Back in Calabria for the Winter

Roccella Jonica
November 2016

It was a long cruising season, this one, but we are back in our winter home, same as last year, here in Roccella Jonica, Calabria, Italy. We have only been back for two weeks, and, having left at the end of April, it was, indeed, a long season.

We had our adventures and saw the sights in Croatia, Montenegro and Greece, some of which we already wrote about.  In Croatia, we visited areas in the northern part that we had not visited on our first trip.  Krk and Rab are two beautiful islands with excellent anchorages, free of concessions, that are also largely free of the charter crowd. In my opinion, that makes them the finest cruising grounds in the Adriatic.  After three months, our visas expired, so we sailed on to Montenegro.

We have been there twice before, but this time we spent over a month, rented a car and drove through the mountainous interior. It was magnificent.  There are alpine valleys and lakes, canyons, forests, and quaint villages nestled throughout. That along with beautiful Kotor Bay makes Montenegro well worth a visit by land or sea.

Next up was a trip to Ionian Greece, my first time there. We left Montenegro with a forecast for some downwind sailing, but true to form we ended up motoring for 46 hours to Corfu. At least we had no headwind. Many Med cruisers only ever seem to go to that part of Greece and rave about it, so expectations are set pretty high. Certainly the scenery is beautiful, the people are all very friendly and there are anchorages to visit. Staying on town quays is inexpensive and anything in the way of provisions or parts are widely available.  I guess that is why it is so popular with the cruising and charter crowd. We were there in September and it was pretty busy, but I heard the stories and would not want to be there in high season when it is jam-packed.

Mechanical problems seemed to be a theme that pestered us this season. In the spring we had to haul out in Crotone to replace a seized seacock in the head. Then whilst in Greece, our shaft seal began to leak which meant another haul out, again in Crotone.  Towards the end of September, and pretty much since then, the weather became unsettled.  It was tough to find a weather window to cross the notorious strait at the bottom of the Adriatic and then Taranto Bay, which forms the arch in the boot of Italy. We staged our departure from Greece on the north side of Othonoi Island and left in the middle of a lightning storm.  The southerly winds had been high and I was expecting the worst for crossing the strait, but it all turned out well and we stopped in San Maria di Leuca, which is right on the heel of Italy. A few days there and we took some winds and reached across Taranto.

Finally arriving in Crotone at the beginning of October, we hauled out and began work. Besides changing the shaft seal, I also changed another seacock which was also likely to fail since it was the same brand is the other two that did fail and were replaced. We also repaired some osmosis blisters and applied a few coats of antifouling.  After two weeks we were ready to launch and had a short window to make the trip across the Bay of Squalls and back to Roccella.  Unfortunately, while still in the crane slings, water was leaking in through the newly replaced seacock, so it was back on the hard and into a cradle.  Repairing the leak only took three days but now we were weather bound and it would be another 10 days before the winds would favour the trip again. Fortunately, we really enjoyed being in Crotone and Elio and his staff are marvellous.

Well it is all behind us now and we are happily back in Porto delle Grazie in Rocella Jonica and have joined the small live-aboard community here. The marina has made dramatic improvements to the facilities here, which include a new clubhouse and another block of toilets. As always, Francesco and his crew are very friendly, helpful and do their best to make us feel at home.  This is definitely a jewel of a place, as is Calabria, in general.

Ciao,
Branko

Escapee from Alcatraz

We set the anchor in the centre of a fairly wide channel.  “Fairly wide” is based on a standard of my making, could I comfortably swim to either shore, I felt I could not.  That evening I emptied our well tied and double bagged garbage and recycling into a shopping bag. The bag is reusable and I use it to store, garbage/recycling until we get to land.   The bag prevents unwanted garbage juice leaking into the dinghy or the cockpit locker, plus all garbage is contained in 1 bag.   This evening, in preparation for going ashore in the morning, I put the bag in the dinghy.   The dinghy was hanging beside the boat, level with our rub rail, quite a ways above the water.   I did hesitate to leave the garbage in case our yorkshire terriers might smell the bag and hop into the dinghy.   But decided it was late enough and the dogs likely would not be out on deck alone.   So,  there the bag went for the night.

In the morning Branko lowered the dinghy,  put on the motor, attached the gas tank and spent sometime getting the boat ready to go ashore.   As he moved the garbage bag, out jumped a rat, a smallish rat which I first thought was a mouse.   The rat ran up the dinghy line aiming for the boat, I dropped the line into the water, thereby setting Branko adrift while the rat jumped nimbly onto the rubrail, destination 1 floor up by my feet...eekkk!   So I did the only thing any smart thinking person would do I stamped my feet and screamed.   

Mr. Rat jumped into the sea heading for the snubber line and anchor chain.   Thankfully Branko was still adrift and could give me instructions as to where the rat was.   I continued the stamping and yelling, it worked.  I knew this type of commotion would be successful in warding off any male attention.  As he looked ready to scurry up the line, I could see him cringing from my shrill voice, that was when I knew he was a Mr. and not a Miss.

Not only did he swim away, fast, but most of his swim was underwater.  He headed for shore and we soon lost track of him near the bathers, hehehe, but we heard no screams so obviously they did not see each other.

Where is Branko going?

Are you wondering what our “bred to kill rats” dogs were doing?  Nothing absolutely nothing. They did not see the rat, they did not smell a rat, it is as though they were just, dogs. They were however distressed to see Branko had left without them, all they were capable of was to watch Branko drift away, silently hoping he would return and save them from the shrillness.   

We determined that the rat swam from the uninhabited island; starved from lack of food and saw his chance to live on a boat or make a stop before continuing to the mainland, brave little guy.

Rab and Krk - the circumnavigation

3 Top Cruising Points:

1)  No Concessions
2)  Excellent anchorages; holding, protection & swimming
3)  Fewer boats

We turned the corner from Pag island and saw Rab in the distance, as we neared the 1st church steeple came into view followed by 3 more nestled in between the orange tiled roof tops.   Rab is built on a peninsula that juts out from 2 harbours. One where the town faces and the 2nd is a large bay with a beautiful stone walkway that winds it's way back to the town along the bayfront.   We anchored in the 2nd bay with views of the churches, a monastery and trees.     This bay became our home base.

Rab town

Home base in Rab

Walk from Rab

Rab street

View over Rab rooftops

The local cross-bow champions

Rab  is first heard of under the Illyrians in 360 BC.   Eventually it became part of the Roman empire with Emperor Octavian Augustus ordering the building of the town walls.
In 1358 the island came under the rule of King Louis of Hungary and from 1409 to the end of the 18th century it was ruled by Venice.   Eventually the Habsburgs took over under Austrian rule till 1918.
Since a majority of its residents were Italian-speaking, the locals sought to be annexed to theKingdom of Italy, but Italy eventually decided to cede the island to Yugoslavia in 1921.

We did not stay for their yearly medieval festival held at the end of July but we did participate in the crossbow festival.   The pictures say it all,  people dressed up in period costume, acting out the pageantry of the crossbow competition and old cannons being fired from the castle wall.  It was interesting.  As though we were brought back in time .   There was traditional dancing with the band playing a sheep's bladder, flutes and horns.  The competition was between San Marino in Italy and the Rab town crossbow champions.  I had no idea who won but think it was the Italians. 

We sailed to the north of Rab, supertarska to sit out some south winds, lovely clear water and free internet.   Our plan was to spend Branko's birthday, June 21st in Punat on the island of Krk.   Back many years ago Branko had vacationed in Punat as a child.  His memories were of a beautiful sand beach, swimming in clear water and jumping off a barge/ship anchored off shore.   We found everything but the barge and celebrated his birthday with our new friends Burkhart and Alice, who unexpectedly arrived the same day.  

Krk town walls

Krk wall walk

Street in Krk town

Krk harbour

Krk island has been inhabited since the Neolithic age, remains of inhabitants have been found in caves in the central valley.  Krk came under Roman rule, then the Avars in the 7th century, 1001 Venetians ruled until 1430 when the Frankopan Counts took over.    In 1797 Austria took control,  Italy again and then to Yugoslavia in the 20's.

At some point we decided a circumnavigation of Krk and Rab was just the thing to do,  which included sailing in the Velebit channel.    Umata, our Dutch friends joined us on our escapade.    Our start point was the town of Krk, where we anchored in front of the town.   The next day we left with a good wind that eventually became no wind as we rounded the north coast.   Beautiful sandy anchorages dotted the entire west and north coast,  with only a few that had any boats or buildings.   Our destination was a bay called Klimno on the eastern shore of Krk.   We had to sail past Rijeka and under the huge bridge that joins Krk to the mainland.   Klimno is a mud bottomed bay, fully protected from all winds, that used to be the site of saltworks.  Cows grazing on the shore mooed at us as we sailed into the bay.  The bay was almost empty of boats but many tourists on vacation, sunning themselves on the rocks, wallowing in the 'beauty' mud and swimming. 

Just a few miles south was Vbrink an old town known for it's fine white wine.   Now that was a reason to visit.  

Besides the city of Krk, Vrbnik was one of four castles (Baska, Dobrinj, Omisalj and Vrbnik) which were independently ruled in the time of the Frankopans.    An ancient town, surrounded by stone ramparts with very posh looking homes within from the 6th century.   The narrowest street in the world is said to be in Vrbnik,  as yet no other town has contested; so currently because it is said so shall it be true.

We ended up moored to the town quay for 3 days to wait out yet another bura.   Elly from Umata made a deal with the harbourmaster getting 3 nights for the price of 2.    The town is beautiful, the bay although busy with tourist boats was clean and refreshing for swimming.   Amazingly everyone swam in the harbour; boats coming and going through the narrow entrance ( where people were swimming across) nobody seemed concerned, except me, but then we too jumped in as the boats seemed very conscious of all activities in the water.

The cross-bow band, Rab

Vrbnik town

Vrbnik harbour

Sculptures in Rab

Soon we let go the lines and motored down the Velebit channel, flat calm.   Destination Kampor on Rab thereby completing Krk circumnavigation.   Before another Bura blew up we left Kampor after 1 night, turned right and again motored down the Velebit.   Great anchorages on this north east coast, beautiful secluded spots, but we had no time to visit had to finish up our Rab circumnavigation.   We checked out a few more places to anchor on Rab but none were as protected, calm and lovely as Fumija.   So that is where we settled for the Bura Bura bura.

Maggie