Portugal
Baia delle Zagare / faraglioniMattinata
borderlineexposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
- window
- The orders of the Capitaneria responsible for Mattinata can add seasonal prohibitions, and they outrank the general rule. On a shore oriented at 106° the usable light ends before the legal hour, which stays the hour of the sun. Note the hour you will come out before you get in: from 40 m of shore the way back always looks shorter than it is. The bathing season narrows the options: out of season the stretch is whole again.
- tide
- Swell from the east moves more water in ten minutes than the tide moves in six hours. The level counts for little here: what counts is how much sea has gone through in the days before. The way back, 200 m to the five-metre band, is decided beforehand and not on the way. At Mattinata the level changes little, but the current towards the east can be noticeable in the channels.
- shelter
- In Levante the detached rocks break the swell but hand it back confused, and that crossed sea tires you more than a clean wave. The shore in front of the mark faces east, about 106°, so everything arriving from that sector gets in unobstructed. On this coast yesterday's blow weighs more than today's forecast. Better half an hour on the right part of the coast than three hours on the wrong one.
- conditions
- With 10 m reached about 330 m out, the limit of the day is set by your breath and not by the distance. The survey puts ten metres about 330 m from the shore and nothing deeper anywhere nearby. At Mattinata the inshore current shifts the murk within hours: waiting sometimes works better than moving. Past 330 m from the shore it is the water that decides the day and not the willingness.
- hazard
- Never a loaded speargun out of the water (art. 131): you load below and unload before setting foot back on the rock. On a shoal the swell breaks without warning: what looks flat over the top can rear up. With 200 m out to five metres, the exit is short only if you decide on it in time. At Mattinata the conditions change faster than the forecast does.
- access
- In Levante the crossing out to the shoal is worth thinking about twice, because on the way back you will have it against you. The mark is right against the shore, 40 m from the coastline, and ten metres of water is about 330 m out. The route on land is not mapped: the survey only says where the rock ends and the water begins. The last stretch back to land, 40 m, is always done with less breath than you expected.
White stacks (Arco di Diomede); sea bream, grouper. Gargano park access restrictions.
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