The next day we found a supermarket about 15 minutes walk away and were able to top up the main supplies there. The temperatures had soared and our thermometer in the sunshine was reading 40 degrees. The marina is in an old quarry so is well sheltered, in light winds there is little air movement. If we moved we melted and going out in the direct sunlight was not a good idea. We took it easy and read or played Solitaire through the day.

That evening we went to the restaurant we had failed to get a table at the previous night, with Con and Barb (having booked a table this time). It was an interesting experience. There was no menu and very little English spoken so we had to interpret ourselves what we were being offered. Initially we were offered a 'typical Italian seafood antipasti' - a plate with a sardine, potato, octopus, mozzarella with tomato paste and bread arrived. This would have been a reasonable size starter but it continued - spicy 'spinach' type greens with shrimps then mussels, then small flat fried fish. The pasta course came next which was either spaghetti with seafood or seafood ravioli. The portions were a good size again. When the owner offered us a further main dish we all had to decline due to lack of internal space! It was all very tasty and both a good cultural and food experience. The two men did manage to order a desert after a short break, when it turned out to be a chocolate and nutty slice of ice-cream like confection both the ladies decided they had a bit of room too... it was shared! The total bill came to around E26/person including 2 carafes of wine, so very reasonable. 'Trattoria La Bussola' gets a strong recommendation from 'Splice', just make sure you book first.

The following day a new yacht arrived in the marina, a US flagged boat 'Destiny' with Frank and Barbara on board. With the wind gusting and a lack of lazy lines to secure her properly it took the combined efforts of the marinario, ourselves and the crew to get her secured. Luckily the wind abated somewhat as the next entertainment was a crane arriving and setting up to drop a yacht into the water right next to us. There was much Italian hand waving and shouting as they disagreed on how/if it was possible etc. The space looked a bit tight to us and we were happy to slacken our moorings and drift right up to Big Sky giving another 5 m of space. The yacht 'Dolphin' was owned by the Italian guy Carolyn had chatted to before and he was clearly a bit stressed by the whole procedure. After much shouting and tugging of lines Dolphin was eventually lifted up and made a safe transition into the water with Chris lending a hand to keep her steady as she dropped. It's a good job we moved, her anchor was within 3m of our side as she got wet.



'Dolphin' splashes next door!

Another of the other boats in the marina was a Dutch flagged yacht manned by three Japanese sailors. The next afternoon we heard a buzzing noise and when we looked they were flying a drone up over the harbour. Con went round to chat and was subsequently sent the photos taken from above the boats.



Drone shot of (l-r) Splice, Big Sky and Destiny with a tourist boat, unknown boat and then Dolphin finally moored. She was dropped into the space to our left, you can see why we moved over!

In the evening we invited the crews of Destiny and Big Sky on board to compare notes on harbours and anchorages. We spent a fun few hours with beers or wine in hand poring over the charts of bits of the Med and swapping experiences. We got some great tips for our journeys in the Adriatic and, we hope, passed on our enthusiasm for parts of the Balearic Islands.



The 'Mediterranean Anchorage Review Society - Le Castella Branch' (l-r) Frank, Chris, Barbara,Con, Carolyn, Barb

We waited until the wind dropped off a bit the next day as 15-20 knots on the nose is not much fun. By 14.00hrs we were registering about 10-12 knots so set off for Crotone. Even though we had to turn around three headlands the wind managed to be consistently on our nose the whole trip as the land bent the wind direction to follow the coast. Nothing for it but to motor again, Splice doesn't do tacking to windward well and we had limited daylight time. The passage was straightforward only made a little more unusual by having to avoid the nature reserve and the four oil/gas platforms installed in the bay outside Crotone.

As we arrived in Crotone there were at least three mariniaros waving at us to berth with them. Like many harbours here the pontoons are not one organised company but a number of small businesses who own one pontoon. We chose a berth in the northern end of the harbour with our stern against a concrete quay, facing north. We expect quite strong winds from the north in the next couple of days so being 'blown off' the quay and not on one of the floating pontoons makes better sense. After a bit of Italian/English/hand-signal negotiation Chris got the price down to E50 per night if we stayed four nights. As that's what we wanted to do the result suited us. It had been another hot day and we were a bit tired so one of our 'standby' tortellini meals was put to service on board.

Main Photo: another shot from the drone of Splice and friends moored in Le Castella