Bisceglie - We were The Overseas Tourists

Having eventually discovered the delights of Sicily, we couldn't linger as we had plans to meet friends in Split, so decided to skim along southern Italy towards Croatia.

It was a boring journey - mostly motoring, and hot.  Our outside thermometer went to the end of its scale, 50C, and even the sea was 30C.  We stopped for fuel in a cute little port called Cratone, on the 'heel' of Italy - still no wind, so we anchored in the bay intending to go for a swim and spend the night and hope for wind the next day.

So much for plans - there were the biggest jelly fish imaginable all round us.  No chance of a swim!  Things got worse, we were settling down to sleep when the wind suddenly got up, lots.  We upped anchor, reefed the sails and set off into the night.

We sailed for the next 36 hours, and chose Bisceglie as our next stop.

What a delight!  We were the only foreign visitors possibly this century - and the locals were really friendly. 

The marina 

Local fishermen, with a particular rowing style!  

The blue bags at the back hold the catch - octopus.

And this is how they tenderise it!!

He also stood on them, I'm sure they tasted lovely!

We went to the fish market to see what else there was ...

The usual fare, rather a lot of it still wriggling

And loads of sea urchins - apparently you eat them like oysters, they looked revolting - even Ian declined to try one.

After the market, it was the old town - we were told it dates back at least 1000 years

This was one of the wider streets, with traffic

Fortunately only bikes and pedestrians used this one - in fact there were quite a few like this, often with a couple of people sitting outside on chairs.

And one more with cars!  

The fishing fleet

We went back to the boat - just in time for a spectacular thunderstorm.  

The fishing fleet again, this time with added  rain!

This stone 'island' was in the harbour - in the olden days foreigners used to have to spend 40 days quarantine here, before they could go on land.  Maybe that's what has put visitors off!!

It eventually stopped raining, but the boat got a very thorough rinse first

So, on to Croatia - we now had wind, and needed to go to the first available official customs ports to support the local beurocrasy.  Officially that should have been on the island of Lastovo. There had been thunder and lightening in the distance all night, dawn was breaking, we were about a mile from land (that would be very rocky land, there are over 1000 islands here) and the storm hit us.  It would merely have been spectacular if it had been on TV.  To actually be at sea with lightening literally crashing into the sea on all sides in the heaviest rain imaginable was not pleasant.  

We dropped all sails and headed away from land..  Things calmed down a couple of hours later, and we officially entered Croatian waters on the island of Korcula.

We plan to spend some time here, and explore some of these 1000 islands