May 2026. The Bay of Naples.
May 21st.
Earthquake and cliff fall!!
Magnitude 4.4, the largest in the area for over a year! We are anchored in Miseno, in the Pozzuoli Gulf to the west of Naples, 2km from the epicentre of a strong tremor felt around the Naples Bay. In truth we slept through it completely unaware…. but the local town, Bacoli, where we went to shop and do laundry this morning had damaged buildings, closed schools and many news crews. Exciting stuff…. but let’s hope it doesn’t get too exciting…. Apparently this area contains a ‘super-volcano’ system underground, beneath the smouldering fumaroles of a massive collapsed magma chamber which forms ground level today. Pozzuoli itself has risen and sunk over 1.8 metres in the last few decades as the earth moves. Scientists believe this super-volcano will be the location of the next big eruption in what is overall an incredibly seismically active area.
Related or nay, we don’t know, but we also had a cliff fall in the bay about 100 metres from us. Other local boats seemed unimpressed and there was no panic to depart, so we played it cool too and continued drinking our tea….
Fire crews inspect a damaged building in Bacoli.
May 24th
Chaos in the anchorage
May 23rd.
June 3rd
30 Euros per minute to anchor!
Awesome people!
Having spent a peaceful three days in Miseno anchorage, three other live aboard yachts for company in the tranquil waters, Saturday brought the whole boating community of Naples to our transom. By 1100 you could almost walk across the harbour on a raft of day trippers. We counted 146 boats at anchor, another dozen milling about looking for a spot.
CHAOS ensued, one boat getting his anchor caught around our chain, despite our bright orange anchor ball marking our anchor position and thus direction of lay. An hour later with him having scraped his chain along our port ama, we had him securely tied alongside with fenders aplenty so he could do no more damage. We then freed his anchor - mostly our effort, not his.
It’ll all happen again tomorrow; oh joy. The peace of sailing….
Corricella Bay, Procida. We dropped anchor at 0950 having pre-positioned from Miseno to meet friends joining us for a week. We had a permit to anchor in the island’s anchorages, so thought no more of the Guardia Costiera RIB as we settled beside 30 or so other yachts of all types and nationalities. Within 10 minutes, the RIB approached, asking for our papers and permit. They took both away, and returned 25 minutes later with a ‘Contravention Notice’ which came with a 300 Euro fine. Apparently, unbeknownst to us, we were in a zone of the bay only resident (local) yachts are allowed to anchor in. No verbal warning, no dialogue, just a fine. Lovely. How welcoming. We weighed anchor as soon as possible and departed the bay.
The small print on the reverse has an appeal procedure, so we gave it a go. Only to send an appeal by email you need a ‘PEC’ - a certified email account. Not to be beaten, we tried to get a PEC. First you need an Italian tax number, which means a trip to a lawyer and registering passports etc in the Italian tax system. Hmm, not so keen on that, so we’ll write to the address they give instead. But to send a registered post letter in Italy you need an Italian address. So, in simple terms, the fine is only applicable to visiting/foreign yachts, who then have no way of appealing due to the PEC/registered post system. It’s a complete bureaucratic nightmare, seemingly designed to make it impossible to appeal. Another example of this part of Italy and its non-existent welcome from official authorities to visiting yachts. We also found out that foreign yachts are not allowed to anchor anywhere in the marine park of Ischia and Procida (ie 90% of the coast) overnight, and not at all between 1 June and 30 September, though they’ll happily sell you a permit for this period. Our advice; if you must visit the Bay of Naples, do it by land and ferry, not by yacht.
Our story of the fine dragged on for a week while we tried to set up the PEC. We eventually settled on the registered post method, but found out that was impossible without an Italian address when we got to the post office in Sapri. Step in a lovely, kind local young lady who was managing the check-in process at the post office. She explained where to get an envelope from, then helped us with the paperwork and what we wanted to do, all while managing the dozens of other folk wanting to use the post office services. When she couldn’t find a way for us to send the appeal, she had the kindness to involve her husband, who spoke good English. A couple of phone conversations later we had a way forward. They amazingly offered to use their own home address on the registered post form so we could send the paperwork… ! How extraordinarily helpful! She then filled in the postal forms for us, we swapped addresses and phone numbers, and out we walked with appeal sent and our faith in people thoroughly restored. Such simple acts that make a massive difference. Grazie mille Signor e Signora Rieuto!
We now await the verdict. I am not hopeful of any positive outcome, and the inevitable will just have cost us an extra 11.70 Euros for the registered post, but we can at least say we gave it a go. Perhaps there’s a kindly official at the park headquarters who will show equal generosity towards us….