David's Diary: Thursday, September 12, 2002

Vieste, Italy

We have arrived back in Italy after making a seventy nautical mile (about 135 kilometer) passage from Vis, Croatia to Vieste, Italy yesterday. I made a mistake in setting my alarm which meant that we were late leaving Vis. We arrived in Vieste just before dark and we just managed to tie up while we could still see what we were doing.

Fish Market

For recess this morning we visited customs and checked into Italy. The Italians certainly seem relaxed about entrance formalities. On the way back to the boat we checked out the large fish boats and stopped by the open fish market on the quay to see what was on offer.

Our school day continued under rainy skies. As the clouds cleared later in the day we did some exploring of the area around the marina and Kevin bought a small anchor for our dinghy. He managed to do so all on his own, even though the shop owner did not speak any English.

Fresh Made Crepes

After dinner we walked along the main street, which was lined with cafes. This is so common in Europe that at first we took no notice until we realized that all of these cafes had outdoor TVs, something we had never seen before. We stopped at a crepe shop where our favourite choices were a black and white (a mixture of white and dark chocolate) or just pure chocolate crepes. We sat at the table outside as we polished off our special treat.