The wrong Gallipoli

The night in Otranto wasn't as calm as I hoped, there was a lot of wind in the night and the shrouds were whistling and fenders squeaking and we woke up several times. I still think going into the marina was our best option, there was no place calm enough for the night anywhere near, we made a good use of abundance of fresh water and washed the boat and two loads of laundry (washing machine withstand the test run very well), saw the town, and as a bonus we got to meet two crews of neighbouring boats, all nice people and they are headed for Caribbean this winter as well. Hope we'll keep in touch.

We didn't get up as early as planned (again), and we sailed off at about 9. There were big roller waves at the entrance into the Otranto harbour, but luckily they weren't breaking, so we got out fine.  There were quite some waves outside as well, but we had them from behind and also lots of wind for good speed. The waves were only 2m high, and the land in sight, but movement of the boat and the fact that there were no other boats in sight made it feel almost like Atlantic on a good day. We even got one wave crashing over the back rail and filled the cockpit with water and made everything salty. I was thinking of those 3m waves we saw near Tremiti islands and I almost convinced myself, that they couldn't have been that high. But I still remember that they looked like they are going to crash onto our solar panels, so they must have been.

Most of the time we were flying the small solent jib alone, when wind slowed down a bit we added a bit of genoa and went sail on sail.

We could even see the Albanian mountain in the haze on the other side.

At the end of the Otranto strait behind this lighthouse...

... we turned right because I wanted to see Gallipoli. The ride was not very pleasant, we were beating into the waves and wind for four hours, sometimes with some sail in hope to stabilise us. We were both happy when it was over. We anchored in the SE corner in front of the town at about 8 in the evening, and didn't have the energy for anything else but a light supper and tucking in.

O, and I made some photos of lovely view.

Next morning (well, morning our time, so about 11), after a great calm night with good sleep (best in a long time), we did put the dinghy into the water and rowed into town. We left dinghy in old harbour.

We strolled around the pretty old town....

... and came to town beach. It would make a great anchorage in wind from N, E or S.

There are cars in these narrow streets.

And instead of trees there are plants that need less water.

This is the old fortress...

... and this is how it looks from the harbour.

Quite long ago I've seen a movie about a battle at Gallipoli and it made a huge impression on me, especially it's anti-war message. Obviously I didn't pay enough attention to the details though. After seeing the fortress I was wondering where are those huge fields where the battles took place. Maybe outside the town? When we got back to the boat I researched in internet a bit and realised my ignorance - we're in wrong Gallipoli! The one the movie was about is a peninsula near Dardanelles in Turkey and there the battles took place - allies (Brits, Australians and Newzealanders) against Turks in the WW I. Gallipoli actually comes from Greek (kalli polis) and is translated as cozy town. So, now I know. Despite it being the wrong Gallipoli it is really pretty and just for the good and peaceful night it was worth beating into wind and waves for four hours!

We planned to sail off that evening and my plan for afternoon was to swim a bit, sleep a bit and maybe have a gin&tonic in between. And to feed us in the evening before the night sailing. Well, there was none of that. Instead, Captain started to repair our new cooker, that had the oven door mounted too low and it jammed when we wanted to open it and also didn't lock. We took the cooker out of gimbals and then the fun started. First we needed to take of the burners, the top cover and then the sides to get to the oven door hinges.

While it was stripped off like this, we discovered, that hinges, on which it hangs, weren't tightened, as well as many other screws, so we repaired that too. And the contact for the electric ignition was poorly insulated, so we repaired that too.

Then we adjusted the hinges of the oven door and then put everything back together. The door was now too high (you can't see that before you screw everything back again), so we took it apart once more and luckily then it was ok. The locking mechanism was also in the right place and we can securely lock the door now. It took us three hours.

In one of my previous posts I compared my new cooker with Italian cars, and afterwards felt a bit bad for criticising. Well, I was way too polite and could have used much stronger words. I just hope it will work well for at least couple of years.

By the time we were done, it was getting dark and clouds brought some rain. So we quickly lift the anchor and sail off. One more photo of lovely Gallipoli...

We ate on the way and I took the first shift. It was really boring, with no wind we were motoring across the Gulf of Taranto, there were only few fishing boats in the distance. At half past two I woke Captain up and he took over. I heard that he tried to sail for an hour, but then he was motoring again.

In the morning we were sailing by Capo Rizzutto and we made a stop for swimming.

Then on over Gulf of Squillace, that was true to his name and reputation - we had plenty of wind that changed direction frequently. But we also saw three dolphins, big tunas jumping out of the water, and the biggest surprise - a large turtle only 20m from our boat. Already in the dark we anchored in front of marina Roccela Ionica among four other boats and were hoping for a good and not too rolly night. But just in case it wasn't, we each had a double whiskey for good sleep.