What we love about Bari is its lack of pretentiousness ... The old town is as good as any we've seen in Europe, but with one exception - it's lived in by ordinary Italian families. Walk through the narrow steers and alleys at 8am and you'll find all the mammas making fresh pasta shells. At 3pm they'll all be sitting on their plastic chairs in groups nattering. At 8pm the whole family will be out in the street! And at any time you'll be dodging scooters :)

Graham and Josy joined us in Caorle and we all checked into a hotel for a day or two (turned out for 4 nights). This small town turns out to be a little gem. Mainly Italian local tourists fill up the place in the summer and there are many wonderful little restaurants tucked away as well as beach gulls of the compulsory Mediterranean beach club beaches ... Primarily this is also a fishing town as well as a marina base (one here and one other neighbouring Santa Magharita). Here's an extremely RARE shot taken by me actually sitting on the beach - reading all day.

Through our friends at VicSail in Sydney, we were connected to Alberto, whose company sell Lagoon Catamarins here in Caorle (NE of Venice) and a shipyard called CNC srl. Finally we have the chance to fix the leaking rudder post seals. It turns out this yard is run by the most competent and service oriented crew we've come across. Alesandro ('Alhora'), the Manager, was extremely helpful and assured that everything we needed was given priority. Turned out that spares had to be posted in from France - that's another story since it gave us a mini holiday in a very pleasant and surprisingly beautiful little town.
Net result? Yahoo ... They fixed the leaking posts.

This is what a cruise liner looks like when it floats past Venice. Amazing! And would you believe they have one like this two to four times a day coming in and out! By the way, look at the name of this boat ... It's the sister ship to the one that ran aground last year ... Big isn't it.

So good to catch up again John, and especially to get to know wonderful Sue! See you both next year in Korfu.

One of the goals we set was to sail into Venice. After an uneventful night sail through the oil fields of the Northern Adriatic, we arrived late morning. And yes, it was everything I had hoped for. Dodging ferries running between the islands, including the Lido car ferry, Pilot boats, tugs and many small fishing tinnies around the entrance to the Lagoon itself. We motored up to and past Piazza San Marco, past the bustling, gondola loaded Grand Canal, and then right round to Tronccento, the central bus/boat/rail terminal for Venice.
Another goal fulfilled was to stay at the marina right opposite San Marco underneath San Georgio Maggiore. This small private marina allows tourist boats to take berths when owners are absent, and luckily for us one was. That evening, a quick trip on the ferry reminded us of the touristy side of Venice, the streets full of people, many eating places and one of my all time favourites, the displays of merchandise. It doesn't matter what they sell, the Venetians seem to have been born with a passion for displaying things in attractive ways.
John and Sue departed next morning and we set off for Caorle to get our leaky rudder posts looked at.

Coming into Ancona was another reminder of just how beautiful this part of Italy actually is. Coming from the South you are first met by a headland which ends in a layer cake of agglomerate materials. As you get closer to the port and still on the town side, you see old retaining walls over high cliffs protecting big church and her buildings. These 'walls' are 200 feet high ... Then rounding into the commercial harbour is a massive rebuilding program to make the port even bigger with new outer breakwaters. Ships the size of cargo vessels lie at anchor piled up with huge rocks to be dumped below - something like The Flintstones.
Once inside the harbour we had our first Coastguard checkup. They came towards us in their torpedo boat sized craft and we had to share our boat documents etc. finally we made a mooring alongside at the Marina. Frank, Franceso, came to help us and soon became Shiree's best buddy.
Ancona turned out to be a little gem. Excellent facilities including chandler and many places to eat and drink. Most importantly though, we were able to catch up with Carlotta and Clelia who made a special effort to come and visit for a coffee. Great to see her after such a short break and catch up pall the Lagos gossip :).

We sailed from Bari to the Tremitri Islands with an overnighter. When we arrived it was just beautiful. After passing Vieste (which looked beautiful by the way) it was getting towards 8am and the ferry operators had already started. One after the other cruised past us, confirming that these Islands are indeed loved and popular among the Italians. When we arrived and dropped anchor, we could see why. Just idyllic ... Amazing coastal swimming areas, rocky cliffs with sandy coves and caves to explore. Spent some time here swimming and having lunch. Then decided to continue straight on our way and headed off for another nit sail, at his time to Ancona.

Update ... Live from the boat as we cruise past Vieste just now and are literally alongside Peschini as I type. It's dead flat calm. We've motored all night at a steady 5.5 knots with low revs, so we all slept well (3 hours on, 3 hours off). 'All' includes an old school friend, John who was also best man at our wedding, and his wife Sue joining us for a week up to Venice. Over the last three days, we've had a mixture of 'on the nose' headwinds up to 23 knots or nearly no wind like last night. En route for Isolas Tremiti.
ADVERTISMENT : If you missed the earlier videos that we've posted on YouTube you can still check them out via the links in the side bar on the right ... Take a look at our tour round Grand Harbour, Malta in 'Black Duck & Mr. zippy'!

Sailing up the East Coast of Italy the most frustrating thing is that you can expect the elements to be against you the whole way up. The wind seems to know exactly the twists and turns of the coast as you move NW and no matter what you do you can expect the wind and tide to be coming from exactly where you want to go, and often without much wind either. So, expect to motor a lot. On the plus side we had John and Sue with us and it was really good catching up - I went to primary school with John and he was best man at our wedding.

After our fun and games at sea on the way in, the engine cut out while we were in moderate seas right on the nose while approaching the massive harbour mole (about 2 nm offshore), we were super pleased to find that, once again, whoever keeps propagating the belief that the East Coast of Italy is boring was completely wrong. We had a wonderful stay here for two nights. Upon arrival we took advantage of the small restaurant at the Nautica Navale which is right opposite the castle (and Italian warships). Had the tastiest mixed grill which included samples of Italian sausages - delicious!
John and Sue arrived as planned from the UK, unpacked and settled in.

Renzo was totally in his element on our sail up to Otranto. We hit 9 knots with full main and jib on a starboard tack in 13 knots of wind and a lumpy sea. Although Pascqualina kept saying "No way, forget it Renzo ... " her face told a different story :) either way, we enjoyed their company.

We were treated to an authentic Italian family experience and visited Pascalina's Mum and Dad in the countryside They are in their late 70's but still growing Grapes and Olives. Unbelievable people. Maria, Pasqualina's mum, stayed up till 1am the night before preparing the pasta and the meal we had together included one of their chickens that was alive and well 3 days earlier. There's only one thing left to say .... "We'll be back"! Earlier, Antonio (Papa) took great pride to show us his Olives and vegetables. Just amazing.

Antonio showing off his Olive groves - which were truly outstanding. He tends the land in between the trees well and, most importantly, has made wells for drip feeding the trees.

The crossing overnight from Cabo Colonne to Santa Maria di Leuca was a real first for Shiree. She did an outstanding job and took her first ever night watch all on her own while I slept. This takes a lot of courage and confidence. Imagine, the sails are up, the waves keep coming but you can't really see anything meaningful, the boats around you are always present ... You can see them from their lights and the electronics on our boat ... And YOU are all alone in charge! We docked at 10am next morning and were both very tired.
Our friends, Renzo and Pasqualina soon came to the rescue and the next two days and nights were just amazing. We had the privilege to sleep in a real double bed at their house, which is just amazingly perched right on the edge of the most fantastic limestone cliffs.

After a great tipoff from an Aussie yacht, Rob on Sephina, we found our first anchorage that represents what our new lifestyle is all about. Originally we were making for a place called Crotone (look it up on Google). The wind was strong and the waves on the nose. So, we ducked off sideways to look at a set of moorings in a Marine Park under the shelter of a low Cape. It turned out to be ideal. So close to the rocks behind us that you felt you could touch them, sheltered from the prevailing winds and all on our own. Just fantastic. We had planned to stay one night but spent two and half days enjoying the peace and quiet.

More Gnocci anyone? Or maybe the Spaghetti di Marinara? Fresh swordfish, calamari, octopus ... Thanks Maria and Maurice for a wonderful stay.

Now THIS is what retirement is all about. Great food, fantastic weather and your own boat at anchor in the bay!

We just scraped over the sand bar at Roccella Ionica with 1.4 metres under the keel to secure a place in the marina overnight. This place is full of boats heading to Croatia so it's a bit buzzy. Better still is the local Restaurant/Pizzeria which was jammed packed with locals ... And it was obvious why (Bobby) ... Great food! So, of course Shiree looks so happy.

The main halyard (pulls up the Main sail) got itself 'accidentally' wrapped around the deck floodlight that's mounted halfway up the mast. We decided to leave it there till we arrived in a marina rather than go up the mast for the first time. When we left Taormina it was brisk (12 knots) and lumpy due to an upwelling current at this point. So, we decided to put up the jib only for stability while we motored. We were doing fine at 6.5 knots. Later in the morning however, the wind increased to over 20 knots and we were able to turn the engine off and make our course at 6.6 knots ... A fantastic speed with just the jib and tacking into the wind. Later the wind dropped and we also changed course ... So, after a Skype call with Gavin in the UK and a little dig ... I decided to go up and fix it. Piece of cake ... And yes, we're getting fitter and skinnier ... As planned.