Gallipoli to Calabria

Restaurant overlooking our anchorage

Well, obviously, not that Gallipoli, the one in Puglia.  It lies on the eastern side of the Gulf of Taranto,  a huge body of water, which is over 2,300 Meters deep in places. Definitely not somewhere to lose your sunglasses.
The town is divided into the centro storico and the new town, demarcated by a bridge to the old castle on the West and a monstrosity of a glass office block on the East. The old town, below which we anchored the first night, is a maze of alleyways each one leading to another church or shrine. We couldn't find the reason for so many churches - maybe something to do with prayers for fishermen's safety, who knows. The tourist track is a well-worn one here but the holiday season is obviously over and the shops selling all manner of local products are quite empty.  In amongst half open doorways the local life plays itself out in the Bari dialect making eavesdropping a thankless pastime. The dialetto barese has ancient and varied influences and, just when I was getting to grips with understanding Italian quite well, I am struggling to figure out anything that is being said.
               

A chat in the cool of the evening	A shrine to small blue cars	Eavesdropping on a fishermen's meeting
Salento Coffee (basically cold Irish Coffee)	Cappricioso - Patron saint of Pizzas	The old and the new

We decided to move to the marina on the north side of the old town the second night as the rocking on the anchorage was interfering with the meniscus of our wine.  As we were weighing anchor we caught a very heavy line that is there for the fishing boats to moor to - unmarked and uncharted of course. After much cajoling I was able to lift it up enough to disentangle ourselves from it with another line. The diving qualification was hazardously close to being useful, not that I had any equipment though.

We had planned, as much as one can, to take advantage of the weather on Saturday for the 70 or so  nautical mile crossing to Cariati in Calabria. We had planned to leave before dawn, but when we woke up at 4 am to a screaming wind and clattering halyards on masts we crawled back into bed thinking we would have to put it off for another day. At 7am though, as if by magic and according to the forecast, it dropped to a sedate 20 knot northwesterly giving us a fantastic sail more or less the whole way at speeds of between 7 and 9 kts. Consequently we chewed up the miles and got there in 9 hours.  Not seeing land for hours and hours and just the sound of the rigging humming and the waves in our ears is what it is all about.

FEISBUCC  on Guai Fai here!

Cariati old town

Restoration project - with completed shrine

The Calabrian coastline is rugged and mountainous and much more dramatic than the relatively flat Apulian landscape. Cariati is divided into the new town along the waterfront and the historic town a kilometre up the steep hill. To those of you who think in miles, a kilometre is about 4 millions stairs. Our Sunday morning coffee was to be enjoyed at the top of said steps. The old town is a charming, slightly run-down place that has none of the negative effects of mass tourism but none of its money either.

Commune square  - during Sunday siesta 

We got chatting to a barman (that was after the coffee) who turned out to have been a mechanic on yachts before he started his bar. He was very engaging and gave us the numbers of two brothers who could find us places in the marinas anywhere in Calabria. As the majority of marinas do not answer their phones or the VHF, this was a really valuable business card.  We did gather that the less one said about family businesses in this part of Italy, the better! As we said our good-byes we paid our bill; 3 beers - 3 Euros.  These chance meetings are the gems of such visits and we seem to have more of them this year than in the past.

Cariati Superiore

Calabrian olive hills

View from the port

Bad weather had been forecast for Tuesday, so we decided to stay on our safe mooring on Monday, which turned out to be a good decision as we woke up to rain and howling winds this morning. The weather pattern has changed noticeably now and the predictable summer winds have all but gone.  A regular look at the barometer and the various apps for the forecast is a more pressing matter now.

Our route thus far this season over 1,200 Nautical Miles