Oh dear! Remember that nice safe anchorage in Manfredonia we were going to stay two days in? Well after the first (very peaceful) night, we were visited by two policemen in a Guardia Finanza Rib. They were very pleasant and all they wanted was documents. No problem. However, the also told us we should ask permission from the "Capomare de Manfredonia" to anchor - clearly expecting that permisssion would be given. It wasn't. We were close to lot sof unoccupied permanent moorings and well out of the way of fishing fleet traffic but - no explanation but we must either go in the Marina or on the Lega Navale Pontoons. The latter €40 per night and we didn't even ask about the marina. So off we went to Vieste against my better judgement. The journey up to cape was fine but as we approached Viesti we were bashing into a force 5-6 on the Nose with 1 meter waves from the North East. Very unpleasant!
And Viesti was completely untenable in that wind & swell. We could have anchored south of the town but it would have been very uncomfortable with the wind holding us broad-side to a swell. So we decided to go on through the night and next day to Porto Vasto via the Tremiti Islands. By then the wind was a solid force 6-7. I beat for nearly three hours out of Vieste and moved 3 miles. There was a 1 knot current against us as well as the wind and swell. Fortunately, the wind and swell moderated and turned a bit and we were able to motor sail through the night.
By morning everything was much calmer and we reached the Tremiti Islands at about 0800. It appears from the charts that anchoring is now prohibited pretty much everywhere and there are no visible mooring buoys so we cruised on by. They're very picturesque - and we took several pics. Would have been nice to stop for a day and paint - but without information on where, if anywhere, mooring/anchoring is permissible we gave it a miss and continued on to Porto Vasto.
About 10 miles out, we hit a sharp boundary between clear blue water and green, opaque coastal water - a boundary marked by an unbelievable amount of rubbish. A lot of plastic but also lots of vegetation including uprooted tress - a couple of them huge and weighing several tons. If we had hit one in the dark, it would have done some serious damage! We can only assume it was a result of flooding in one or more of the many rivers on that coast.
Porto Vasto was a very pleasant change. It's mainly a small commercial shipping port but with a small yacht club (Circolo Navtico di Vasto) occupying a sheltered basin.They were difficult to raise on VHF but the harbour master was helpful and after several channel changes (to avoid fishermen with verbal diahorea) we made contact. They were very friendly and gave us a nice berth for €35 including water & electricity. The town itself is a long way away so no real facilities other than the club bar.
From Porto Vasto, it was an easy days sail to Giulianova. We tried calling on VHF and lurked around for 15 minutes with no reply or contact at all. In the end we tied up at the (closed) fuel berth and I walked around the harbour till I found Mauro cleaning the gates. From then on, everything looked up. It's a lovely little town. Backed by the snow-coverd Appenines, it has plenty of shops and we had an excellent and very reasonable meal at "Caeribi"in the piazza. The marina is huge and has good facilities - water, elec, showers but no Lauderette. We had noticed water under the engine, and were able to diagnose the source as thw engine water pump. A neighbouring boat with a lovely coupel called Bruno & Antonella called an engineer for us (he has a boat a few berths down teh pontoon and he fixed it in a couple of hours for €20. Excellent!
We liked it so much (and at €27 per night it was starting to feel reasonable) we stayed 3 nights. So now we're off on a 30 hour leg to Fanno. More in a few days.
And Viesti was completely untenable in that wind & swell. We could have anchored south of the town but it would have been very uncomfortable with the wind holding us broad-side to a swell. So we decided to go on through the night and next day to Porto Vasto via the Tremiti Islands. By then the wind was a solid force 6-7. I beat for nearly three hours out of Vieste and moved 3 miles. There was a 1 knot current against us as well as the wind and swell. Fortunately, the wind and swell moderated and turned a bit and we were able to motor sail through the night.
About 10 miles out, we hit a sharp boundary between clear blue water and green, opaque coastal water - a boundary marked by an unbelievable amount of rubbish. A lot of plastic but also lots of vegetation including uprooted tress - a couple of them huge and weighing several tons. If we had hit one in the dark, it would have done some serious damage! We can only assume it was a result of flooding in one or more of the many rivers on that coast.
Porto Vasto was a very pleasant change. It's mainly a small commercial shipping port but with a small yacht club (Circolo Navtico di Vasto) occupying a sheltered basin.They were difficult to raise on VHF but the harbour master was helpful and after several channel changes (to avoid fishermen with verbal diahorea) we made contact. They were very friendly and gave us a nice berth for €35 including water & electricity. The town itself is a long way away so no real facilities other than the club bar.
From Porto Vasto, it was an easy days sail to Giulianova. We tried calling on VHF and lurked around for 15 minutes with no reply or contact at all. In the end we tied up at the (closed) fuel berth and I walked around the harbour till I found Mauro cleaning the gates. From then on, everything looked up. It's a lovely little town. Backed by the snow-coverd Appenines, it has plenty of shops and we had an excellent and very reasonable meal at "Caeribi"in the piazza. The marina is huge and has good facilities - water, elec, showers but no Lauderette. We had noticed water under the engine, and were able to diagnose the source as thw engine water pump. A neighbouring boat with a lovely coupel called Bruno & Antonella called an engineer for us (he has a boat a few berths down teh pontoon and he fixed it in a couple of hours for €20. Excellent!
We liked it so much (and at €27 per night it was starting to feel reasonable) we stayed 3 nights. So now we're off on a 30 hour leg to Fanno. More in a few days.
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