Day 135: 27/10/17 An unexpected visit to Porto di Roma

The alarm was set for 5am and we were off by 5:30am so we could get to our destination of Nettuno before dark even if we only averaged 5 knots. It was a fairly miserable morning and by 10:30 it became clear that the forecast of relatively light NW winds was not happening.

The wind was firmly from the south and stronger than forecast. As the wind was supposed to increase over the day and our speed was down to 4.5 knots due to punching into wind and chop we started to question if continuing to our proposed destination was a wise plan. Both Nettuno and Anzio, another alternative were reported to be tricky to enter in strong onshore winds and with so much uncertainty we decided to head into Porto Di Roma instead.

I always have mixed feelings about these tricky decisions when sailing. Second guessing whether you are being too cautious or making the correct safe call, we just make the best decision we can based on the information we have. I felt a little better about the decision after entering Porto Di Roma as even without the wind building any further the entrance was far from easy. We were given help to moor up and then went to pay at the office. 

The marina is huge with a large amount of shops, restaurants and a kebab shop which was recommended to us by another sailing family. There were also a large amount of tents, most of which were shut up but one of which was selling cheese! One particular restaurant looked absolutely lovely and had a lunchtime deal on so we decided to treat ourselves. Back to the boat for a tidy up and a hair brush and then out for a rare meal out.

We ordered Spaghetti in tomato sauce for the kids to share, and then Patrick and I ordered spaghetti with mussels, and a plate of calamari and fried prawns which we shared (AJ also enjoyed munching his way into this too!) It was an amazing meal, our best yet, and one of our cheapest at 35 Euros including a couple of glasses of wine!

Back to the boat for a siesta and to take advantage of the good, free wifi. We were just contemplating what we wanted for tea when we heard music from the marina so we went for a walk to investigate. There was a mini festival on, however after eventually finding an English speaker we found out that tonight was comedy night, perhaps not the best entertainment when you don't speak the language, however there was also some music. We mulled around for a while, enjoying the atmosphere, looking at the artwork in one of the tents and contemplating if we could justify spending more money on buying a snack rather than preparing something on the boat.

Eventually we came to the conclusion that the last time either of us had had a kebab was at university. Patrick would only ever eat one while drunk and I if it had been recommended by somebody sober. Given that this kebab shop looked clean, had come with a recommendation, and was cheap, we decided to introduce the kids to kebabs. We just got one to share, and some chicken nuggets as a safe bet if they didn't like the kebab. As predicted AJ enjoyed the kebab and Esmé refused to touch it!

All in all a pleasant evening finished off by catching up on some Worldtowning videos as we only ever watch these when we have good marina wifi, or at the end of the month if we have some data left on our plan!