A slightly less boisterous evening saw us wave farewell to Phil at
8:00 and we were gone by 9:00 for a longish 48 Mile sail down to San
Bernadetto. We are moving now as time is running out, only spending an
afternoon and night in each place, but that is generally enough to get a good taste
of it.
San Bernadetto was a very pleasant surprise. As you enter the
harbour, which like all of them on this coast has extensive breakwaters, only
here they have turned theirs into a sculptured promenade with nearly all the
huge rocks used to top the breakwater having been sculpted and interspersed with
larger art pieces.
Like this novel drinking fountain!
The next surprise was they had a hard time accommodating us, but
when they did, it turned out that we had the grand stand view of the 45 minute fireworks
display out in the harbour. It was the climax of the annual fishing tournament
and their party went all night.
There was a popup canteen serving all manner of
delicious Italian fare like mussels, calamari, pasta, meats and vegies, the catch
being a very long queue.. The meal was 12 euro, a litre of cold white wine was
2 euro…. Needless to say we pigged out!
The fireworks were truly spectacular and very well done. Not bad when said by somebody from Sydney. This shot taken on an iPhone with no zoom to give you an idea.
Oh, and if youve ever wondered why they are called slime lines...
At 10:15 on the 31st July, we cast off and sailed for
Pescara some 35 miles south. Half way there we decided to push on a little
further to a smaller, more attractive looking town of Ortona. An example of how
few travellers frequent this coast was when I radioed quite some way out just
to ensure we could get a spot. A very helpful lady responded but after taking
all our details, asked why we were coming there, were we having engine
problems?? No I said. It just looks like a nice place to stop and indeed it
was.
The harbour is vast but very shallow. The town is a long way up a
big hill. Marco, the guy who assisted our mooring was very friendly and helpful,
told us how to get to town by bus and where to go. We swam at a nearby beach…
yuk and pottered until it cooled, caught
the 7:00pm bus to town, wondered about taking it all in and discovered a tiny
restaurant in a back street called Al Vecchio Tiatro and gauged yet again. You have
just gotta love this food!
Getting home was not so easy. We were directed in one of two ways
down the hill. We split up for the hell of it to see who got there first. Well
I don’t know about Al and Greg but Erwin and I found ourselves in a
construction site at the base of the hill with no discernible way across a soft
top fence and 6 railway lines. Somehow we managed it all undetected and met
with Al and Greg as soon as we got across. Earlyish night, some provisioning to
do in the morning…
I went to pay and collect my boat papers from Marco and asked
where I could get fresh bread and large bottles of water. “In town” he saw the
look on my face and said.. “just take my scooter.” How’s that for hospitality? I found a bakery
which had just churned out fresh loaves. They were still hot when I got back to
the boat.
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