Category: Ports of Call (Page 15 of 39)

Butrint is the most remarkable preservation of an ancient port city. Dating back to 8th century BC, it was discovered by Italian archeologists in the late 1920’s and has slowly been preserved and turned into a National park. Home to numerous civilizations over the centuries, it is an archeologist’s dream and a magnificent site for the rest of us.

It was founded by Greek exiles (referenced in The Aeneid) and soon featured a fortress and a defensive wall containing a chapel dedicated to the god Asclepius (god of healing), which may be why it wasn’t ransacked in future generations (it was always revered as a healing sanctuary).

In 228 it fell under Roman control and was turned into a major metropolis under Augustus. New temples, theatres, public baths, forums, and villas were added.

A basilica was added in the 5th century when they came under Venetian rule. Ali Pasha later added his fortress across the river. A museum under the castle at the top of the hill houses remnants that have been found from each civilization that lived there.

We’re not in a hurry to go anywhere right now, so time to take a break for projects. The leech of the mainsail had ripped during the passage to Albania, and Trip got a chance to break out the sail repair kit he had put together.

We filled up water, replaced a rat line lashing, started sorting out some issues we might have for entering Montenegro, did laundry, etc, etc, and then rested over leftover meat and cheese pies in my new bowls.

Gjirokaster was the last part of the bus trip we did, but it really deserves its own post. Its old town is a UNESCO World Heritage site of preserved old Ottoman buildings, and is topped by the magnificent Gjirokaster Fortress.

We started with lunch in the old town, where we were able to sample a mix of traditional Albanian dishes, like mutton pie, an arancine-like mint rice ball, and different spinach and cornmeal pies, as well as sarma – stuffed grape leaves.

Unfortunately we didn’t have much time left, so we headed straight for the fortress. This place is huge. To walk around the perimeter alone takes an hour. We didn’t even have time to peek into the two museums inside.

It’s served as a fortress, castle, and prison since the second century.

After our race through the castle, we headed back down through the old bazaar, passing old women tatting lace, and other artisans as work.

We could have taken a whole extra day there, but we settled for ice cream and made our way back to the bus.

Lisandra and Andre were kind enough to invite us on a road trip as they had rented a car, but we were so exhausted from the passage we knew we either wouldn’t get up in time, or wouldn’t be good company. Based on their report afterwards over drinks in the cockpit, we knew we needed to go see some of these places inland. We cheated and took a bus tour, so we didn’t have to focus on the driving.

Our first stop was the Lekursi Castle, which overlooks the Sarande harbor. Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire built the castle in 1537 to defend against the Venetians, and was abandoned in the late 1800’s. It’s now home to a restaurant (that unfortunately gets horrible reviews) and concerts.

After a quick tour of the castle, we moved on to the Mesopotam Monastary, home to an 11th century church built on the remains of a second century BC orthodox monastery. Our guide pointed out how lucky they are to have a building like this, as during the communist regime most of these buildings were razed. All of the Christian iconography was destroyed here, but the building was used to house livestock. The building survived and is now a UNESCO site.

After the monastary, we headed to Albania’s must see Blue Eye. I’m glad we experienced it, but never again, thank you very much.

We arrived late morning and you have to walk under the broiling sun for 40 minutes to reach the spring (we should have rented scooters).

It’s absolutely beautiful but completely overrun by tourists. Who cannot read.

Albania is overlooked by most cruisers rushing from Croatia to Greece, but what a fun, if surreal place. The harbor was full of boats from non-Schengen or non-EU countries that need to reset passport or VAT clocks. So it was us and several Aussies, Kiwis, and South Africans! Shawn and Lyn from s/v Yaama kindly helped us with our dinghy (plug was jammed), and later invited us onboard for drinks (where we watched our boat swing much much much too close to them – we upped anchor and moved), along with Lisandra and Andre from s/v Lilikoi.

Sarande is a charming beach side town by day. It’s flooded by Italians and Albanians looking for an inexpensive summer holiday, and it does not disappoint. The food is tasty and low cost (our lunch on day one fed us leftovers for dinner for two nights). The markets are full of local vegetables, honey (we bought orange honey, yum) and raki, which is a white lightening type of grain alcohol to avoid.

And then comes evening.

We had read reviews of the local pirate boats, but had no idea what they were talking about. From 9:30-11:00 each night, five, totally lit up pirate ships (two complete with Davy Jones on the back), circle the harbor, and are absolutely throbbing with techno music. They pass within a few feet of any anchored boat. A lot of people hate them, but we were quite fascinated and would come into the cockpit to witness the parade each night. Quite unique!

Albania is also a place of mixed messages and aggravation. We were told the water on the docks was not potable and began buying plastic jugs of drinking water only to find out that the dock water is just fine. We were told they could refill our propane tanks only to be denied after we had lugged the tank ashore. Laundry is very expensive (service only, no self serve), so I’ve been doing most of it by hand on the boat. The dinghy dock is crammed full of new police jet skis, and you need to walk through customs every time you come in ( they wave you by at least). But it’s still such a cool place.

The weather can be pretty funky in the 284 miles between Sicily and Albania, with winds shifting every few hours. (We opted not to stop along the boot of Italy based on the distance it would add). The first day was unexpectedly lovely with several hours of beautiful sailing with light winds and no seas. Even if it meant shifting from close hauled (N winds) to close hauled (E winds) to beam reach (SE winds) to broad reach (S winds) to wing-on-wing (SW winds), there were lots of sea turtles passing us that made for a great distraction.

The second day involved way too much motoring, but we had expected it. And then came the Ionian Sea. We knew the winds were going to pipe and the seas would get choppy and she did not disappoint. Unfortunately we tore the main as we were putting a reef in the main, but the sail held despite the 20-25 knot winds. We considered stopping in the Ionian Islands north of Corfu, but the katabatic wind gusts into the high 20’s at midnight had us moving on. Just past the islands the wind and sea calmed, and we motored into Sarande, Albania just after dawn.

We had cleared out of Italy, both personally and boat-wise, but the weather wasn’t cooperating yet for us to make the 300 mile passage to Albania. So we decided to explore some more of Siracusa. First we headed out to the catacombs of San Giovanni. The enormous labyrinth of tunnels was carved into the limestone rock originally as Greek cisterns, but later used as Roman catacombs, and even as air raid shelters during WWII. Sadly, all the bones have been looted over the years (who steals bones?), and all that is left are the cutouts in the walls and bits of decoration here and there.

After the catacomb tour, we headed over to the church of Santa Lucia, where you could view the original Caravaggio painting of Saint Lucy’s death and martyrdom hanging behind the altar (much too dark – rumor has it he was in a hurry, needed money, and that was that). To get to that church though, we had to walk past the ugliest sight of Siracusa, the Basilica of the Madonna delle Lacrime – it looks like an upside down ice cream cone and ruins the skyline.

We also made it out to the other edge of town and finally visited the Maniace Castle. Constructed 1232-1240 to protect the city from invaders. Over the centuries it was a fortress, a prison, a castle, you name it. It’s got a great view of both the inner harbor as well as the Ionian Sea.

Since we were in town for several days and not rushing to catch our next weather window, we finally met some fellow cruisers. Bill and Laurie from s/v Toodle-oo, and Stefan and Anne from s/v Mokendeist. We all got together on one of the local little beaches for an evening of BBQ and bocce ball.

And with that, it was finally time to say goodbye to Italy, and move on for the season.

You simply cannot go wrong in a fresh air market in Italy,

You’re always going to find fresh local produce, sea food, and other local products. In the case of Sicily, it’ll be swordfish (we saw two huge ones iced down in various stages of dressing). It’ll be all the dried candied fruit (that I don’t care for). And it’ll be the capers, the olives, the sun dried tomatoes, the pistachios, and the oregano.

It’s amazing how similar it is to Morocco, which then again isn’t so surprising given their influence here over the centuries.

Siracusa marks a bit of an end for us this season. We’re not done cruising, but we need to leave Schengen territory (only allowed 90 days in an 180 day period in much of Europe) and Siracusa is our last stop. It’s also the last place we’ll visit in Italy. And what an end! We’re in a huge, calm bay at anchor, overlooking a city that was once considered the center of the western world. The skyline is spectacular, showing centuries of architecture all melded together, with the odd mega yacht (and plenty of mini-mega wannabes) along the way.

Our last night in Taormina was a sleepless one, with forecasted thunderstorms, and wild winds from unexpected directions. Multiple boats dragged in the anchorage, and though we didn’t, I was up most of the night watching the activity. The forecast the next morning wasn’t great for leaving (either no wind or winds against us) but the same forecast wasn’t great for staying either. Even worse, some of the models were completely and wildly different, with 30 knots predicted down in our destination! We held our breaths and left and had the most wonderful sail instead (most of the forecasts turned out to be dead wrong).

Siracusa is one of the biggest cities in Sicily, has a major bay, and sees a lot of boat traffic coming and going from most of the eastern Mediterranean. You have to call the Guardia Costiera (the Italian Coast Guard) upon entering the harbor. They get the details of your boat and then assign you a location to anchor by latitude and longitude. The great thing about this is that you anchor approximately 100 feet from any other boat, and combined with the thick mud of the harbor, the risks are low of hitting another boat should you drag or shift position (and we constantly shift position with the changing winds). Genius solution of the Coast Guard!

Unlike the rest of Italy that we’ve seen, there’s an easy place to leave your dinghy (the rings to tie off are huge!), and laundry and provisioning is easy to do. The only downside is that given the drought here we can’t get potable water at the docks. We have enough in our tanks to get by till Albania, and we can get non-potable water at the dock on a daily basis which will be fine for dish washing and showers till we leave.

Laundry was my first priority. We had visited so many remote-ish islands over the last few weeks without facilities, that our dirty laundry had really piled up. I did four loads over two days while Trip sorted out formalities with the authorities (figuring out how to check our boat in, as well as looking for the passport office where we will need to clear out).

We found a little place for lunch where I sampled traditional Sicilian pasta with sun dried tomatoes, capers, anchovies, pistachios, and bread crumbs, while Trip went for gnocchi in a pumpkin sauce with grilled fennel sausage. Then we simply wandered through the streets of this amazing town.

We mis-timed the castle/fortress at the edge of town, but we’re able to visit the Duomo, an ancient Catholic Church built on top of an ancient Greek temple. It’s hard to wrap your head around staring at the exterior, which is ornate and baroque, to the interior, which is massive and has basic Doric columns from the temple to Athena. Of course the building is a UNESCO world heritage site (actually I think the entire town is a world heritage site). And of course they were setting up for a wedding (Italy. Summer. Church)

We also had a chance to visit the Greek Theatre, Roman Amphitheatre, and quarry remains in the new town. The Greek theatre is the largest in Sicily, and is still in use today.

Just steps away is the Roman Amphitheatre, the home of many a gladiator fight.

But in my opinion, the most fascinating part of this park is the grottos left from the quarries, worked in by many a prisoner over the centuries.

We also had a very sobering sight in the harbor. The sailboat Astral of the NGO Open Arms was at the dock. Open Arms works with local authorities to perform rescues of migrants crossing from Africa. The boat was part of a complex rescue off the coast of the Sicilian island Lampedusa over the weekend with at least two dead and many missing at sea. Conditions were horrible, as a mistral (fierce northwestern wind) was blowing down from France creating dangerous weather. Over 2,000 migrants have made the trip in these conditions, showing the increasing desperation to flee.