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| Valletta, Malta |
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| Claire de Groot |
This year the Medigames were in Malta, an island country in the middle of Mediterranean Sea. Since 2013, I competed in table tennis in Turkey, Croatia, and Ireland ... and was trounced every year. So this year I was excited about competing in my favorite sport, sailing. About a month before the games, they announced we would be sailing Visions RS 15, that are similar to Vanguards. I teamed up with a lovely and athletic young pharmacist from Switzerland, Claire de Groot. Claire has certification in keel boats and competed last year in the Grand Surprise 31 foot keel boats as crew. I had not sailed a Visions 15 before, but raced small boats in college and raced Hobie 16's for many years. The regatta was on Monday and Tuesday, June 18th and 19th. Claire and I met for the first time on Thursday before the regatta. We arranged to get a boat to practice on Sunday and had a great day of sailing, and only capsized twice. Claire asked me to skipper the races because I had more small boat racing experience. I think we would have placed just or well, or better, with her skippering because I made a lot of mistakes. But we had fun and the sailing, venue, and camaraderie
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| Sailing in historic Malta |
were excellent. We were royally hosted by the Royal Malta Yacht Club in Valletta. Valletta is an ancient walled city located on a a fortified peninsula dominating the two ports of Grand Harbor and Marsamxett Harbor, where the regatta was held. The view of Valletta from Marsamxett Harbor is awe inspiring. The ancient walls of the fort jut out the harbor. I was so awed that I missed the start on the first race. The next race we were in second at the starting line, then three boats barged down the line and fouled us. I kept yelling, "barging, barging" but with no results. After the race, one of my competitors from another country said: "David, what is this word 'barging'"? I learned that many of the sailors did not know the Rule 11. But this was a fun race, with no protest allowed.
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| Rigging |
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| Going for the mark |
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| I am tense and ready to sail |
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| The winds varied from 5 to 15 knots, from all directions |
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| Sailing in history |
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| Oops! This boat won every race. We capsized 3 times in 3 days. |
On my third day in Malta, my lovely Italian Rotary daughter, Sabrina Restivo, flew into Malta. I was Sabrina's Rotary Youth Exchange counselor 29 year ago. I will never forget the first time I visited Sardinia after her year in Weaverville. Sabrina and her father met us at the airport and she turned to him and said: "Papa, I would like to introduce my American father."
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| Sabrina Restivo |
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| Roman columns |
Sabrina is now a sports medicine doctor in Sardinia. Over the years, we have consoled and counseled each other on life and love. The day after she arrived, we toured Valletta and immersed ourselves in the culture and history. Valletta is a World Heritage Site. It was ruled successively by the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs and Order of the Knights of St. John. It is one of the most concentrated historic areas in the world.
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| Valletta from the ferry |
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| Triton Fountain |
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| Sue confessed that ... |
After the Medigames, I flew to Sicily and met Sue in Palermo. We stayed in a remodeled apartment in an ancient building in the old city. The next day we walked the around the old city and toured historic sites in the morning and took train to the resort town of Capo de Orlando, where we stayed at a resort with an olympic pool. After a swim, we walked for blocks looking for a pizza restaurant listed in TripAdvisor. No luck, so we returned to the resort that had a restaurant highly recommended by the resort management. The menu offered lobster at 10 euros ($11.50) per pound. It sounded like a good deal, so we both ordered lobster, a bottle of wine and vegetables. The lobster servings were a half lobster in the shell. It took a long time to get the check and when it arrived, we were surprised that the two small half lobster cost 70 euros for .45 kilos, or about $80 per pound. I did not want to be an ugly American in Italy, but was not willing to be ripped off, so I politely asked why the bill was 108 euros per pound but the printed menu stated it was 10 euros per pound.
The restaurant owner and chef said: "I am sorry, there is a mistake on the menu. The cost is more than 10 euros per pound in the market". I replied I was sorry for his mistake, but relied on the menu price and did not know the market price.
Ultimately, we paid 50 euros for the dinner, including a bottle of wine and tip. I think this is not the first time there has been an issue with the price on the menu. I posted a review on TripAdvisor.
The next morning we took a train to a station near Portarosa, the base for our chartered 40 foot catamaran. Our friends, Garry and Cheryl Dobson, met us at the train station. We were anxious to start our week of sailing, so we left the Portarosa harbor as soon as Sabrina arrived, about 6 p.m. It is about 15 miles to the island of Vulcano, our first destination. I was getting a little anxious as the sun set and we were still several miles from the Porto di Ponente.
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| Garry and Cheryl at Vulcano. |
We arrived at dusk to find a bay crowded with boats. After motoring around, we anchored in about 10 feet of water. We enjoyed our first dinner aboard, and went to bed early. I woke up about 3 a.m. to the wind howling through the rigging and rain pounding on the deck above our cabin. I got up and checked our position and felt we were too close to shore with the wind shift. So we weighed anchor, and spent several hours circling outside the bay under power, waiting for daylight and for some boats to leave. Sue and I did not have our foul weather gear and were shivering cold in shorts and a summer jackets. But my first mate, Sue, shared the driving under adverse conditions. Then the sun came out and it was a beautiful day. The women hiked to the top of the volcano while Garry and I stayed aboard and rested.
We enjoyed six days of sailing the Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the north coast of Sicily. We moored at the island of Filicudi, where Sue and Sabrina went for a long swim and I snorkeled into a cave. It was a peaceful and beautiful anchorage.
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| Filicudi |
We we sailed in about 20 knot wind to the island of Salina and dropped the anchor just outside the Santa Marina harbor. The harbor master told me it was not safe because the forecast was for 30 plus knot winds. We motored into the harbor and med moored at the docks, for about $130 for the night. Med mooring a 40 foot Lagoon catamaran is the process of backing a 22 foot wide boat into a 20 foot space between two boats. My arm pits were wet as I put both engines in reverse and slowly backed into the tiny space between the two boats while two dock hands encouraged me in Italian to go slowly. We made it in without incident. Santa Marina is a picturesque town that subsist on fishing and tourism.
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| Our 40 foot catamaran med moored |
There is pedestrian street with many shops and the women went shopping for hours, but did not buy much. We went out to dinner at for a typical Sicilian Italian food, which is excellent and inexpensive.
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| Isola Salina |
The wind howled through the rigging during the night, but I slept well knowing we were secure. The next morning we were planning to sail to the island of Stomboli, that has an active volcano. But the forecast was for north winds of 20 to 25, with gusts over 30 and 6 foot seas. Stromboli is about 23 miles north of Salina. There were other boats in the harbor that had the same plans, but none left for Stromboli, particularly because there is no safe anchorage. So we booked another night at the dock and spent the day swimming, walking around town, and relaxing. Sue and I made pizza on the boat.
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| Chefs for the night |
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| Sue's Fabulous Pizza |
On Thursday morning the winds had decreased to 15 to 20 knots, with a few gusts. We caste off the lines and sailed four about 4 hours to the island of Lipari, the most populated of the Aeolian Islands.
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| Sabrina at the wheel |
We had reserved a slip in the harbor. That afternoon we toured the ancient Castello di Lipari, that has an excellent museum. That evening Cheryl prepared lamb for dinner and we played a game of Cards Against Humanity. Our last day we motored back to Vulcano to visit a famous grotto and go for a swim. Sabrina got stung by a jellyfish across her face, which ended the swimming. In the afternoon, we had a beautiful beam reach sail in 15 knots of wind back to Portarosa. That night Sabrina made a typical Sardinian pasta dish for dinner.
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| Sue enjoying the last day of sailing |
The Italians are rightfully proud of their pasta cooking. There are many different noodles and pasta dishes and each area of Italy has a specialty.
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| Our Italian pasta chef |
Saturday morning Sue, Sabrina and I took a shuttle to Catania and checked in to a nice boutique hotel near the old city. Catania has one of the largest and interesting street markets in Italy.
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| Cheese plate and wine for 5 euros |
We stopped at an outdoor standing only restaurant where we enjoyed a huge platter of cheeses, olives, meats, and a glass of wine for 5 euros each. That night we returned to the old city for pizza at a typical sidewalk cafe.
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| Wine selection at bar in Catania |
Sunday morning we flew to Sardinia and were met at the airport by Sabrina's mother, Fiorella, and Fiorella's partner, Sergio. They are a lovely couple and it was joy to see them again.
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| Sue's first Sardinian Cappuccino |
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| Fiorella, Sue, David and Sabrina |
They loaned us a car and a beach house about 15 miles from Cagliari. We were lucky to arrive on the day of the festival of Madonna di Bonaria in which the locals dress in costume, load a statute of madonna on a boat, and thousands of Sardians watch the procession of boats. All except the first two of the following photos were not posed, and express the beauty and drama of the celebration.
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| The costumes and pageantry are awesome |
On Monday Sue and I drove to several beaches on the southeast corner of Sardinia where we swam and snorkeled. Sardinia is noted for its beautiful beaches and clear water. However, there is not a lot of sea life, even within marine preserves. Sardinia is an island in the middle of the Tyrrhenian Sea, about 200 miles off the coast from Rome. Because of its strategic location for trade, it has been invaded and conquered many times. From about 1500 BC onwards, villages were built around round towers called nuraghes. About 7,000 still remain on the island. Sue and I visited the old city of Nora, that is thought to be the first inhabited town on the island.
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| Roman Column at Nora |
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| Oldest Light House |
There are still Roman ruins and one of the oldest operating light houses in the world. We drove about an hour through a hundred hairpin turns up and over the coastal mountains to the Santadi Winery. Sue was navigating using Google Maps, which is not always accurate. We got side tracked onto a dirt road that dead ended at a river. At the winery, we met a nice young couple from Switzerland. The man is a wine connoisseur, and also was able to translate for us.
Santadi is the largest producer of a local wine, called Monica di Sardegna. While we were wine tasting, locals came in with empty 10 liter (2.64 gallons) plastic jugs that were filled with from a dispenser like a gas station nozzle, and sold by weight.
On our last day, Sergio, Fiorella, and Sabrina took us to the Roman baths at Fordongianus, in the middle of Sardina. The hot mineral baths have been used for centuries as a relaxing curative. Now they have modern private indoor tubs for soaking, with a view of the river. Before our soak, Sergio and Fiorella treated us to a pasta lunch at a local restaurant owned by their friends. The pasta and wine were excellent, but made us sleepy.
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| Welome to the Roman Baths |
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| Roman humor |
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| Pasta lunch before the soak |
We made it back to Cagliari in time for dinner with Sabrina and her family, including her two brothers, sister in law, and nephews. The oldest nephew, Mario, age 10, asked us what we thought of Trump and talked knowledgeably about various subjects.
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| Sabrina's Family, and Sue |
The next morning we got up at 4 a.m. for the grueling 36 hour trip home, via Rome, Montreal, Chicago to San Francisco.
It was a great vacation. We were treated like family by Fieorella, Sergio and Sabrina. The sailing was good, except for a couple of days of too much wind. The food aboard the boat and ashore was fantastic. Sue and I are now planning our next trip with Garry and Cheryl.
We stopped at an outdoor standing only restaurant where we enjoyed a huge platter of cheeses, olives, meats, and a glass of wine for 5 euros each. That night we returned to the old city for pizza at a typical sidewalk cafe. 
