ADRIATIC – SOUTH BOUND
We are now in Roccella Ionica a 500 birth marina on the toe of Italy. The great thing about the marina is it’s totally free you just find yourself a space and you can stay as long as you like. It is believed to be originally built with mafia money and was to be used as a front for smuggling. The ownership of the marina is now in limbo and has been for several years. Mean time everyone just takes advantage of the facilities!!
Our trip south from Venice was reasonably quick. We crossed from Venice back to Croatia visiting several places we missed on the way up. First Pula in North Croatia, famous for its Roman amphitheatre, which was designed to host gladiatorial contests and could accommodate 20000 people; then on to the islands of Skarda and Kakan. Unfortunately we missed out on Split and Hvar again as we were unable to find any where to leave the boat as all the marinas where completely full due to the bad weather we were experiencing. We ended up back in Korcula waiting for three days until the weather improved before crossing the Adriatic again for Italy.
Our first stop was a 124 mile crossing to Brindisi, just south of Bari. We left Croatia at 3.00 in the morning and the seas were rather confused and as usual the wind was right behind us so to maintain our speed we motor- sailed most of the way and arrived in Italy just as it was getting dark. Once we left the Adriatic and started traveling west towards Sicily the winds have been most favourable with some great sailing, maintaining 8 to 9 knots in 12 to 15 knots of wind. Its very satisfying leaving all the monos in our wake!!
Tomorrow we leave for Sicily where we plan to meet up with Dave and Jenny on Alexes, who are coming from Greece.
