Day 51

Last night it started to get super windy. The wind was howling. It continued through the night. After checking the weather this morning we decided not to cross the sea today. In fact, it looks like we might be here in Santa Maria di Leuca for awhile. We will have to keep watching the weather.

We visited the tourist office again to get more information on bus schedules, internet cafes, and local sights. We decided to walk around town and explore. We found signs pointing to a grotto. We tried to follow the signs and eventually came to a beautiful point on the coast.







Then we noticed a big hole in the ground.



We hiked on down





and found that it opened up to the sea!



Later Juliann, Lindsay, and I climbed the stairs



to this lighthouse.



The Basilica di Santa Maria di Leuca was also at the top.





We had a gorgeous view of where the Adriatic and Ionian Seas meet.





We went into town for dinner again tonight. We found a delicious little trattoria that looked like someone's real kitchen.

Day 50

This morning we had an appointment with a Raymarine specialist in Gallipoli to fix some of the technical problems that we've been having with the boat (our auto pilot and depth measuring devices have been failing). He opened the panels under our bed



and replaced a power cord that was loose which seemed to fix all of our problems.

We did a little test run with the boat out at sea, and everything seemed to be working perfectly again, so we decided to keep going to our next port.

On the way we sailed through some shallow water that was really clear.



It looked like the perfect opportunity for snorkeling so we stopped the boat and jumped in the water. There weren't a lot of fish to look at here but it felt good to cool off.

About an hour later we landed in Santa Maria di Leuca which is a little town located on the heel of the "boot" of Italy. We docked the boat and went into town to check it out. We got a little tour of the place on this train for kids,



but it was only 1 euro and took us to some cool places.



This photo shows the southernmost tip of Italy. From where the lighthouse in this picture you can watch the sunrise and the sunset from the same spot.

Day 49

Next stop, Gallipoli. It's about and 8 hour sail from Crotone. The waves were a little rough at first but calmed down towards the afternoon. We crossed the huge bay today at the bottom of the boot. There was a while where we couldn't see land which was good practice for crossing the Ionian Sea in a few days.

We had 3 dolphins come again and swim with our boat.



We tried stopping the boat this time, hoping they would come and swim with us but they stayed in the distance. My Dad did more barnacle scrapping with our spatula.



Bec dove off the front of the boat.



Then we showered



and went back to our busy day of reading, sleeping, and laying out in the sun... and a little exercise for my Dad.



We made it to Gallipoli by about 6 or 7pm. Turns out it's a really cute little town. We docked in the fishing port with all the locals. Our book was wrong and told us that it was to better port but some locals informed us it was private, not the public port. They told us we could tie up to the pier with all the fishing boats since we were only staying one night. Very nice of them.



Then we went up to town and walked around a bit



and had another great dinner.

Day 48

Today we woke up early and left the boat at around 8:00 to try to find church. The GPS took us to the right place. It was only about a 30 minute walk. The meeting times for this branch were not listed on the church website but we ended up arriving just a few minutes early.

There were about 7 people in Relief Society including the three of us. We met Monica (who spoke English.) She grew up in Crotone and told us that she joined the church when she was 19. There were only 3 members at the time including her aunt who was only semi-active. Monica went on to serve a mission in England. She married an American and now lives in St. George, Utah and has four kids. She and her family were there visiting in Crotone.

Monica's adorable four year old daughter made friends with Lindsay. She sat on Lindsay's lap and shared all her toys for most of Sunday School and Sacrament meeting.

This is the smallest branch that we have visited in Italy. There were about 15 members and two missionaries. There were three investigators visiting. One of them spoke a little bit of English. He is originally from Pakistan. He told me that he can never go back because he believes in Christ. I felt gratitude and admiration for the faithfulness of the people we met today.

After church we went back to the boat and had lunch, tuna sandwiches. It was too hot to do anything. We took naps, read, Jules sewed her skirt, and Dad washed the boat. That night we watched a movie about Greece.

Day 47

This morning we woke up right on time and were ready to leave Rocella Ionica and head for Crotone. We hit our first roadblock (our Amazing Race challenge for the day) about 10 seconds later when we tried to get gas for the boat. Turns out they don't have a gas station here. We were informed by the coast guard that fuel can be delivered but it requires calling 24 hours in advance. And since tomorrow was a holiday no one would be able to deliver gas until Monday. This was a BIG problem because of the weather schedule, and our reservations with other ports, and the fact that we are trying to make it to our scheduled appointment on Tuesday with the Raymarine repairman (we're having a slight electrical problem with our navigation system). All other options that we came up with (like getting gasoline from another port nearby, etc.) were not possible, according to what the coast guards were telling us.

Finally a nice man named Giovanni, who happened to show up, told us that he would drive us into town and help us get gas from a station a few miles away. But only if we could wait 2-3 hours for him to come back from class.



Given our options, we decided to wait. In the meantime, dad took his bike out to look around and see what else he could find. On his journey he ran across a few other people searching for gas like we were, and a man who said that he had a friend who could deliver gas to us in about 1 hour. Even though we already had Giovanni comming back for us later, dad thought that we would need both options in case one fell through.

In the end both options came through. Giovanni took Bec and I into town and we carried about 70 liters back.



The other guy gave us another 70 liters or so and we were able to fill our tanks.

Finally at about 1:00 pm we were on our way to Crotone. On the way, we saw dolphins again. They were more in the distance today but they were jumping out of the water a lot, sometimes two at a time.



I finished my fourth book so far for the trip. I love endless vacation! We finally arrived a little later than planned but relieved to have made it without loosing too much time.

Crotone is an ancient city that is more of an industrial center now. It's one of the poorer areas of Italy and it's not as pretty as the other towns that we have been staying in. After we got docked, Linds, Becca, and I walked into town to check out the festival/celebration that was going on in town. A lot of people were out and there were a few special karaoke performers including this guy:



Even with this jacket, gold Nikes, and the fog machine that he used for dramatic effect, the Italians seemed to be taking him very seriously.

Day 46

We actually left Tropea this time. We said goodbye to all our English speaking friends and the cute town and headed out.





The swells were still pretty big this morning but once we got to the strait they seemed to flatten out a little. (this is Messina)



We were all a little nervous about going through the strait with rumors of whirlpools and mixed up water and currents, but it turned out to be a piece of cake. Just a lot of traffic to watch out for.



We have been trying to get a reservation at Reggio de Calabria (our next stop) for a few days now, but they have been booked non stop. There aren't many choices to stop at when going through the strait. So, we decided to just go for it and make this an extra long sailing day to put us back on our original schedule.

We made it to Rocella by about 8pm which was much better than we thought. We pulled into a spot and met a German guy who told us that this port is free. They built it about 10 years ago and no one wanted to manage it, so it's just become a free port. The only drawback is that there is no water and electricity and as far as we can tell no gas which is going to be a problem.

We were starving so we headed out and found a great pizza place right on the harbor.



It was packed so we knew it must be good and our bill came out on this beautiful satin and fake flower plate with tape around it. Classy.



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P.S. please note that we have finally added the much anticipated blog of Alan Wheeler, Captain of the Etesian (just click on the link below our profile and archive called "captain's comments")

Day 45

This morning we woke up to some wind and dark clouds.



We have three days of sailing ahead of us and we are trying to get to a town called Galapoli by Tuesday for an appointment with the Raymarine guy. With the help of our friend at the capitanerie office Juliann secured a place for us in the next port so in spite of the weather we decided to give it a try.

Well, we didn't get too far. The water was bigger than we were comfortable with. Then all of the sudden in the midst of it all a dolphin appeared!! He swam with our boat for awhile and then started putting on a show and jumping in and out of the waves!! I was so thrilled that I got to see him. Just as Jules was about to take a photo he disappeared. Oh, well.

We turned ourselves around and went back to Porto di Tropea. (Later several passer-bys commented on how they watched us go out and come back in.)

We then tried to take advantage of our day in port. Jules, Linds, and I did some laundry.



Dad met our neighbors a few boats down, Kathy and Don, a couple from Las Vegas who have been sailing the Mediterranean for about 6 years. They are a wealth of knowledge!

A few days ago Dad got the internet bill amounting to over $2000!! So, he spent much of the day trying to work out a new plan.

We went into town again for a couple hours.





Luckily, this port has a type of wi-fi, so we stayed up to 3 a.m. to get caught up on the blog!!