We have had a good nights rest and having done a lot of tidying up the night before, we don’t have much to do to get ready to depart on our return to our home port of Brindisi. The various weather predictions are showing either 5 knots or 10 knots of wind from behind us so at least we aren’t beating into a bad sea, but it looks like we will be under engine for the whole time back. We will get sail up with any excuse but I suspect that this may be an exception with no wind across the boat.

Brindisi is 130 miles from Mljet almost south, we would normally hope to do it a bit quicker but under engine, and we are nice to our engine, this will probably take about 20 hours which gives us an arrival time early in the morning after dawn. Our rule is not to approach an unknown port at night and although we have been into Brindisi before, and it is well lit at night, we are not taking any chances.

As we head off from Mljet, it feels like the end of the holiday although we have nearly a days worth of sailing left to do. We have to skirt the island and then it is 122.5 miles on the same heading. The sun is blazing and the wind is on the nose, most of it from our own forward movement, but we will see what happens once we get away from the island and it’s funnelling of the winds.

A little later there has been some shift and we decide to get some sail up although the sea is flat and there isn’t much wind. It gets us less than half a knot but at least it is work the engine doesn’t have to do. Maria is keen to see dolphins again but we haven’t seen any on this break or in this part of the Mediterranean so we are not hopeful.

A little while later and the wind on the beam has strengthened to about ten knots, all our sail is up, the engine is off and we are bombing along at seven knots. Maria prepares lunch and has decided to go full Italian celebrating our return with bolognaise and bruschetta.

Unfortunately the wind only lasts a few hours before it drops and shortly before dark we have to drop all sail as our wind indicator does a complete 360 showing the wind coming from all directions. It is close to the end of the daylight and it has been very hot so we decide to have our showers which of course have to be taken in shifts. Maria goes off first and comes back ready for after sun to be applied having caught a bit of colour during the day.

She then takes over watch while I go to the shower. A cold shower at the end of a hot day in the sun is very welcoming but maria frantically shouting for me wasn’t. I stop the shower, grab a towel and soaking wet run up to the cockpit to see what the problem is….. they came, they came. A pod of about twenty dolphins is playing off the bow of Mariadz and Maria has the biggest smile on her face. After a few minutes, my heart rate is returning to normal – I had no idea what the problem was when I ran up top. I return down below to dry the floor from the bathroom through the saloon and get changed. It was lovely seeing the dolphins but maybe a calm call of “Dolphins” next time rather than “Adam, Adam, quick, quick….” Which makes me think there is something wrong. 🙂

Maria continues her Italian theme with a carbonara for supper which we eat quickly before sunset and now all navigation lights are on and the instruments are turned down to their night mode to preserve our night vision so we can keep a good watch. That said over the last ten hours we have seen two sailing yachts and that is it, the closest of these was two miles away and the other nearly four. There is nothing on AIS so we are prepared for a quiet night.

This evening we will be alternating rest and trying to get a couple of hours at a time. Maria has been yawning so I suggest she gets the first bit of rest. However, at ten o’clock I notice a few splashes near the boat that are not our wake clashing with the swell. The conditions are very benign, having settled down to a 4 knot north westerly with a gentle movement of the sea, so I go to the bow to investigate and it is true we have more dolphins. As I return to the cockpit wondering whether I should wake Maria, she is upright having seen I wasn’t in the cockpit. I said “we have dolphins, come and see” (see that is how you do it!). The sight at night is even more amazing than during the day. As you look down into the darkness, you can see plankton seemingly hanging in the air and what appear to be flying dolphins. Only when they break the surface do you get the impression of water. The display lasts a good fifteen minutes with them playing in our bow wave. however, now Maria is awake and won’t go back to sleep so I suggest at 11pm that I get some sleep.

At 1am Maria is getting tired so we swap over again, this time I have something interesting. Two large cargo ships coming straight at us on exactly the same course as each other. When I check we go straight through the middle of them and they will be past in 30 minutes so all is good. As we approach Italy, there is a need for a sharp look out for the remainder of the night, especially after last years encounters with small unlit fishing boats off the North Sicily coast. For extra security I put the radar on. We are getting close now and can see the lights on the land, soon enough the night and the holiday will be over.

The moon is well and truly up now which provides additional light and the stars look amazing. If I’m not scanning the horizon on these night watches I am looking into the sky at the millions of stars you can see when there is no light pollution.

Maria and I alternate resting through the night and before long it is light again and we are only a few hours from Brindisi. As we approach, we start to see other boats, a couple of yachts, large container ships anchored to the south of Brindisi and some faster motor boats. One goes across us seemingly heading South but before long has done a wide turn to approach us from behind. It is grey with guardia du finanza on the side, they ask us to come to a halt. It’s all very polite and professional and they have put out fenders on the side to avoid rubbing against us. They ask to check our papers, which should be in order having been checked several times in Italy over the last months, never mind Montenegro and Croatia. This takes some time which is surprising. After about half an hour, they have papers for us to sign and it appears we have been checked in to Italy. They ask us if there is anything to declare and we say no but they ask to inspect down below. The whole stop, papers and search takes about 45 minutes but eventually they let us go and at least we now don’t need to go into the port offices.

So we have been away from Brindisi and we are returning on the weekend of the Brindisi – corfu annual race. We have no idea if the marina will be full or empty! We call in and I use my faltering Italian to explain we are returning to our berth and would like some assistance. This is no problem and we continue on approach to the marina. Our helpful member of staff is there to help us and takes both our stern lines after maria expertly reverses into our spot. He then passes us the lazy lines for the bow and we are done, the end of a great holiday.