One of the Flegree islands it rivals Capri with its lush vegetation. Although visited by many tourists it is not as well known as Capri so had kept its charm. Made up of craters and ancient lava flows it is also known for its hot water springs and thermal baths. Some famous Europeans travelers passed through not least Ibsen wrote “Peer Gynt “ here. After having explored the town a little on the previous evening we found food shops and plenty of shoe shops but no repair shops or chandlers so it was Svein’s intention to set out the next morning, in the dinghy, to go to the harbor and solve our problem. However on waking up he found that our dinghy had gone. Fortunately he spotted it against the causeway to the castle so we woke Anelo who kindly went and fetched it for us. If they had not been there a very early morning swim had been the only alternative. Needless to say the dinghy is now attached to the davits and lifted every evening as we are taking no more chances!
Once everything was back to normal Svein went off to the harbour and fortunately found the Volvo dealer. He used his network and found an alternator in Rome (the only one in Italy) and arranged for it to be sent to Naples and then brought over to Ischia by ferry the next day. At least that was the problem solved and we just had to wait for it to arrive. It really changes not having to look at one’s watch all the time and just taking things as they come.
Anelo left this morning to continue their route. Late afternoon we took the dinghy and crossed to the harbour to fetch the alternator. Eventually the electrician arrived with the alternator and it was just a question of mounting the cooling fan and we could be on our way. On the way back Svein dropped me off in the town to do some food shopping and we met up later and got back to the boat around 20h00 – too late to install the alternator so we decided to spend another day in Ischia and fix the alternator in the morning. We used the evening to catch up on emails.
We decided to use the waiting time to spruce up the boat. Svein had already prepared and painted the hatches on the crossing from Ponza to Ischia but they still needed a second coat and Caryn was very anxious to make the lazy bag /jack for the mizzen. We had come across (in a bin) some ideal material in Macinaggio that was sufficient for the mizzen and to replace the main sail lazy bag that is looking very sorry for itself.
Early the next morning Svein had installed the alternator and it was time to attack the lazy bag. A long process and the sewing machine also decided to play up but by late afternoon we had the new lazy bag installed on the mizzen and we were ready to go.