We left Brindisi on Tuesday. Brindisi is pretty much a pit. But it does have one redeeming feature (besides being a jumping off point for a bunch of other great places). And that is it is the only town I have seen with black marble on the streets. All of these old towns use marble blocks for their street paving. It is really pretty amazing. But most of the marble they use is the tan stuff. Brindisi is the first and only town I have seen where they use black marble blocks. They set these in a herringbone pattern down the middle of the street where the (one lane of) cars are supposed to drive. The sides of the street -- where cars park and/or pedestrians walk is tan. It is a nice, striking street pattern.

The first day we did a 40-miler down to Otranto and anchored inside the harbor. It was pretty uneventful. Spring is over and now it is all about motoring in the Med!

The following day we upped anchor and headed down the coast of the boot to Santa Maria d' Leuca. This town/marina is at the northern point of the arch of the boot. We got there around 1500 and when they told me they wanted 65 euro for the night I got up off the floor, headed to the boat, had a quick crew meeting, and we were gone within a half hour!

We anchored just outside the breakwater for a couple of hours and Will and I had our first swim of the summer while Ruth got some food prepped for the overnight trip across the Gulf of Taranto. Our destination was to be Roccelle Ionica -- a small harbor where we heard the mooring is free. This coast does not have any bays, so there is no real anchoring. So I am interested in getting down it as quick as possible and get to Sicily.

We are dealing with a couple of issues on the boat. The first is that ever since returning from our one-week land tour, our ship's computer can't find COM3, which we use for downloading weather via Single Sideband radio. With wifi spotty, I need to rely on SSB, and without COM3 working, it leaves me a blind. Fortunately we are now in summer and there is rarely any wind in the Med in the summer. Plus we get updates from other sailors while we try to figure out what happened to our computer.

The other issue is our transmission. I inadvertently poured a teensy-weensy amount of the wrong type of oil into it. After changing the oil a couple of times and getting the right oil into it, the transmission still sticks when trying to go forward. So when we are backing up and need to slow down or stop using forward, it doesn't happen when we want, but when the transmission decides. So I am hoping it will improve with time so that we don't have to have a mechanic tear into the tranny. The latter option would be expensive.

And then there is wifi. Greece and Turkey were cool with their wifi and we could poach no problem. But in Croatia and Italy they have tightened the noose and it is difficult to find free wifi.

Since we don't have gas and electric and water lines running to our home, this cruising lifestyle is a constant search for the next resource we need. How much water do we have left? When will we need to fill up next? When was the last time we dumped our holding tanks and will we have some deep water soon to do so soon? We are now on our 2nd bottle of cooking gas and so need to find a chandlery to fill the back-up. On and on and on. In between it all, we find time to enjoy the good life.

The good life includes swordfish! I did not realize it, but the south of Italy is home to one heckuva swordfish run. We were motoring along yesterday and Ruth and I got to watch a 36' swordfish leap out of the air at least half a dozen times. He was only about 20' away. We thought he was chasing a bug or something. I dunno. But I had never seen one up close like that before. I wish I had gotten a picture! It was really pretty cool!

I have finally put together an itinerary for the Med -- where and when between now and Nov. 1 when we switch into 'ARC mode'. But the itinerary includes the south of France, which I hear is expensive, so we may reevaluate.

Right now we are headed to Sicily. I want to climb Mt. Etna and check out Malta and Tunisia as well. More later.