Croatia & Italy

Croatia and Italy  - June 2015 (The Boot, Aeolian Isles, Messina Straights)

Hi All:

Since our last post we have passed south through Croatia; crossed the Adriatic to Italy’s east coast; around the Boot; up through the Messina Straights (separates Italy and Sicily) and have just left behind two of the volcanic islands in the Aeolian chain. We are posting this From Sardinia

Croatia

Croatia was a delight, primarily because we linked up with other boats with just a couple as crew. Croatia apparently has the world’s largest fleet of charter boats and in order to share cost, they usually have a crew of eight with a sailing agenda to get as many miles under the keel in the allotted period, so little time remains for socializing with other boats.

While in Croatia, we experienced our first (and hopefully last) Bora. This is a strong NE wind from the top of the Adriatic. Fortunately you receive adequate warning of its coming, so we were able to tuck away in a secure anchorage and prepare. Once again our oversized dinghy revealed its alter ego as a kite, so it was a cockpit watch night.

Dubrovnik - note the playing field

Despite the proliferation of walled/red tiled roofed ancient cities along the Croatian coast we still stopped in at Dubrovnik. It is “the” tourist stop for Croatia, but we found it to be well worth the time and effort (desite $$$$). There were five cruise lines at dock when we arrived. Walking the walls provided a great overview, particularly at 0800 before hordes from the  cruise ships arrived. It is all very inspiring and picturesque, with nothing to remind you of the 90’s troubles, when the city was aggressively bombed.

The Dubrovnik Marina "offices"

SE Italy

Next we crossed over to Italy and continued south. This part of the coast we found to be low and uninspiring. It is not until you follow around the Boot that interest builds. The topography is generally ragged with agriculture spotted where possible. It is a part of the country we would definitely like to return to explore, but in a four wheeled cruiser.

Messina Straights

We approached the portion of our passage with a slight apprehension because of reports of shipping congestion, unfriendly seas from the

winds and 3-4  knot tidal currents, winds barrelling down from the high hills on either side and over zealous officials monitoring ship activity in the Straights. Short story is it was a non event. We hit the tides correctly; the channelling winds went easy on us; there was very little shipping activity to be of concern and the officials didn’t even want to know about us. All that nail biting for nothing.

We even went looking for the whirpools that appear at times in the tidal flood. The most prominent one, referenced in the Odessey – called the Charybdis  (“the Sucker-down”) wasn’t to be seen. But what we did encounter however was the fishing boats who target the swordfish swimming northward June-July.

The operation is essentially a three man crew, two in the crows nest steering the boat and searching for prey sunning themselves near the surface. The third man is two boat lengths ahead seated in a pulpit armed with a harpoon. It was a good thing to see these boats out because they only operate in calm weather – not hard to understand why.

Try to pick out the guys up the crows nest and off the bow

Aeolian Islands

Our purpose in coming north through the Straights was to see two volcanic Islands. Vulcano, which is asleep, thus we were able to climb to the crater rim, but sulphurous gas stopped us going any higher. Stromboli, which remains active and needed to be viewed after sunset. It is referred to as the lighthouse of the Mediterranean, because sailors have used it as a reference point for eons. We anchored along the narrow shore awaiting nightfall and when motoring past received, frankly, an underwhelming display. We were given three good burps at best, far from our expectations. We continued on through the night  and it was then we saw the real light show. In the pitch dark the thousands of jelly fish glowed like 10 watt light bulbs in our wake.

Volcano - from the anchorage

Vulcanos Crater

Vulcanos sulpherous gas

We motored on for 19 hours to the last Aeloian Island Ustica, but couldn’t stay to explore because the only harbour was jam packed with local run abouts. We spent the night on the ferry dock, but had to vacate early the next morning before the ferry’s arrival.

We then had a 34 hour motor to Sardinia, where we are posting this blog. As we have said before, this is the Motorterranean – not the Mediterranean.

Being investigated by the  Italian Coast Guard

PS – Winlink2000 position reports – perhaps it just me, but when I have checked this website, after entering our call sign  VE3MTI – I get a message that says something like – no postion reports for 10 days/check the history. When I accept that option everything is there up to date.

This is how all our days end

Caio Caio.........Mike and Grace