Reggio Calabria

This web page describes a portion of a 7 week trip with S/Y Thetis in 1996 from Greece to Malta, Sardinia, Ustica and Calabria in Italy, and back to Greece. The portion described is the stay at Reggio Calabria, Italy. It is illustrated with maps and photographs, also included are some historical and geographical descriptions of the places visited as well as several links to other related web sites.

 Overall Route 

Detailed Route Italy

Information on Reggio Calabria

Information on Calabria

Monday October 14, 1996 Day 32

I wake up at 6:30 and listen the weather broadcast. I am anxious to get going because of the problems at EUTELSAT and Alice's anxiety. The forecast for the Ionian calls for force 7 increasing with possible thunderstorms. I then look at the engine problem. The fuel pre-filter is dirty. I empty it, a nasty job, and I also find water in it. I flush it with fresh fuel. I should also change the main fuel filter, it is a small paper filter, but I do not have any spares. After this cleaning the engine appears to work fine, at least in neutral. Then I do various small repair jobs around the boat, mostly trying to find and fix the small but very annoying water leaks into the main cabin. I then transfer fuel from the two jerry cans into the main tank and cart them across the harbor to the gas station and fill them. There is space for going along side the pump but I do not want to maneuver Thetis all by myself in a tight spot and then to have to re-dock.

I then go ashore for some light shopping. In addition to provisions I am looking for Yanmar fuel filters and camping gaz. I get the provisions all right but the other two items are frustrating. I locate the Yanmar distributor but they are closed for two weeks! No store that I found has camping gaz. I tried to call the Greek weather forecasting service so that I can get an extended forecast for the Ionian covering several days but the number is busy. In an inspiration I call Pitsa and ask her to try them.

Back to the boat, I make myself a light lunch and take a nap. I am woken up by a fellow from the harbor who wants me to bring the boat's papers to the harbor office which, until this time, has been hermetically closed. He computes the docking fees which, assuming that I leave tomorrow, are 58,000 liras, I am short of Italian money, but it is fine with him if I pay him later. He also tells me where to get camping gaz and that the Yanmar dealership I found in the morning is the only store in town which may carry fuel filters for my engine. The clouds are very dark and ominous. While I am waiting for the inevitable downpour, I take a shower while the water is still hot.

The expected storm does not materialize. I walk to town in search of the store with camping gaz. After walking in several streets for over 3/4 of an hour I locate the store. Alas, they do not exchange camping gaz bottles, they can only refill mine within a week! I get some money from an ATM, and go back to the harbor. The harbor office is closed of course.

Cornelius the Dutchman from Roma, the lovely sail boat next to me, comes for a visit. I serve Lewis' scotch. It turns out that he, Cornelius, is the crew and the scruffy Italian who spoke Greek is the owner. He is very rich and owns several restaurants including one in Rhodes and one in Glyfada (Cornelius does not know their names) and he left for Venice shortly after I arrived. Cornelius has lived in Italy for over 12 years and owns a small shipyard near Venice. He crews for the owner who is regularly racing his boats.

Roma is newly acquired and they are on their way to Venice. When the weather improves the owner will come back. Cornelius loves to talk and also loves Lewis's scotch.

Later I call Pitsa. She actually did call the weather service and has a forecast for me. They predict gale southern winds 7 - 8 Bft. for tomorrow and Wednesday with some improvement (5 - 6 S.) on Thursday. It looks that I will be here for a while. I walk back into to the town looking for a restaurant. It takes some time to locate one, it seems that either there are only a few restaurants in this town or that I am in the wrong section. Finally I find a sympathetic looking one and have a nice meal with Calarbeze specialties. All the clientele have cellular phones, sometime 3 - 4 per table.

Tuesday October 15, 1996 Day 33

I slept late. There is no change in the weather. I spend few hours labeling the rat's nest of wires near the electrical panel. Later in the morning I walked into to town and mailed some letters at the Post Office. Near the Post Office there is a store with several camping gaz bottles in the window. It is now closed but it will be "aperto" (open) at 15:30. I will check it later. I keep asking at every gas station or automotive store about Yanmar fuel filters and they all tell me to go to the store I found yesterday which is closed. I walk to the museum. Before entering I call Alice. She sounds very distracted, as if she does not want to talk to me.

In the museum they have a nice arrangement of murals and recorded information, in several languages, for Paleolithic and Neolithic Calabria but nothing except very brief Italian labels for the Greek and Roman sections. There are a few Attic vases and some beautiful Roman terra-cotta panels with lovely faces in relief. The whole basement is dedicated to the underwater findings. There are the two bronze statues from Riace. They are breathtaking! I had seen slides of them in one of the AIA lectures, but no photograph can do them justice. They are so alive! They are very well exhibited in a large well-lit room of their own and they are on two earthquake proof pedestals. There were also numerous posters with text, unfortunately for me in Italian, depicting the rather elaborate restoration process for the statues since their underwater discovery. Being able to see these two statues has almost compensated for the bad weather and the delay.

Back at the camping gaz store at 3:30 it is still closed, but I loitered nearby and it opened at 4:00. Yes, they do have the size of my bottle, and, yes, they do exchange, "cambio," and they do stay open until 8:00 so I can come back. As I am walking back to the boat I speak to a large British sail boat that had just come in the harbor. They came from Cephalonia and they also have Navtex, a text-based automatic weather receiver. They have experienced SE winds up to 55 knots (force 10). The forecast calls for force 7, locally gusting to 9 with thunderstorms, and similar weather for tomorrow, with improvement expected by Thursday. This news totally confirms the report I got yesterday via Pitsa.

After doing some laundry and resting, I started again toward the town carrying the empty camping gaz bottle. The expedition is a great success. One would think that camping gaz was the most common commodity in all of Italy. " !" ("He who insists wins!") Now there is no more fear of not being able to have my morning coffee or hot meals. On my way back I call Pitsa again. She, brave soul, has a new weather forecast. For tomorrow 7 to 8 SE, for Thursday and Friday SW 5 to 6. She is becoming my most reliable source of vital information.

While I am cooking supper I run the engine for 3/4 of an hour to charge the batteries and test it. No problem. If only I had a replacement filter I would feel more at ease.