LE CASTELLA

 

We left Rocella Ionica around 7am and set off for Le Castella some 48miles north. The trip was effortless with us arriving around 1.30 in the afternoon. Although the wind stayed constantly in our face, we managed to have a enjoyable sail with both main and genoa. Occasionally we hit 8kts, but of course, we were motor sailing. 

Parts of the day were so calm it felt eerie. The horizon became a blur and small boats passed as though they were floating on clouds.

We use the mobile now for all marina entry requests as it seems the only vhf used are short range, hand held types and no-one ever answers our calls. It appears that other sailors have the same experiences so we no longer feel that we’re not communicating correctly!

The marina is small but very well maintained. We feel safe, although the huge floodlights that beam above us all night could be annoying. The town’s success seems to be based on diving the local wrecks, visiting protected areas in glass-bottomed boats and wandering around the “castella” at the end of the town. 

The town is fairly bare except for the main street where dozens of tourist shops sell ‘Calabrian’ souveniers. Apparently, the hottest chilli now is recognized as “Viagro Calabra” and is marketed in every conceivable way. Must get David to try some some!

 

The Calabrian hot dip!

Today is Dave’s birthday and so we intend to live it up a bit in the local restaurant – maybe pizza and pasta!

We busy ourselves for much of the day doing small maintenance jobs and napping. It’s very hard to be more active as the temperature reached 40 in the shade of the cockpit. We did, however, finish installing the airconditioner outlet and so spent the hottest part of the day in the relative luxury of 26’.