Early set off today (0600) from Crotone heading North East across from the toe part of Italy to the Heel part. 70 miles across a very large bay.

Slight winds to start with, but then they just reached 10 knots which is our minimum real sailing speed. Sailed most of the way, had a lovely day.

Big excitement on the way! Half way across the bay out of sight of land in all directions Jax happened to see what looked like a water spout. It happened again, so the only thing it could be was a whale. We were sailing at the time so we tacked over to what turned out to be a huge wale, as big as our boat. It was on the surface breathing before diving again. We were in 2000m of water at 39 34.9’N 017 36.04E, so it was obviously feeding.

Having seen whales in New Zealand we sailed gently to within 40m and hove too, silently bobbing up and down next to it. Literally a minute afterwards it started to dive and did the classic flip up with the tale as it went down (obviously with my camera whirring away on motor drive). A fantastic sight, rarely seen. We thing it was a sperm whale, as it didn’t have a fin like pilot whales but have a look at the pictures and let us know if you disagree.

Arrived in Gallipoli around 1900. Managed to get a couple of births for ourselves and Amazon, but were told we had to leave early the next day, so after a quick clean, tidy up, boat wash and pontoon shower we headed off to the old town to grab a bit of Italian food. Ended up at a lovely restaurant on the castle ramparts overlooking the sea. Had a fantastic meal but evening was a bit marred by having to wait literally an hour after we’d finished eating before we finally managed to get the waiter and pay our bill. Not the first time this has happened, Italian waiters seem to switch off after the food has been served. We weren’t particularly in a rush, but we were dropping off to sleep after a very long day!.

We left Syracusa in Sicily last night after our ‘relaxing’ day that turned out not to be too relaxing - due to us trying to do not one but two things in town.

On the way to the supermarket we saw a self service launderette (which is pretty rare in Italy) so decided to chance it and take in a few sheets and clothes.

Needless to say when we got there (after a 10 minute dinghy ride in from the boat at anchor) there was a large woman with about 150 bags of washing – so we decided to come back ½ hour later. When we returned the woman was there but the machines were stationary as there was no water! We chanced our arm and left our bag with the attendant (not so self-service after all!) and agreed to return after 2pm to pick it up.

Finally after another trip back and forth to the boat we picked up our washing at about 4pm, then waited around for the Vodafone shop to open to top up our Italian SIM for internet access. They’d closed for lunch from about 1230 ‘till 1630. Not bad for lunch!

We finally left the anchorage around 1800 and after an unsuccessful attempt to refuel (closed obviously) we set off.

The fuel situation was fine at just over ½ tank (140 mile range), but it’d have been nice to top up.

The wind was tantalisingly close to being sufficient to sail, but just a bit too slow (7-8 knots true, where we need 8-9 to make decent progress) so we motored East out into the Ionian sea.

After a couple of hours we had our first ever nasty encounter with fishermen’s nets. We came across 3 unusual small lights ahead in the distance and a small fishing vessel. The problem with lights at night is that it is very hard to gauge their distance so it was quite hard to figure out they were actually in a rough line just over 2 miles long. Just in time we realised the lights marked the extreme ends of a long net, and then literally a few seconds later Jax spotted a surface level net in the water. We swerved immediately and avoided running it over and then had to follow the line to the extreme end and hope that actually was the end.

It was extremely difficult to see and had we been sailing or had it been completely dark we’d easily have run it over. Hopefully our rope cutter on the prop would have kept us out of trouble, but we may well have become tangled – possibly requiring a trip over the side with diving tank and knife.

A few miles later we encountered another such line of lights, but this time outran the fishing vessel at one end and skirted around it safely.

The rest of the journey was uneventful, and even afforded a short spell sailing in the darkness - which was lovely and quiet after the motor’s droning. Eventually the wind died and our 2-3 knot boat speed was not enough so we once again engaged the iron sail.

We were both pretty tired during the night so stood watches of roughly 2 hours each through to the wee hours when the sun broke free again on the eastern horizon. This always gives you a bit of a lift if on watch, and helps ward off the tiredness for a little bit longer.

We reached our destination port (Roccella Ioneche) around 1100. The approach was a bit tricky due to silting and potential shallow depths, but we managed fine thanks to the pilot book’s instructions, dead slow speed and a good lookout – its always a bit nerve wracking though, watching the depth gauge going down and down and hoping it’ll stop. Before it reaches zero.

The last drama of the sail occurred during mooring, when Jax slipped on the pontoon whilst stepping off with the lines and ended up half in the water in-between the boat and the pontoon. Luckily there was no wind and I was taking it very slowly with the boat hardly moving, so after a quick grab by her hand she was up and fine – albeit with a lot of adrenalin pumping around and a few scratches and bruises on her ankle, shin and elbow, a bruised and slightly twisted knee and a sore shoulder from holding on and pulling herself up, but nothing too bad – luckily!

The marina is a typical Italian half finished job, with lots of shiny new pontoons but no facilities - another prime example of EU money being pumped into a regeneration project that only gets half finished. At least it’s free, as there’s nobody really looking after it.

Strangely, this is the first time we’ve been on mainland Italy since leaving Apropoli near Naples last September!

We’ll probably stay the rest of the day (we arrived around 1100) and then push on tomorrow north east up the southern Italian coast from the toe where we are to the heel. Fuel is a bit low, but we have a 50l in spare tanks which we may have to use if the wind doesn’t play ball.

Sailing into Crotone amongst the gas platforms.

For now its time to rest, catch up on some sleep and plan the next leg.

Currently heading across to the SE corner Sicily where we plan to anchor for the night before heading off on a 2-3 day jaunt across to southern Italy.

Started off motoring as winds quite slight, but hopefully it'll pick up shortly so we can sail.

Quite a busy stretch of water here as this screenshot of out chart plotter showing the large ships carrying AIS transponders shows...

Sun is out with blue skies, but not much heat yet.

Its my 40th birthday tomorrow so I hope we can find somewhere nice to stay for a while. If not we'll just have to be at sea.

Picked up some wind and had a great sail across at 6 knots with full sails. No problems. Arrived at Porto Palo anchorage around 1800. Ran into a submerged fishing net whilst scouting out the anchorage but killed engine quickly and luckily floated over it. Only problem then was how to get out from it! So we very gingerly motored carefully along its edge until we found the buoy it was attached to. Bloody local fishermen!! Fancy laying nets in an anchorage!

Picked up a mooring buoy and had a pleasant evening with a bit of backgammon, bbq on the boat and a reasonably early night.

Last day in harbour. Spent the morning running around sorting out a few last minute jobs such as refilling the small diving bottle we carry, getting torch batteries etc and doing a last bit of shopping.

Marina's internet wasn't working last night so we spent an annoying amount of time checking the weather and searching for and booking flights home in mid june for Jax's cousin's wedding. Eventually settled on the only real flights available from Dubrovnik with BA, which were expensive but saved us a long bus overland trip to Split or elsewhere.

Not that it was ever really in doubt, but we're not committed to heading to Croatia, like it or not. I guess we'll just have a try and see what its like.

Annoyingly I’ve got a blister on my lip at the moment from the sun a couple of days ago. Isn't too bad, just looks horrible and means I can't eat large sandwiches.

Finally left the harbour at about 1530 for a quick 2 hour sail up the Maltese coast to the popular anchorage at the Blue Lagoon on Comino island. Nice downwind sail let Jax sleep for an hour and gave me time for a bit of metalwork cleaning.

Arrived at island just after 6, which was perfect timing as all the cruise ferries and day trippers had left leaving just 3 yachts at anchor.

Water a bit chilly for a swim (24deg) so just about to set up bbq when a friend from the marina, Chris from Red Dragon, rowed over to see if we wanted to join him and his friends for a bbq on board.

Spent a very pleasant evening with a bit of wine, good food and good company swapping sea stories and general banter.

Possible early start tomorrow morning as bit of weather coming in so we may leave early to head across the Sicily strait before it develops into a storm.

With its British influences, Malta  is a great place to resupply. Lots of English items in the supermarket such as squash, sauces, cereal bars and bacon.

Went for a long bike ride in the afternoon up along the coastal tourist strip and then inland to an old but pretty fortified town called Mdina.

The fortified town was pretty interesting, just after Jax said “it’s the kind of place that could make a great film set” we turned a corner to see a whole section of streets converted into ancient Egypt for a film (not sure which one) with streets of sets full of painstakingly recreated ancient stalls.

Rush hour traffic on the way back was a bit of a nightmare and pretty dangerous.

Slept quite late and then headed to supermarket where we bumped into Kathie from the boat Amazon - an old friend who travelled down with rally portugal 2 years ago now.

We knew their boat was in Malta for the winter but despite trying to get in touch we hadn't been able to find out where the were and when. It was great to see them and swap cruising stories and plans. They're heading up to Croatia as well so no doubt we'll try to meet up again.

Did a lot of boat cleaning (to remove 1/2 ton of red tunisian sand) and jobs gettng things ship shape and putting a few things back together today.

Met up with Kathie and Roger for a meal and a few drinks in the evening.

Caught flight out to Malta today. Night departure so didn't arrive until 2 o'clock  Thursday morning.

Lots to do at home getting it all cleaned and ready for our 2nd letting next week.

Major stress as time ticked on and jobs dragged on, but finally got everything up to scratch and headed off to get the train.

Took the landy over to Mel's, where it'll stay for 3 weeks until we return briefly for Jule's wedding. Chased around buying non scratch mats for cupboard and table surfaces.

Watched european cup final in the airport, but had to leave 10 minutes before full time at 1:1 to board the plane. Enforced news blackout until Malta when we learnt it was a gripping final with extra time and Man U finally clinching it on penalties.