A very relaxing day in Como with no tourist sites just some strolling around in a beautiful area of Italy. The yellow place in the first photo above the lake is the youth hostel.

This really is beautiful country. The top photo is the view from the youth hostel over the lake. Took 5 hours to drive from Cinque Terre so tomorrow is exploring the lakes day. We did a quick trip over to Lugano so Becca could say she had been to Switzerland!

The Italians have some crazy food. Ask Becca about gorgonzola ice cream! Yuk. See the picture of the great ice cream and french fries pizza! David the sculpture was amazing even for someone like me who isn’t that into art!

The photos are all mixed up….

The Collaseum at Rome.

The Forum at Rome

Sore feet but a great day of siteseeing. The buildings are amazing in the scale and grandeur.

Beautiful frescos in the Villa of Opolonti a underrated site.

Abbey at Monte Cassino high above the valleys

Our hostel high in the clouds above the Amalfi

Herculeum the little sister of Pompeii.

Roman take out stands in Herculeum

The crater of Mount Vesuvius the view from the top was amazing and the picnic we had of fresh fruit and mozarella and bread from a market was very tasty after the climb.

Lots of stories to tell but right now too many fun things to do and one is not sitting at the computer when the sun is shining outside! They involve road closures – crazy side streets in Naples at midnight, great B and B, ruins that are hard to comphrehend, delicous fruit, rental cars that blonds can’t work, hair pin bends and challenging driving, spectacular coastlines and villages but here are some pictures to start!

Fruit stand in the mountain area – those large things hanging up are lemons! They are the size of softballs.

Looking down to the Med from the Villa at Ravello.

The Forum in Pompeii with Vesuvius in the background.

Not England – Its St Thomas – off course it rains when I am trying to clean the boat.
Wednesday and Thursday the last two days of racing in Antigua was more of the same beautiful sailing conditions but no one to race against. We played with the TP at the start and then they would take off and leave us to ourselves. We lost on Wednesday by only 17 seconds… so the delta got smaller as the week went on and we had them sweating once or twice. Friday was spent sorting out accounts with the vendors, loading the boat and getting it ready for delivery. At the prize giving I got to catch up with a few friends and say goodbye to the people that helped out during the season.

Fredeau (one of the race crew) came with me on delivery to St Thomas and with the forecast of no wind from behind I loaded up with fuel. As it turns out we were able to sail just over ½ way in a beautiful 15-19 knots breeze off the starboard side. It wasn’t a horrible upwind delivery into 30 knots and at midnight as we sailed past Saba with a full moon illuminating the sea. I am going to miss the boat. She was easily slicing through the water at 10 knots with the delivery main and jib. 25 hours and we were docked at Crown Bay Marina and spent the day cleaning up the boat.

So now I am on a marathon of flights to take me on holiday. But first stop is home for 20 hours to change my bags out, see my nephew and nieces, pick up the dog for the night and have dinner with my great friends who kindly changed dinner plans so I could be included.

Life is good – the Yeoman XXXII project is finished and she is all packed ready to go home to the UK. I am on flight number 2 out of the 5 I will be taking in the next 48 hours. Before you know it I will be writing from Pompeii, Italy a place I have always wanted to go to. Stay tuned..