Le Castella

We spent three days in Rocella, then headed for our next port of call, Le Castella. There are only a few places to get diesel on the Ionian coast of Calabria and as we were running low I dipped the tank every hour. Unfortunately, my dipstick didn’t take account of the fact that the tank is an odd shape and with ten miles to go to our destination I found we had no more than a few minutes of fuel left. I switched the engine off immediately to give us a small reserve and we got the sails up. It was a hot, hot nearly windless afternoon and it took us three hours to cover four miles. With the sun beginning to set the wind picked up and we started coasting along at four knots. At about the same time Sue noticed some splashing in the water around us and then spotted four Riso’s Dolphins swimming under our bow. These are some of the biggest dolphins in the Med, with big snub noses and white scar-like markings. They were joined by a large pod of smaller dolphins which they chased away while playing under our bow for about half an hour. The water in the Ionian is very clear and we could see them diving down to ten metres and more. Sue got a soaking from the water out of their blow holes and every now and then one would pass so close that they bumped their top fin on the bobstay, the chain that holds our bowsprit down. Occasionally one of them would give La Fulica’s hull a playful bump with its tailfin before swimming off.

As darkness fell the dolphins disappeared and we sailed slowly and cautiously up to Le Castella’s rock-strewn harbour mouth. I started the engine in the harbour entrance and made a dash for safety, just making it into a small yacht basin when simultaneously we ran aground and the engine stopped. Helping hands soon appeared and a small fishing boat towed us to a mooring, the guys smelling of aftershave have just got ready for a night out. As soon as we were safe they jumped into a car and disappeared into town. Next morning it turned out that one of our helpers was Mario Gentile, the marina hand, who drove me three miles to pick up diesel, without charge. We stayed for a couple of days in this laid back little seaside town complete with Aragonese Castle, dining at a restaurant recommended by the Marina’s secretary, appropriately enough called Marina. She insisted on giving us her ‘phone number so we could call and say hello when we were settled in Puglia.