otranto
5 August 2022
Otranto
After a frustrating passage, with the wind every which way but the right way for sailing we arrived in Otranto. The pilot book review was very glowing about Otranto and on first appearances as we anchored it looked pleasant enough, but it wasn’t until we took the dinghy in for a walk so, we could stretch our legs that we understood the glowing reviews. The town just had something about it and it was better walking around town then looking at it from the water. There is an old walled city which is UNESCO protected and as we walked around it the next day it was delightful. Of course, the shops are all aimed at the tourist but like Santa Maria de Leuca, the products were more artisan than touristy.
When we came into the bay the day before we spotted a catamaran with an Australian flag, so on our way to the beach we swung past “2 Itchy Feet” and met David and Jan originally from Adelaide but retired to Mooloolaba. They were very friendly and just as keen as us to chat, so we arranged to have coffee the next morning.
We had also discovered that Otranto is a check out port for Italy. We had been preparing to continue up the coast to the larger port of Brindisi to check out of Italy but after discussions with David and Jan we decided to leave Italy from Otranto. This would be our first experience as a yachty dealing with the authorities and checking out of a country. The reason for the trepidation is the differing experiences that people have had with the local authorities. Each local authority we’ve been led to believe can interpret the rules differently and when you are dealing with another country’s rules and the language barrier and from what we’ve heard, corruption from officials it can get a bit tricky.
The basic deal is that on checking out of an EU country you need to show your passports, boat registration details, boat insurance details, VAT status of your boat, a crew list, skipper qualifications and evidence of the last port. There are also different departments, Customs and Immigration and the Police. On arrival at the Otranto Customs building, it all went smoothly and as we left, we saw David and Jan waiting to check out after us. We gave them the big “thumbs up” as we went past as it had gone well. However, later that afternoon I thought I’d check the stamp in our passport only to discover there was no stamp. The second stage of our check out was to get our passports stamped by the police so it was back to the police station to fill in more paperwork and get the stamp needed to correctly exit the EU.
We had arrived in Otranto on Friday and decided we would stay for the weekend and after discovering that there was no need to continue on to Brindisi we had more time to relax. On Sunday night we planned our passage for the next morning to cross from Italy to Albania. After doing our research, we discovered that we couldn’t just cruise up the Albanian coast and anchor but that we would need to check into the first port and go through the customs rigmarole, so we got organised with that and waited for the morning to sail the 50NM trip across the Adriatic Sea to Vlore.
Otranto
After a frustrating passage, with the wind every which way but the right way for sailing we arrived in Otranto. The pilot book review was very glowing about Otranto and on first appearances as we anchored it looked pleasant enough, but it wasn’t until we took the dinghy in for a walk so, we could stretch our legs that we understood the glowing reviews. The town just had something about it and it was better walking around town then looking at it from the water. There is an old walled city which is UNESCO protected and as we walked around it the next day it was delightful. Of course, the shops are all aimed at the tourist but like Santa Maria de Leuca, the products were more artisan than touristy.
When we came into the bay the day before we spotted a catamaran with an Australian flag, so on our way to the beach we swung past “2 Itchy Feet” and met David and Jan originally from Adelaide but retired to Mooloolaba. They were very friendly and just as keen as us to chat, so we arranged to have coffee the next morning.
We had also discovered that Otranto is a check out port for Italy. We had been preparing to continue up the coast to the larger port of Brindisi to check out of Italy but after discussions with David and Jan we decided to leave Italy from Otranto. This would be our first experience as a yachty dealing with the authorities and checking out of a country. The reason for the trepidation is the differing experiences that people have had with the local authorities. Each local authority we’ve been led to believe can interpret the rules differently and when you are dealing with another country’s rules and the language barrier and from what we’ve heard, corruption from officials it can get a bit tricky.
The basic deal is that on checking out of an EU country you need to show your passports, boat registration details, boat insurance details, VAT status of your boat, a crew list, skipper qualifications and evidence of the last port. There are also different departments, Customs and Immigration and the Police. On arrival at the Otranto Customs building, it all went smoothly and as we left, we saw David and Jan waiting to check out after us. We gave them the big “thumbs up” as we went past as it had gone well. However, later that afternoon I thought I’d check the stamp in our passport only to discover there was no stamp. The second stage of our check out was to get our passports stamped by the police so it was back to the police station to fill in more paperwork and get the stamp needed to correctly exit the EU.
We had arrived in Otranto on Friday and decided we would stay for the weekend and after discovering that there was no need to continue on to Brindisi we had more time to relax. On Sunday night we planned our passage for the next morning to cross from Italy to Albania. After doing our research, we discovered that we couldn’t just cruise up the Albanian coast and anchor but that we would need to check into the first port and go through the customs rigmarole, so we got organised with that and waited for the morning to sail the 50NM trip across the Adriatic Sea to Vlore.