The Route Less Traveled

Tropea, Italy

I’ve done casual sailing since college. But the more we talked about cruising one day, the more I thought I should get some proper training. So when we moved to Australia in 1997, I decided that Sydney Harbour would be the perfect spot to really learn the ropes. I gathered some friends together, we found a convenient time, and I went looking for an instructor. When I went to the local sailing school, they said they had a great instructor, Annie. I asked if Annie was the Australian nickname for Andrew, they said no, it was just Annie. I said that Annie was an unusual name for a man, they agreed and said that Annie was a woman. We were a group of five women and we had a vision of a nice hunky Aussie bloke teaching us to sail. The sailing school said we could have a man another time, but for our schedule, it was just Annie. Anyone who has ever coordinated the schedules of five women knows that if you have one time that works for everyone, go with it. So we took Annie, and we were very glad we did. As fun as a hunky Aussie man may have been, we all were serious about really learning to sail and Annie was a great instructor. She taught us sailing from a woman’s perspective, no yelling, no fire drills, it was calm, thoughtful and fun.

After the first round of lessons, we took more. Annie eventually opened her own company, Sydney Private Sailing, and I even helped with some of her charters. We have remained good friends and we were happy when she and her husband, Martin, came aboard Berkeley East to cruise the west coast of Italy with us.

I wish I could say that the student became the teacher, but Annie is still a sailing expert, so there was little I could add to her knowledge or skill. But I was able to teach her a few things about the cruising life, such as we rarely hand steer (as the auto pilot does a great job), we sail the shortest distance in a straight line, batteries and water are more important than sail trim. I think she agrees that it is much different from our days of tacking back and forth through Sydney Harbour.

We headed south, from Amalfi, along Campania and Calabria, a route less traveled by cruisers, and tourists. The two areas had one two things in common during August — there were fewer people and boats, and it was hot, very hot, hotter than we had experienced in the Med to this point.

The coasts of Campania and Calabria have some very quaint towns, friendly people and stunning landscape, with uncrowded sandy beaches and a dramatic mountainous backdrop. For several days, we sailed in the morning, stopping for lunch and a swim, then sailed in the afternoon to a new anchorage for the night.

During one stop, at Acciaroli, our outboard motor for the dingy stopped working. We rowed into town looking for a mechanic. We ended up with Micky, who spoke very little English, but he was aided in the repair by his buddy, along with a boy, an elderly gentleman and a young couple who, collectively, spoke enough English to communicate with us. In the end, we had a working outboard, fresh fuel, and several new friends who did not even request payment for their time.

Our American flag was very popular in Tropea, Everyone smiled and waved. Fishing boats would come by and say “hello friends.” One small boat with a family in it stopped to ask about the ocean crossing and give us advise on where to go and when. We hated to leave such a friendly place.

Porto di Tropea from the town up on the hill

Anchored off of Capo Vaticano surrounded by locals boats

the beach below Tropea