I thought since we are leaving Croatian waters tomorrow it was about time I updated the blog to the point of leaving Italy for Croatia being the completely prompt and organised blogger that I am!
Here is Ali still in his waterproofs after our hairy night in the thunderstorm. It was amazing how fast the sea calmed down but also great! By the time we reached the Messina Straits at about ten in the morning it was calm enough for one of the swordfish boats to be out which we were really pleased about as we had really wanted to see one.
As you can see the little boats have an unnaturally high mast and long bow sprit, hence the reason they only go out in a flat calm. The skipper steers from the top of the mast keeping a lookout for sworfish sleeping on the surface. When he sees one they 'sneak up' on it and one of the crew harpoons it from the end of the bowsprit! It obviously has to be calm for them to go out as they are seriously top heavy.
We spent three nights in the delightful town of Reggio Calabria. The guide book says the only reason for visiting the place is to catch the ferry to Sicily, although we tried to see the place without clouded judgement after three days we wholeheartedly concurred with the author's descriptions. It really is a bit of a 'hole!' however we did meet some nice people there, a few Brits and a two boats of Swedes we had seen in Sicily and we were all heading in the same direction so it was good in that respect.
We planned to head off the same day as the Swedes down the Straits of Messina and over to Rocella Ionica but delayed by a day because the famous Mr fix it of Reggio thought he could get our French gas bottles refilled. Saverio is named in the pilot books as a man who can get you anything you want at the best price in town. The first time you see him he lands on the boat some croissants and a photocopied extract from 'Practical Boat Owner' magazine basically telling you how honest and great he is. Then he wants to sell you cheese wine and beer and get your laundry done for you etc etc etc. We bought his croissants and he did try to get our gas but failed. Now we have more empty gas cannisters than ever and we have heard that getting our old Camping Gas refilled in Greece will be tricky as the company has withdrawn their services to Greece and we may have to convert to petrogaz. Ali was hoping Croatia would be the place to get them all refilled but whilst the dodgy gas filler was willing to try he just didn't have the fittings - but you can get camping gas refilled here for 4 euros, a total bargain considering Spain, France and Scotland charge well over 20 euros!
Anyway this extra day in Reggio afforded us some time to do little extras we had meant to get around to, one of which was fixing our steaming light. Muggins here winched Ali up the mast again and when he was up there he discovered this.......
A crack in one of the mast spars. Once down again he got on the phone to Sparcraft the manufacturers who said they would need a photo emailed to see if we needed a replacement. So up Ali went again and I got redder and redder in the face.... It turned out we definitely needed a new one so Ali arranged for it to be sent to Brindisi marina on the heel of Italy where we would cross over to Croatia from. We were very glad to have found out about the cracked spar in the marina during a routine inspection rather than out at sea in a storm with the mast collapsing......
The girls took the opportunity for a little swinging in the bosun's chair.
That's about all I can say for Reggio except for a little story about the lovely marina staff. Our electricity went off a few times and Ali went up to the office to report it. The nice man in the office didn't utter a word to Ali but pointed to his eyes then back to Ali in a kind of 'I'm watching you' movement and didn't come to sort out our electricity at all! Nice.
We set off South through the Messina Straits early the next morning and here is a shot of the metropolis Reggio Calabria, see what I mean....
We were sailing down wind and very soon after we left the wind picked up - as always - and we were doing 8 knots+ with me starting to screech about reefing etc.
Looking back up the Messina straits.
This turned out to be the single most crazy sailing day we have come across yet, even after the stormy ride down from Stromboli! We basically surfed quickly the whole way South along the 'toe' eventually saling with a fully reefed main and jib. This made us think the 62 mile trip would be over much quicker than expectd but as we turned East the wind died then circled and went on the nose and circled for an hour or two at one point we were motoring woth full sail and only averaging about 3 miles an hour. A lot of onshore swell was slowing us down and worrying me as the marina we were going to has a big sandbar at the entrance and the book warns that entry should not be attempted in any onshore swell at all. There is a particularily nice story about a Hanse (the same boat as ours) being tossed over the sandbar and landing on it's side, I really shouldn't read the pilot books! I texted Malisa who was already in the marina and asked about the swell conditions to which i got the reply 'the wind is all offshore here so no probs.' This confused us greatly as that was the opposite from what we had just twenty miles away but then we noticed a dark line of wind approaching and thought it best to reef the main and thank goodness we did as it hit us with a lovely 35 knots+! We battled against this nearly the whole way to the marina and were thinking there was no way we would be able to get in safely until about half a mile from the entrance the wind died! Seriously crazy winds down there!
We were met at the pontoons by Steve and Malisa whom we had met way back in Viana da Castello in Northern Portugal last September and had kept in loose contact since then narrowly missing each other along the coast of Spain last November. It was good to catch up and see what we had all been up to. Also Malisa has much the same attitude to sailing as I do calling herself the 'reef monitor.' It is nice to meet at least one other woman who worries about the sea as most of the girls you meet are hardy sailors ready for anything. We went for one of Rocella Ionica's famous metre long pizzas, every yachtie we have met who has been there has had them and recommended them. I think we went a little late though as it was all a bit dried up. Ali and I decided to retry them a couple of days later and had a lovely pizza much earlier! They are sold by the half or whole metre on which you can choose four different toppings. Different but nice.
Malisa very kindly took the girls on board their boat for an hour or so and helped the girls make these flower hats. The girls loved them and they actually lasted for about three weeks, a record!
I think Kaylee would have jumped ship to thiers given the opportunity!
The biggest achievement for the girls in Rocella was learning how to catch the little fish. Kaylee especially is obsessed with fishing and finally she had some success......
The proud fisher women with their catch....
The marina at Rocella Ionica is a very friendly place as all the boats you meet there are en route either from or to Greece or the West and you meet a lot of nice people of all nationalities. The marina cost 20 Euros a night but there is no electricity which is still a total bargain for Italy. The other good bit for us was a huge paved beachfront boulevard the whole way into town (3km) which the girls could cycle up and down safely. We went into town the day that Italy played their last match in the world cup. All the cafes/bars were full of very anxious people and we felt very sorry for them especially later on when someone let off their 3 big rockets that they had obviously been expecting to celebrate with rather than commiserate.
We left the next morning for Crotone. Two English boats in Rocella were staying so that they could watch the English game on the Sunday. Poor things, not only did England crash out but we heard form Marie and Brian on Enjah that one of the boats got struck with lightning that night in the marina and it knocked out all it's electrics.
That was another disappointment not managing to meet up with Marie and Brian but we felt we needed to push on or we would never make it to Croatia. It does look like we may bump into them in Greece in the next few days so we will prepare ourselves for that.
To get from Rocella to Crotone you have to cross the 'Golfo di Squillace' which translates as - the Bay of Squalls! To say I was not looking forward to this bit of the journey is a bit of an understatement. Every cruiser we had met who had crossed this bay had met a squall and we had been regaled with so many terror stories about it our fate for that day seemed sealed. Amazingly we had not a breath of wind all day so Ali spent most of it sleeping with me on watch anxiously scanning the horizon for funny shaped clouds - a sure sign of impending squalls! But none came our way.
We did see our first wind farm in ages and wondered if it's entire purpose was to irrigate the crops growing in this dry climate.
We dropped the anchor just off the beach at Crotone and had a very good nights sleep.
Crotone is also a place that doesn't get a very good write up in any of the guides but as it turned out we really liked it. it is a bit run down and a bit stinky in places but we went for a walk around and found the old fort....
And the museum and here are a couple of pics of what they have unearthed in the area
which I took before I noticed the no photography sign, oops. The museum was quite good and even had some explanations in English which is always helpful.
We spent three nights anchored at Crotone spending the time shopping....
Kaylee wouldn't hold the swordfish herself!
The fruit and veg market was great, and cheap. Also sellers kept giving the girls bits of fruit to eat for free, cherries, grapes and even a punnet of small plums! It does pay to drag the girls shopping sometimes.
Ali doing a little sail mending with his wonder tool.
And then the swimming, Ali rigged up a diving board with our gangplank for him and Kaylee, Alisha and I prefer to step into the water.
A group of local boys swam out to speak to us and we wondered what they wanted but just a chat it seemed. It wasn't long before the girls were in the water with them laughing and splashing.
Altogether we had a great time in Crotone, the anchorage is good although would have been awful if the wind had any Southerly component which thankfully it didn't. The two Swedish boats were also there so we spoke to them a bit too and hoped to meet up with them again.
Crossing the gulf of Taranto
There are a couple of oil rigs outside Crotone which has helped the town's fortunes by providing much needed employment.
We saw lots of dolphins crossing the bay which we were surprised at because it certainly was the dirtiest stretch of sea we have encountered in the Med so far. Every metre or so there is a plastic bag floating by or similar not very nice really.
We got to Gallipoli at dusk and thought we would try the small fishing harbour instead of the marina as it we try to get a full days worth of services for our money! Thankfully we did this as we got tied up to a pier and the next day went around to the marinas to be told to go away. we had no water by this point so went to the fuel dock and bought some diesel just so we could get water, even this they were a little reluctant to give!
We went straight back around to the fishing harbour and tied up again. The fishing harbour is where all the locals go to swim from the breakwater - it has very clean water which is odd for a fishing harbour you certainly wouldn't catch me jumping in Lerwick harbour at home even if the water was 15 degrees warmer like it is here! Within minutes the boat and the girls had become a huge magnet to the local boys who at first helped the girls to catch crabs.....
Then invaded the boat but that was OK as one of them dove down to the bottom to pick up a couple of towels we had dropped! We gave them all a can of juice as a reward.....
The boys all stayed the rest of the morning and the girls were delighted having lots of fun swimming and jumping in with them......
Gallipoli is a very nice small fortified town on a rocky peninsula. the streets are all narrow and there are the usual churches like this one. Very pretty indeed.
We decided to treat ourselves to a meal as we had been anchoring or free berthing for five days and had a lovely dinner with the sun setting over the gulf in the background.
We left the next morning after delaying a little so that the girls could swim with thier boyfriends again. When we decided it was time to go the boys asked if they could come on the boat and jump off as we went past all their friends on the breakwater. It was just a case of showing off but the girls thought it was hilarious. The last one looked a little scared to jump off and we had to encourage him it was either that or take him 50 miles to Otranto!
The boys shouting to their friends.
We had a great downwind sail to the spike of the heel. we had intended to stop in Santa Maria de Leuca but thought since it was going well we would continue on to Otranto.
The tip of the 'heel.'
This wasn't the best decision as we spent the next four hours motoring into the chop but we anchored in the bay and had a good nights sleep.
Otranto was nice and the anchorage was good, the wind and swell would get up each day but die down again at night to ensure uninterrupted sleep. We hence recommended it to our friends John and Shirlee on Solstice who got there the day after we left and had a truly awful time with a storm and being bashed against a concete dock as the anchorage was untenable. Not very nice at all and I felt bad about reccomending it.
Otranto is a nice enough little holiday town, it too has the ruins of an old wall around it and all the usual restaurants and tourist shops too. We were going to go into the pier for a night but decided just to stay on the anchorage as it was fine, again there being no electricity on the pier and all we really wanted was to get the hoover out!
Otranto from the pier.
Ali was on his way to the tourist office when he met an American couple on the same mission to find out how to get the train to Lecce an old town inland. Lee and Judy came over for a glass of wine later and we all decided to meet up at the pier the next morning to get the train.
Lecce is a very well preserved example of Baroque architecture earning it he label of the 'Florence of the South' never having been to Florence I can't say but it was a stunningly beautiful and well kept town. Here are just a few of the many pictures we took.
Spires everywhere guide you to the old town from the railway station.
The cathedral in piazza del Duomo
There had just been a wedding at the Cathedral and the girls best bit of the day was playing in the confetti which was trapped in a whirlwind in the corner.
Inside the cathedral.
More old buildings.
Once again we were persuaded to part with a few euros by some smiley Africans, their best trick is to give the girls a bracelet each for free and then speak about Scotland 'oh yeah Glasgow Rangers!' which makes us feel bad so we give them money for the bracelets. I may have given them more if they had said Celtic though....
Kaylee thought this guy was way too skinny.
There is even an old roman ampitheater dating back to the third century in the centre of town.
This is a lampost which is completely covered with padlocks. The idea is when you meet the one you want to be with forever you rite your names on a padlock, lock it onto this lampost and throw away the key and ensure your lasting happiness!
We met up with Lee and Judy at one point who were very glad we had split up for the day as the girls were very very grumpy in the heat!
A strange thing happened on the way back to Otranto, we somehow managed not to get off the train at the right place for our train change. We blamed this amazing lack of intelligence on the info guy at Lecce train station and the conductor who all mentioned one station and the words change but not the fact we had to change at and earlier stop for that station. When we realised we thought it was going to take a long time to get home but the conductor phoned each stop on the route back and we were back in Otranto probably less than fifteen minutes later than if we had no taken a wrong turn. I don't think we would have had the same result with British Rail!
That night we went over to Lee and Judy's boat for a glass of wine even though Lee did warn Ali that if I went onbard I may never want to go back to our boat. He was right. They have a beautiful converted Dutch fishing boat which is amazing, especiallly the galley, it has more appliances and space than our house! Even Ali the terminal sailor had to ogle the engine room for a while.
On our last day in Otranto we met a Scottish couple with two young girls too which was great as we haven't met many English speaking kids at all this year. They too were heading to Croatia and decided also to go to Brindisi on the way North so we invited them to a certain little girl's fifth birthday party....
The next day it was time to sail to Brindisi to be united with our spar and to prepare a party. We had to motor sail all the way and then just motor so El Capitan gave us all rags and polish to get the boat looking shiny for Kaylee's birthday.
We had one day to clean and prepare for the party which included some seriously hot bus runs from the marina to the town shops as the marina is way out on the outskirts. This gave time for the other people we had invited to the party to get to Brindisi, in the end it was a fairly big event for the boat as we had Lee and Judy, Colin, Louise, their two girls Isla and Maggie and Colin's sister Anna, us lot and finally Lennart and Dolores from Sweden. We had a barbeque which we had to do on the deck as the marina wouldn't let us do it on the shore but thanks to Lee's gas BBQ and Lennarts BBQ we managed to feed everyone a bit of food before the all important cake.
Yum Yum!
After the girls went inside to watch a video the adults got stuck in to the wine.....
The next day was taken up with fitting the new spar this is a picture of the boat with one of the spars removed. Luckily for me Colin was around to winch Ali up the three times he needed to go up and Lennart and Lee were on hand for advice too, a real team effort!
The next few days were spent doing a lot of socialising whilst we all waited for the wind to die down, thanking our lucky stars we weren't John and Shirlee being bashed in Otranto or even worse, Brian and Marie out at sea crossing to Corfu. They had a really bad crossing from Rocella and we couldn't imagine being out in it listening to the wind howl whilst we were tucked up nice and safe in the marina with a glass of wine in our hands....
Marie's blog can be found here
http://enjahtravels.blog.co.uk/
The girls had the best fun they have had for ages with Isla and Maggie, they played and played and played.....
Fishing from Skyran's dinghy.
Smiley girls in the morning after a sleep over on Islay Mist. There were lots of barbie videos to be watched when the sun got too hot and then fishing and cycling when it cooled down again. It is the most time they have had with other children since they met the Canadian kids Nyah and Rogan away back in Portugal.
There was more socialising for the adults too, this is Lennart and Dolores onboard their boat Dolly. We had a lot of fun with them and hope to see then again when we sail to the Baltic in a few years.
We also made good use of the electric and water doing loads of washing as we knew when we got to Croatia we wouldn't be going into many marinas as they are all so expensive. Ali bought a new pink bucket for washing but we soon realised it is also perfect for cooling hot kids down, a tip we got from Colin and Louise who have two buckets - one for each girl!
Kaylee getting hosed.
Alisha cooling off too. Just wait for the Croatian blog to see who else can get their bottoms into the buckets for a 'bath!'
We were going to leave on the Sunday but John and Shirlee on s/v Solstice finally caught up with us again and I persuaded Ali to stay one more night so we could have a catch up and ensure a mild hangover for crossing the Adriatic. They seriously deserved a glass or two as they had been cleaning caked on cement dust off their boat all day after being forced by the wind to stay at the commercial pier in Otranto.
Colin, Louise, Isla and Maggie waving goodbye as we left Brindisi marina. Unfortunately we haven't managed to meet up again in Croatia as they are way up North and we have been very lazy sailors since getting here. But it was great to meet them and we will keep in contact you never know we may be in the same area later in the year and then we will have a Barbie reunion!
A wind turbine transporter ship loading up at Brindisi.
The tales from our crossing of the adriatic and Croatia are next, we love Croatia and the weather has been mostly kind to us here (lets hope it stays that way for our overnighter to Corfu tomorrow!) We are sorry to be leaving after only a month but the girls and i are booked to come home for ten days on the 1st Sept flying from Athens and there are a few sea miles between here and Athens to get through in the next three weeks!
Daniel has been with us for nearly four weeks having left this morning and we are all feeling a little sad. Nevermind, the greek tavernas are calling!
Here is Ali still in his waterproofs after our hairy night in the thunderstorm. It was amazing how fast the sea calmed down but also great! By the time we reached the Messina Straits at about ten in the morning it was calm enough for one of the swordfish boats to be out which we were really pleased about as we had really wanted to see one.
As you can see the little boats have an unnaturally high mast and long bow sprit, hence the reason they only go out in a flat calm. The skipper steers from the top of the mast keeping a lookout for sworfish sleeping on the surface. When he sees one they 'sneak up' on it and one of the crew harpoons it from the end of the bowsprit! It obviously has to be calm for them to go out as they are seriously top heavy.
We spent three nights in the delightful town of Reggio Calabria. The guide book says the only reason for visiting the place is to catch the ferry to Sicily, although we tried to see the place without clouded judgement after three days we wholeheartedly concurred with the author's descriptions. It really is a bit of a 'hole!' however we did meet some nice people there, a few Brits and a two boats of Swedes we had seen in Sicily and we were all heading in the same direction so it was good in that respect.
We planned to head off the same day as the Swedes down the Straits of Messina and over to Rocella Ionica but delayed by a day because the famous Mr fix it of Reggio thought he could get our French gas bottles refilled. Saverio is named in the pilot books as a man who can get you anything you want at the best price in town. The first time you see him he lands on the boat some croissants and a photocopied extract from 'Practical Boat Owner' magazine basically telling you how honest and great he is. Then he wants to sell you cheese wine and beer and get your laundry done for you etc etc etc. We bought his croissants and he did try to get our gas but failed. Now we have more empty gas cannisters than ever and we have heard that getting our old Camping Gas refilled in Greece will be tricky as the company has withdrawn their services to Greece and we may have to convert to petrogaz. Ali was hoping Croatia would be the place to get them all refilled but whilst the dodgy gas filler was willing to try he just didn't have the fittings - but you can get camping gas refilled here for 4 euros, a total bargain considering Spain, France and Scotland charge well over 20 euros!
Anyway this extra day in Reggio afforded us some time to do little extras we had meant to get around to, one of which was fixing our steaming light. Muggins here winched Ali up the mast again and when he was up there he discovered this.......
A crack in one of the mast spars. Once down again he got on the phone to Sparcraft the manufacturers who said they would need a photo emailed to see if we needed a replacement. So up Ali went again and I got redder and redder in the face.... It turned out we definitely needed a new one so Ali arranged for it to be sent to Brindisi marina on the heel of Italy where we would cross over to Croatia from. We were very glad to have found out about the cracked spar in the marina during a routine inspection rather than out at sea in a storm with the mast collapsing......
The girls took the opportunity for a little swinging in the bosun's chair.
That's about all I can say for Reggio except for a little story about the lovely marina staff. Our electricity went off a few times and Ali went up to the office to report it. The nice man in the office didn't utter a word to Ali but pointed to his eyes then back to Ali in a kind of 'I'm watching you' movement and didn't come to sort out our electricity at all! Nice.
We set off South through the Messina Straits early the next morning and here is a shot of the metropolis Reggio Calabria, see what I mean....
We were sailing down wind and very soon after we left the wind picked up - as always - and we were doing 8 knots+ with me starting to screech about reefing etc.
Looking back up the Messina straits.
This turned out to be the single most crazy sailing day we have come across yet, even after the stormy ride down from Stromboli! We basically surfed quickly the whole way South along the 'toe' eventually saling with a fully reefed main and jib. This made us think the 62 mile trip would be over much quicker than expectd but as we turned East the wind died then circled and went on the nose and circled for an hour or two at one point we were motoring woth full sail and only averaging about 3 miles an hour. A lot of onshore swell was slowing us down and worrying me as the marina we were going to has a big sandbar at the entrance and the book warns that entry should not be attempted in any onshore swell at all. There is a particularily nice story about a Hanse (the same boat as ours) being tossed over the sandbar and landing on it's side, I really shouldn't read the pilot books! I texted Malisa who was already in the marina and asked about the swell conditions to which i got the reply 'the wind is all offshore here so no probs.' This confused us greatly as that was the opposite from what we had just twenty miles away but then we noticed a dark line of wind approaching and thought it best to reef the main and thank goodness we did as it hit us with a lovely 35 knots+! We battled against this nearly the whole way to the marina and were thinking there was no way we would be able to get in safely until about half a mile from the entrance the wind died! Seriously crazy winds down there!
We were met at the pontoons by Steve and Malisa whom we had met way back in Viana da Castello in Northern Portugal last September and had kept in loose contact since then narrowly missing each other along the coast of Spain last November. It was good to catch up and see what we had all been up to. Also Malisa has much the same attitude to sailing as I do calling herself the 'reef monitor.' It is nice to meet at least one other woman who worries about the sea as most of the girls you meet are hardy sailors ready for anything. We went for one of Rocella Ionica's famous metre long pizzas, every yachtie we have met who has been there has had them and recommended them. I think we went a little late though as it was all a bit dried up. Ali and I decided to retry them a couple of days later and had a lovely pizza much earlier! They are sold by the half or whole metre on which you can choose four different toppings. Different but nice.
Malisa very kindly took the girls on board their boat for an hour or so and helped the girls make these flower hats. The girls loved them and they actually lasted for about three weeks, a record!
I think Kaylee would have jumped ship to thiers given the opportunity!
The biggest achievement for the girls in Rocella was learning how to catch the little fish. Kaylee especially is obsessed with fishing and finally she had some success......
The proud fisher women with their catch....
The marina at Rocella Ionica is a very friendly place as all the boats you meet there are en route either from or to Greece or the West and you meet a lot of nice people of all nationalities. The marina cost 20 Euros a night but there is no electricity which is still a total bargain for Italy. The other good bit for us was a huge paved beachfront boulevard the whole way into town (3km) which the girls could cycle up and down safely. We went into town the day that Italy played their last match in the world cup. All the cafes/bars were full of very anxious people and we felt very sorry for them especially later on when someone let off their 3 big rockets that they had obviously been expecting to celebrate with rather than commiserate.
We left the next morning for Crotone. Two English boats in Rocella were staying so that they could watch the English game on the Sunday. Poor things, not only did England crash out but we heard form Marie and Brian on Enjah that one of the boats got struck with lightning that night in the marina and it knocked out all it's electrics.
That was another disappointment not managing to meet up with Marie and Brian but we felt we needed to push on or we would never make it to Croatia. It does look like we may bump into them in Greece in the next few days so we will prepare ourselves for that.
To get from Rocella to Crotone you have to cross the 'Golfo di Squillace' which translates as - the Bay of Squalls! To say I was not looking forward to this bit of the journey is a bit of an understatement. Every cruiser we had met who had crossed this bay had met a squall and we had been regaled with so many terror stories about it our fate for that day seemed sealed. Amazingly we had not a breath of wind all day so Ali spent most of it sleeping with me on watch anxiously scanning the horizon for funny shaped clouds - a sure sign of impending squalls! But none came our way.
We did see our first wind farm in ages and wondered if it's entire purpose was to irrigate the crops growing in this dry climate.
We dropped the anchor just off the beach at Crotone and had a very good nights sleep.
Crotone is also a place that doesn't get a very good write up in any of the guides but as it turned out we really liked it. it is a bit run down and a bit stinky in places but we went for a walk around and found the old fort....
And the museum and here are a couple of pics of what they have unearthed in the area
which I took before I noticed the no photography sign, oops. The museum was quite good and even had some explanations in English which is always helpful.
We spent three nights anchored at Crotone spending the time shopping....
Kaylee wouldn't hold the swordfish herself!
The fruit and veg market was great, and cheap. Also sellers kept giving the girls bits of fruit to eat for free, cherries, grapes and even a punnet of small plums! It does pay to drag the girls shopping sometimes.
Ali doing a little sail mending with his wonder tool.
And then the swimming, Ali rigged up a diving board with our gangplank for him and Kaylee, Alisha and I prefer to step into the water.
A group of local boys swam out to speak to us and we wondered what they wanted but just a chat it seemed. It wasn't long before the girls were in the water with them laughing and splashing.
Altogether we had a great time in Crotone, the anchorage is good although would have been awful if the wind had any Southerly component which thankfully it didn't. The two Swedish boats were also there so we spoke to them a bit too and hoped to meet up with them again.
Crossing the gulf of Taranto
There are a couple of oil rigs outside Crotone which has helped the town's fortunes by providing much needed employment.
We saw lots of dolphins crossing the bay which we were surprised at because it certainly was the dirtiest stretch of sea we have encountered in the Med so far. Every metre or so there is a plastic bag floating by or similar not very nice really.
We got to Gallipoli at dusk and thought we would try the small fishing harbour instead of the marina as it we try to get a full days worth of services for our money! Thankfully we did this as we got tied up to a pier and the next day went around to the marinas to be told to go away. we had no water by this point so went to the fuel dock and bought some diesel just so we could get water, even this they were a little reluctant to give!
We went straight back around to the fishing harbour and tied up again. The fishing harbour is where all the locals go to swim from the breakwater - it has very clean water which is odd for a fishing harbour you certainly wouldn't catch me jumping in Lerwick harbour at home even if the water was 15 degrees warmer like it is here! Within minutes the boat and the girls had become a huge magnet to the local boys who at first helped the girls to catch crabs.....
Then invaded the boat but that was OK as one of them dove down to the bottom to pick up a couple of towels we had dropped! We gave them all a can of juice as a reward.....
The boys all stayed the rest of the morning and the girls were delighted having lots of fun swimming and jumping in with them......
Gallipoli is a very nice small fortified town on a rocky peninsula. the streets are all narrow and there are the usual churches like this one. Very pretty indeed.
We decided to treat ourselves to a meal as we had been anchoring or free berthing for five days and had a lovely dinner with the sun setting over the gulf in the background.
We left the next morning after delaying a little so that the girls could swim with thier boyfriends again. When we decided it was time to go the boys asked if they could come on the boat and jump off as we went past all their friends on the breakwater. It was just a case of showing off but the girls thought it was hilarious. The last one looked a little scared to jump off and we had to encourage him it was either that or take him 50 miles to Otranto!
The boys shouting to their friends.
We had a great downwind sail to the spike of the heel. we had intended to stop in Santa Maria de Leuca but thought since it was going well we would continue on to Otranto.
The tip of the 'heel.'
This wasn't the best decision as we spent the next four hours motoring into the chop but we anchored in the bay and had a good nights sleep.
Otranto was nice and the anchorage was good, the wind and swell would get up each day but die down again at night to ensure uninterrupted sleep. We hence recommended it to our friends John and Shirlee on Solstice who got there the day after we left and had a truly awful time with a storm and being bashed against a concete dock as the anchorage was untenable. Not very nice at all and I felt bad about reccomending it.
Otranto is a nice enough little holiday town, it too has the ruins of an old wall around it and all the usual restaurants and tourist shops too. We were going to go into the pier for a night but decided just to stay on the anchorage as it was fine, again there being no electricity on the pier and all we really wanted was to get the hoover out!
Otranto from the pier.
Ali was on his way to the tourist office when he met an American couple on the same mission to find out how to get the train to Lecce an old town inland. Lee and Judy came over for a glass of wine later and we all decided to meet up at the pier the next morning to get the train.
Lecce is a very well preserved example of Baroque architecture earning it he label of the 'Florence of the South' never having been to Florence I can't say but it was a stunningly beautiful and well kept town. Here are just a few of the many pictures we took.
Spires everywhere guide you to the old town from the railway station.
The cathedral in piazza del Duomo
There had just been a wedding at the Cathedral and the girls best bit of the day was playing in the confetti which was trapped in a whirlwind in the corner.
Inside the cathedral.
More old buildings.
Once again we were persuaded to part with a few euros by some smiley Africans, their best trick is to give the girls a bracelet each for free and then speak about Scotland 'oh yeah Glasgow Rangers!' which makes us feel bad so we give them money for the bracelets. I may have given them more if they had said Celtic though....
Kaylee thought this guy was way too skinny.
There is even an old roman ampitheater dating back to the third century in the centre of town.
This is a lampost which is completely covered with padlocks. The idea is when you meet the one you want to be with forever you rite your names on a padlock, lock it onto this lampost and throw away the key and ensure your lasting happiness!
We met up with Lee and Judy at one point who were very glad we had split up for the day as the girls were very very grumpy in the heat!
A strange thing happened on the way back to Otranto, we somehow managed not to get off the train at the right place for our train change. We blamed this amazing lack of intelligence on the info guy at Lecce train station and the conductor who all mentioned one station and the words change but not the fact we had to change at and earlier stop for that station. When we realised we thought it was going to take a long time to get home but the conductor phoned each stop on the route back and we were back in Otranto probably less than fifteen minutes later than if we had no taken a wrong turn. I don't think we would have had the same result with British Rail!
That night we went over to Lee and Judy's boat for a glass of wine even though Lee did warn Ali that if I went onbard I may never want to go back to our boat. He was right. They have a beautiful converted Dutch fishing boat which is amazing, especiallly the galley, it has more appliances and space than our house! Even Ali the terminal sailor had to ogle the engine room for a while.
On our last day in Otranto we met a Scottish couple with two young girls too which was great as we haven't met many English speaking kids at all this year. They too were heading to Croatia and decided also to go to Brindisi on the way North so we invited them to a certain little girl's fifth birthday party....
The next day it was time to sail to Brindisi to be united with our spar and to prepare a party. We had to motor sail all the way and then just motor so El Capitan gave us all rags and polish to get the boat looking shiny for Kaylee's birthday.
We had one day to clean and prepare for the party which included some seriously hot bus runs from the marina to the town shops as the marina is way out on the outskirts. This gave time for the other people we had invited to the party to get to Brindisi, in the end it was a fairly big event for the boat as we had Lee and Judy, Colin, Louise, their two girls Isla and Maggie and Colin's sister Anna, us lot and finally Lennart and Dolores from Sweden. We had a barbeque which we had to do on the deck as the marina wouldn't let us do it on the shore but thanks to Lee's gas BBQ and Lennarts BBQ we managed to feed everyone a bit of food before the all important cake.
Yum Yum!
After the girls went inside to watch a video the adults got stuck in to the wine.....
The next day was taken up with fitting the new spar this is a picture of the boat with one of the spars removed. Luckily for me Colin was around to winch Ali up the three times he needed to go up and Lennart and Lee were on hand for advice too, a real team effort!
The next few days were spent doing a lot of socialising whilst we all waited for the wind to die down, thanking our lucky stars we weren't John and Shirlee being bashed in Otranto or even worse, Brian and Marie out at sea crossing to Corfu. They had a really bad crossing from Rocella and we couldn't imagine being out in it listening to the wind howl whilst we were tucked up nice and safe in the marina with a glass of wine in our hands....
Marie's blog can be found here
http://enjahtravels.blog.co.uk/
The girls had the best fun they have had for ages with Isla and Maggie, they played and played and played.....
Fishing from Skyran's dinghy.
Smiley girls in the morning after a sleep over on Islay Mist. There were lots of barbie videos to be watched when the sun got too hot and then fishing and cycling when it cooled down again. It is the most time they have had with other children since they met the Canadian kids Nyah and Rogan away back in Portugal.
There was more socialising for the adults too, this is Lennart and Dolores onboard their boat Dolly. We had a lot of fun with them and hope to see then again when we sail to the Baltic in a few years.
We also made good use of the electric and water doing loads of washing as we knew when we got to Croatia we wouldn't be going into many marinas as they are all so expensive. Ali bought a new pink bucket for washing but we soon realised it is also perfect for cooling hot kids down, a tip we got from Colin and Louise who have two buckets - one for each girl!
Kaylee getting hosed.
Alisha cooling off too. Just wait for the Croatian blog to see who else can get their bottoms into the buckets for a 'bath!'
We were going to leave on the Sunday but John and Shirlee on s/v Solstice finally caught up with us again and I persuaded Ali to stay one more night so we could have a catch up and ensure a mild hangover for crossing the Adriatic. They seriously deserved a glass or two as they had been cleaning caked on cement dust off their boat all day after being forced by the wind to stay at the commercial pier in Otranto.
Colin, Louise, Isla and Maggie waving goodbye as we left Brindisi marina. Unfortunately we haven't managed to meet up again in Croatia as they are way up North and we have been very lazy sailors since getting here. But it was great to meet them and we will keep in contact you never know we may be in the same area later in the year and then we will have a Barbie reunion!
A wind turbine transporter ship loading up at Brindisi.
The tales from our crossing of the adriatic and Croatia are next, we love Croatia and the weather has been mostly kind to us here (lets hope it stays that way for our overnighter to Corfu tomorrow!) We are sorry to be leaving after only a month but the girls and i are booked to come home for ten days on the 1st Sept flying from Athens and there are a few sea miles between here and Athens to get through in the next three weeks!
Daniel has been with us for nearly four weeks having left this morning and we are all feeling a little sad. Nevermind, the greek tavernas are calling!
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