At o'dark thirty, together with Ni & Kris on Finalmente, we lifted our anchors and slid out of the anchorage whilst everyone else was nicely tucked up in bed and headed for Roccella Ionica. Leaving in the dark meant that we would arrive during daylight, something we always try to do.

During the trip, Ni called us up on the VHF to ask us if we fancied having fresh tuna for dinner - he had caught a Big Eye Tuna! We were very impressed, having given up on fishing 18 months prior due to lack of results.

Arrival into Roccella Ionica is always a bit tricky due to a sandbank right at the entrance and a strong swell could easily take the boat onto it. We had strong winds behind us which meant for a fast sail over but we were hoping that things would settle down before we tried to get in and they did. We tied up to the wall in the marina and stayed for a few days waiting for the next weather window to continue our journey east.

The tuna was delicious. We had sushi for two nights and then we opened our Jamie Oliver recipe book for inspiration on how to prepare a typical Italian dish and found just what we wanted in tonno di nonna fangitta (nana fangitta's tuna), a delicious casserole combination of tuna, tomatoes, chilli, capers, cinnamon, rosemary, anchovies and garlic. We'd looked at the recipe before but had never attempted having never had a large enough size tuna fillet before. Thank you Ni for your efforts.

We returned to the marina's pizzeria a couple of times for their fabulous metres of pizza and walked along the long, sandy, deserted beach. As usual, a good place to stop on the foot of Italy.

CRUISERS NOTES
Water is no longer available in the top right-hand corner of the marina. It is available up to half way along the right-hand quay though.
We were told by a local that the entrance has now been permanently dredged to 3m.
Post office is not in the town centre - from centre walk out of town on main road (away from marina), turn right after the AGIP petrol station on the right and continue uphill for about 500m. PO on left-hand side behind grey railings.
Launderette - just before PO (see above) turn left at STOP sign and it is on the right-hand side. Did not check if it was self-service though. Did see another one on the way to PO, off main road on right. You need a bike to do laundry here!