Lastovo is one of the western most islands of Croatia and makes an attractive setting off point for Italy as the distance to cross to the tip of the peninsular jutting out from the east coast of Italy is only 60 miles, a manageable day sail. Fun and games as usual to clear customs out of Croatia, but the police were very co-operative and met us out of hours at 6am to give us the necessary departure stamp, so we could get an early start to ensure our landfall in daylight. The policeman was anxious to ensure that we left immediately, which of course we did. We don’t think the Lastovo police know that Croatia has joined the EU, or more likely the central authorities had no plan lined up to roll out after July 1st to ease all these departure regulations.
We motored for 3 hours, sailed on a beam reach for 7 hours and reached the Italian coast soon after 4pm. It was a great sail with the autohelm on most of the way.
We received a warm welcome onto the one and only viable yacht pontoon in Vieste, but we were surprised not to find the larger marina that the pilot book had promised. We subsequently found out that there had been a marina but someone absconded with all the EU investment money and left a huge infrastructure in such debt that the project was frozen. What Vieste is left with is the basis of a fantastic marine facility, smart wharves, pontoon facilities, all new, but abandoned and not being developed as there is no more money. It is in the hands of the local community now, so in true Italian style it may never develop further which is a great shame for visiting yachts.
We spent 4 lovely days in Vieste, exploring the old and new towns and soaking up our first real taste of Italian life. Vieste is a busy seaside resort with long sandy beaches both north and south of the town, which itself has bustling main streets with shops, cafes, ice cream parlours and markets. An old part is built on a rock peninsular which has a myriad of quiet meandering backstreets containing houses, restaurants, shops and cafes winding up to a castle and church from which there are magnificent views.
We enjoyed good food and good wine, stocked up on proscuttio and pasta, lovely fruit and vegetables and spent much time people watching, entranced by the Italians’ ability to speak loud and fast for hours on end. Even buying one loaf of bread seemed to take the locals several minutes of dialogue each!
Our inability to speak and understand any real Italian was frustrating for us and for them as we found very few Italians who could speak much English. Thank heavens for Catrionna, the lady who runs the pontoon we are moored on. She is the local Mrs. Fixit and fount of all local knowledge, organising laundry, gas and many other things requried. She is also the local HLR for the Cruising Association.
Hoping to leave Vieste on Wednesday 17th July, but we have to wait for the strong winds to abate which with any luck may happen during tonight. Heading south towards Bari.
Deja Vu 
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