WEEK 2

After the excitement of the Champions League final, we had a very quiet day motoring from Bari to Vieste which sits on the tip of the spur jutting out from Italy’s east coast into the Adriatic. Vieste is a popular seaside town but also has a couple of interesting historical sites - the Chianca Amara (bitter stone) where thousands were beheaded when Turks sacked the town (not recently) and nearby the pilgrimage site of Monte Sant’Angelo which marks the end of the Route of the Angel from Normandy via Rome to the Adriatic. The most important fact for us was that Vieste offers the shortest crossing to Croatia. Our crossing was uneventful except for the numerous fishing boats we had to avoid - even one which reversed directly towards us after we’d altered course to pass well behind. At least most fishing boats now have AIS so we get early warning, but info on their course and speed is irrelevant as they change at random! Anyway it was a good example for the new crew (Andy, Doug and David) why ALMA’s sailing Rules of the Road are to avoid everyone. We crossed to the nearest Croatian island, Ubli, and arriving at 1930 were lucky to find the police office open and we checked in. However, we had to wait until the next day to pay our tourist taxes to the harbour master. Ubli is a port of entry and Croatia requires one to check in at the first port. However, Ubli is a very small port and when both ferries and the police boat are in harbour overnight there’s no room for anyone else. The port police didn’t want us to stay on the arrival quay in case another boat should arrive to clear in or out but we moved to the floating pontoon for the seaplane service which were assured had ceased ops (and anyway wouldn’t be arriving at night!).