeks later sat tied up outside the marina waiting for our winter berth to be made available it turned out we had every reason to be anxious because after a month of working hard on Sundowner on everything below deck level in the boatyard, including repairing the hole sustained on the buoy in Ponza the previous year, the centrepod is still leaking slightly which is a disappointment. The first thing we did was meet and say hello to Tom and Anne aboard Alba Voyager friends of Karl, Julie and Bud in Portugal, now our friends too, which was nice. We had to wait 2-3 weeks for the marina to get their act together for the lift out so with the arrival of many boats to the anchorage, particularly English and American, a lot of time was spent socialising which carried on when we finished a hard days work after eventually being lifted.

All very well, but the finances took a hammering having progressed from small to large beers as the consumption increased, also talks of ports, harbours and anchorages can get a bit tiresome. We are yearning for our solitude amongst the locals as of last year, supplemented with regular visits by friends from home. Amongst the working, drinking and socialising we also became involved with our friends Ahmet and Serkan’s plight with the owners of their charter boat which turned into a long and painful saga the details of which can be found on a separate page on this site.
Just to lighten our days up we have become adopted parents to a crazy young English girl over here learning Italian while she works as a nanny – name is Polly Shit Face.