Update 16

Buon Giorno from Amalfi,
Since I last wrote we sailed from the island of Ponza to an island off the northern tip of the Golfo di Napoli. We anchored off of Procida for the night and in the morning sailed across the Golfo to Sorrento and anchored there as there is no marina for sailboats. Sorrento was beautiful with breathtaking views from high on the cliffs. Sorrento was very upscale with your pick of five star hotels. The next morning we sailed around the southern tip to Amalfi . When we arrived the dock master told us he would send a boat out to meet us. Two men were in the boat and one came aboard Sea Star and said he would take me in. That was a first for us. He took Sea Star between boats and around tight corners and was less than 20 yards away from the public beach (yelling at swimmers to move out of the way) when he turned into the berth. There is no way I would ever have taken Sea Star where he did.
Amalfi is spectacular. The town was a prosperous trading center in the 6th century AD and rivaled Genoa and Venice as a maritime power in the 10th and 11th centuries. We were going next to Salerno to meet Nick but the dock master asked why as Salerno is just a big city, a mini Naples he said. We decided to let Nick take the ferry from Salerno to Amalfi and meet us here. Since Nick was not due until Wednesday we left Amalfi and went back to Positano. The Med was calm as glass all day and we had a great anchorage off of a small beach surrounded by high cliffs. The beach turned out to be a sea glass bonanza and Cindy could not stop picking up more and more glass. I fear an intervention will be necessary once she returns to Sarasota. Without a place to find sea glass I fear she may resort to buying a metal detector to scour the beaches around Sarasota looking for other treasures. We all know that only pop-tops can be found on our beaches. After swimming and picking up sea glass we took the dinghy into Positano and walked around the town. It is larger that Amalfi and smaller than Sorrento All three are unique in their own way and one of the highlights of the summer.
We are back in Amalfi now waiting for Nick to arrive at any moment. We bought some local lemons at the market this morning and Cindy made fresh lemonade. We bought peaches for 1 euro for 1 Kg., amazing, that's 2.2 lbs for $1.40.
I have two slideshows on my website. They are PDF files so to advance to the next slide you must click the mouse.

http://www.larsonweb.net/pdf/palau-ponza.pdf

http://www.larsonweb.net/pdf/ProcidaToPositano.pdf

Paul & Cindy