We had a slightly frustrating first week of work because one of the participants (we are 2 people in total !) to this project was ill. It seemed that the heavy rain and the humid weather found at our arrival in Italy has knocked him down. The week was therefore spent by exploring the study areas from the shore and familiarising with the local resources, but no field work was possible. The castello Aragonese seems quite accessible for the study during the early hours of the day when relatively few boats are present in the bay. Walking on the bridge that reaches the castello, the Northern area has a small shore made of rocks from where it is possible to reach the sea, which doesn’t go beyond a depth of 3 to 4 mt. The Southern area, can be reached only using the boat because the shore is quite distant. This area is the busiest. Until 11:00 the bay is quite calm, while after that time until 14:00 several taxi boats and small crafts (4-6 mt long) crowd the bay. The taxi boat service serves the local restaurants located in the southern area of the bay, bringing people back and forth and therefore. They use small wooden boats with a 8 HP engine. The maritime traffic slows after 17:00, although after then, it is possible to meet lots of people bathing in the area and performing divings from the adjacent cliff. The Northern area is generally less populated by taxi boats, but when the weather is good, bigger boats come to anchor in this area. This is very variable as this area is hit by strong Western wind after 14:00 and this can last until 18:00 or even longer (23:00). Local people call this wind as “maestrale fresco (fresh Northwest wind)” because it brings the good weather. Personally, it is a strong wind that creates high waves and can make the work very hard to perform, but I am not the best sailor!

Area North

South area

I went to meet Raffaele that rented us the rib, a 6.8mt vessel with a 40HP engine. It is located 4km away from the study area and for this reason I negotiated to keep it moored in the local bay next to the castello to avoid going back and forth every day.

At the end of the first week, my valuable collaborator, Nico, has recovered and we took the rib on Saturday to explore the areas and, overall, to practice with the rib. We are now ready to start the survey first thing on Monday!

Ciao.

Ilaria