The Burnetts have been island hopping in Italy. We recently discovered a beautiful island called Ventotene, which is NOT a toothpaste. It is pronounced Vento-tay-nay, or something like that. It is a very cool island with a complex network of Roman cisterns dug into it. The emperor Augustus apparently exiled his daughter Julia here for sleeping around, and subsequently it became a way for emperors to defeat their female enemies by labeling them as whores and starving them to death. Fortunately, the Burnetts did not starve here. There are ironically a lot of nice restaurants on the island these days.
We have found the secret vacation sailing paradise of Italy. We would have felt really out of place on Ventotene had we not stumbled upon some kids. “Do you speak English?” we asked. “Yeah, Brooklyn,” they said. They were visiting their cousins.
The anchorage was not the best. There is basically no protection, and so Mel found herself at the helm at 2 a.m. babysitting the anchor alarm and watching a nearby monohull weigh anchor. She could not sleep with the 25 kt winds and 4 foot waves bashing around the boat. Of course, Marvin and his Rocna made it through the night, not having budged an inch.
We then headed off to the next island, Ischia. On the way there, Mel saw something flitting about. “Oh look!” she said. “A bird! No, wait…it’s a bat!” The bat circled Marvin a few times and then dive-bombed the helm. Mel screamed and cowered, as her hair is a proven bat-trap. “Okay, Mr. Bat, go on along home now,” she coaxed. So it did.
It flew into the sailbag.
Greg heroically donned gloves and grabbed it after it didn’t budge when we raised the sails. At the moment, we have a very sleepy bat sitting in our snack container in the starboard hull. We will have a bat releasing ceremony tonight. Hopefully he will go into the hills of Ischia, to partake of the mosquitoes born from the thermal springs. Or, he could go into the sailbag of the French boat next door. Either one is fine with Mel.
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