Our morning started with woderful sunshine, a total contrast to yesterdays rain. We took a stroll to the marina office and then the local sailing club for a Croissant and coffee before walking into town to visit the castle. Unfortunately,the castle and most other attractions such as the grotto were closed, so we headed back into town and a local restaurant. Gaeta is a lovely city, but extremely quite and most places are closed or appear closed. Perhaps its more lively in the hight of the season. Personally I found it tranquil, beautiful and peaceful.

After a light breakfast we set sail to our next destination of Gaeta, a city half way up the Italian western coast. We weighed anchor at 11:25 and within the half hour were under full sail and close hauled heading to our destination. The wind was stronger than expected and eventually we had to reef the main, put away the genneka and unfurl the genoa. Fantastic sailing and Arctura was cutting through the building sea like a knife through butter. Unfortunately, we sailed through some pretty big rain showers, but managed to arrive at Gaeta in one tack and into our destination marina, just north of the peninsula. The whole 36nm voyage taking us just over 6 hours.

After mooring up I made a sepia alla griglia with a salad and some prawns that Elaine had marinated earlier. A fantastic meal although Ed would have wanted more, perhaps next time we’ll get double. Quite a job however, of cleaning and preparing it !! And so fed and watered off to bed after a exciting sail and we’ll see what the morning brings in our exploration of what seems a wonderful city.