Closing Our Adriatic Circle

Resting mid-day after a single night passage.  One night is much more tiring than an eleven day passage.

We planned on sailing from the island of Vis, Croatia across the Adriatic on an overnight sail to Viesta, Italy on the tip of the spur followed by hopping and skipping down the coast of Italy to recross the sea finally arriving in Corfu.

We planned to follow the Trans-Adriatic Diomedes' Route from Komiza on the island of Vis, Croatia to Vieste in southern Italy

But as with all things sailing, our plans are flexible and often do not last the day.  We arrived in Viesta after a night sail which we haven’t done in sometime.  The ships seemed more numerous, bigger and closer than they ever had before!  Same with the stars. 

The first view of Vieste.  White fortress, white cathedral, white old town all perched on white cliffs under puffy white clouds in blue sea and sky.  A little green thrown in for accent.

Postcardesque.  The white phallus at the left side was also amazing.

This precarious looking wooden structure is a "tracbucchi".  We saw several - some on stilts like this one sitting on the rocks and others hanging suspended over the sea from a rocky cliff.  Nets are hung off the wooden platform, made of local pine, to catch fish in the deep water but close to shore.  The souvenir shops in Vieste sold small models, of course.

Vieste sits on a perched above the sea.  The spur of Italy is a beautiful hilly wooded landscape with cliffs bounding the clear waters of the sea.  On going ashore, Viesta itself seemed to be suffering from unemployment and poverty that is typical of southern Italy.  It’s touristy old town was bounded by gritty and neglected newer buildings.  But the coast was magnificent and we enjoyed a daysail southwest to Manfredonia - named after King Manfred - strange!  

On this passage, back at sea after too long a time, we saw many, many ships.  This one looked close to submersion.

The white cliffs along the spur were dotted with caves and capped with pine forest.

Some of the caves open to holes above in the cliffs or hillside. Amazing!

Had to imagine that harvested olives in these groves would just roll down the steep hillside into the sea and a natural brine!

Here the coast became suddenly flat.  The escarpment to the hilly spur was plainly visible but the hills ended abruptly.  And our plans changed.

Manfredonia.  We didn't go ashore or swim - the sea was full of jellyfish.

We were picking up our daughter and BF in Corfu after their week-long trip with his family around the Ionian.  On calling our daughter, we were invited to dinner with BF’s family at the beginning of their week - how could we resist.  To add substance to our decision, we discovered that there are very few anchorages on the exposed Italian shore.  We could go into the larger ports to marinas but at the height of the season this did not appeal.  Our itinerary sped up by a week.  Our skip along the coast became a 36 hours sail to Corfu.

Greece!  Erikoussa, a small island north of Corfu. 

Our arrival in Corfu was like coming home.  Two months earlier and had been on the go since after visitng Albania, Montenegro, Croatia and Italy- kind of.  We’d seen beautiful coastlines, met lovely people and so much more.  But it was good to settle in familiar Corfu for a couple of weeks - to clean the boat!

Ahhhh!  Cleaning and relaxing while waiting for Emily and Gid in Corfu Town's anchorage.  Settling for a week or so was wonderful!