Adriatic Sailing
3rd-9th April 2026
Martin relocated his sailing yacht from Tuscany to Bibione on the Adriatic, in range for sailing weekends, and asked me if I'd like to join the crew for part of the adventure. I flew to Bari and joined the second week of the tour. I could then play the Slovenian Masters Squash tournament (10th-12th April) on the way home, as Ljubljana's only 90 minutes by Flixbus from Trieste, which we should have passed just before Bibione.
More photos: Reinhards photos, My pictures on Google Photos
Munich to Bari via Milan, with Air Bolomiti and ITA Air
On Friday 3rd April I flew from Munich to Bari via Milan, arriving early afternoon, so I had time to look round Bari. I'd booked a a room for the night and was planning to board Martins 15 metre yacht Jubel on Saturday morning.
Bari
Due to heavy storms in Sicily, the yacht was stuck in Catania harbour on Sicily for 2 days, so would not get to Bari for several days. I booked a Flixbus the next afternoon to Crotone in the south of Italy.
I spent Friday afternoon & Saturday morning wandering around Bari, witnessing the rather solumn Good Friday "Procession of the Mysteries", a centuries-old tradition, where 15-20 sacred statues depicting the Passion of Christ are carried through narrow streets, accompanied by candlelit vigils and funeral marches.
Crotone
After a half hour hike from the Flixbus terminal, I arrived at Crotone's Porto Touristico and, in the dark, boarded Jubel, just in time for Spaghetti Vongole with Martin and his crew:
- Rainhard (who Martin met on his trans-alantic sailing tour),
- Klaus (an old friend of Martins with over 30 years of sailing experience),
- Alex (Julia's husband) and
- Tom (Isabella's husband).
Map
This map shows (very roughly) the part of the journey where I was onboard: from Crotone to Santa Maria di Leuca, then to Bari and finally to Pascare.
Before I boarded, the crew had sailed from Tuscany via Sicily to Crotone.
After I left, they continued to Bibione via Pula.
Sailing from Crotone to Santa Maria di Leuca.
After spending the night in Crotone harbour and making some final repairs to the storm-damaged boat, we sailed from Crotone, heading around the heel of Italy, towards Bari, sailing through the night in 3 hour shifts, with an experienced sailor and a deck-hand on each shift. In the evening we had a good westerly wind, and were making 6-8 knots, but during the night the wind dropped and shifted to a northerly headwind. So we used the motor to avoid getting even further behind schedule.
Early on Monday morning the motor was no longer moving us forward: was the propellor broken? We slowly sailed into the nearest harbour, Santa Maria di Leuca, for repair. Using the dinghy and diving mask, Klaus saw that a large rope was tightly wrapped around the propellor.
As it was a bank holiday, no diver was available to check out the damage: I tried snorkelling below the hull with a knife to cut away the rope. But the water was so cold that after 5 attempts I was starting to go numb, so gave up and we had to wait for the diver. He arrived at 07:20 on Tuesday morning and quickly fixed the problem.
Santa Maria di Leuca
I walked up the 284 steps to the lighthouse and then walked around the town, stocking up with a few bare essentials at a small supermarket (water, milk & aperol spritz).
In the eveing we had an excellent sea-food meal in a local restaurant to celebrate Tom's birthday.
Santa Maria di Leuca to Pescare
After leaving St.Maria we had permanent headwind, or complete calm: the sea was incredibly flat!
So we had to motor all the way.
As the autopilot went on the blink, I had plenty of opportunity to practice steering!
Rainhard had disembarked at St Maria di Leuca, so Martin & Klaus took alternative 2-hour shifts through the night, whereas the 3 deck-hands could have 4-hours sleep between their 2-hour shifts.
Dolphins near Pescare
I unfortunately only caught the end of the acrobatics.
While I was filming in the distance, a dolphin popped up right next to the boat, but was gone before I could pan to it.
Pescare
I disembarked at the port petrol station, catching a bus, 3 trains and a flixbus to get to Ljubljana, via Bologna, Venice and Trieste.
Unfortunately the petrol station was out-of-order, so the crew had to fill up later, and to continue the run of bad luck, the boat struck a sandbank whilst leaving the harbour. Fortunately they could free themselves and continue the journey.
Pescare - Bologna
The train tracks are close to the sea all the way to Rimini, offering a wonderful view of endless beaches, although it's fairly built-up with a variety of holiday homes, amusement parks, campsites and blocks of flats.
Bologna
Trieste
James Joyce taking a stroll: he lived for many years in Trieste.
There was a wonderful sunset as I arrived, witnessed by many tourists on the waterfront.
I left Trieste for Ljubljana on the 21:20 Flixbus, arriving at 22:45, in time for a good nights sleep in preparation for the Slovenian Masters Squash tournament.
