Well, finally, we have made it out to Nimrod. Liz finished her work project on Friday evening so on Saturday afternoon we flew out to Naples and arrived at the boat around 10pm. A wee dram later and we were ready for bed. We woke to a lovely sunny morning with blue skies and temperatures in the 20s. We needed to do a shop as we didn’t know how close any supermarket in Sicily would be. We walked the 2km to Auchan along litter strewn roads with occasional pavements. We decided to get a taxi back as the temperature had risen to 30c and we had bought the place out!

The afternoon was spent cleaning the boat (as she was covered in sand over the last 3 months) as well as repairing the headlining that had drooped in the heat of the summer. We also found that the outboard motor has stopped working so we will be taking it apart tomorrow morning! In addition, we found that Nimmie had grown a beard just below the waterline even though we have copper coat that should stop that happening. Both of us spent a lot of time with a brush knocking the barnacles off. Hopefully, more will come off as we sail down to Sicily tomorrow.

Our plan is to leave di Stabia tomorrow lunchtime to head towards the Aeolian Islands to the north of Sicily when we should arrive sometime Tuesday. Our first stop is hopefully Stromboli with its active volcano.

As it’s our last day in Castellammare di Stabia, we decided to eat out at the local steak house. You know the place will be good when only locals go there and you are the only tourists! We each had a kilo of steak, salad, chips and a house wine (€5 a bottle!) and the whole bill was less than €50. Admittedly, it is in the back of beyond but worth the 15 min walk through litter and dark streets. Time for bed if the local beach disco doesn’t get any louder.