CRUISE VIGNETTES 60, Ferry Boats

SS VALENTINO TO GREECE
In 1989 we spent 4 or 5 months in Europe in our Renault vehicle with a Pilote RV, including a month in Italy that included a few days in Sicily, our second visit to that Island.

As we drove toward Brandisi, near the “heel” of Italy, we stopped at a couple of gas stations (they advertised ferryboat information) to inquire about a ferryboat to Greece. Despite the billboards, not much information was available, this was out of season. In Brandisi we found a place to buy our tickets to Pátra, Greece for Friday the 28th, (9:00 PM to 2:00 PM the next day) for 202,000 lire, $150. We had reservations to park on the top deck of the SS Valentino, and sleep and eat in our RV, no need for an overnight ship’s cabin from Italy to Greece. Our ticket cost less than half of what regular tickets for a cabin, plus RV space, would have cost just to Corfu (10:00 PM to 7:00 AM).

We watched our ship arrive from Greece about 2:00 PM, and were told we should be able to drive on about 7:30 or so. I talked to a man from Germany who arrived from Greece on the SS Valentino with his camper. For some reason the family didn’t sleep in their camper, and they were not happy with the room they had on the ship. We picked this ship so we could camp, and not have to use their facilities.

We were able to drive on the ship about 7:30 PM. At least fifty trucks were put on the SS Valentino before us, then dozens of trucks and about a dozen campers of various sizes came on later. We noticed one trucker had a small TV mounted on his dash — perhaps he also had a VCR. Most trucks were parked in the lower deck, but there is an elevator to lift trucks and campers to the open, upper deck. We were very happy that the elevator took us to the top deck, where we parked near the Port rail, with nothing to block our view. We discovered several trucks were parked on the upper/outside deck of the SS Valentino because they have motors that will run all night to keep their refrigerators working. Sure hope it doesn’t keep us awake — it didn’t.

These truckers are expert! The SS Valentino requires every truck to either back on and drive off, or to drive on and back off. And these drivers were able to back up the ramp, then park within a few inches of another in the dark, and do it fast!

In the ship’s lounge, the TV played the “Jefferson’s,” dubbed in Italian. Later they had US movies in English, with Greek sub-titles. Two hours after we left port, we could still see lights along the coast of Italy.

Emmy fixed our dinner and we ate in the camper, then made-up the beds for a good night’s sleep. We are parked right at the Port rail, with a beautiful view over the water. We slept very well, but in the morning there was enough movement of the ship to give Emmy the burps, but not bad.

The ship campsite was excellent, we could travel all over the world like this. A great way to travel, sure beats moving into a tiny ship’s cabin for the night, like we were required to do on other occasions. There wasn’t enough movement of the ship to even know we were on a ship, most of the time. The camper moves more in a rain and wind storm!