Friday 26 September 2014 - Messina

We are pretty sure that we will set off today to the strait of Messina.  The weather forecast looks OK and we have to go some time.  We left a quarter of an hour late, so we have to keep up speed to make sure to get into the strait at the right point of the tide.  So we set out and with a little wind going, we put up the genoa and motor sail for a couple of hours making good progress at nearly 7 knots through the water.  We carry on like this until we nearly get to the entrance to the strait, when the wind goes right behind us and dies.  So Richard took in the enoa and we just motored.  At one point we picked something up around the rudder.  I could see what looked like a long rope dragging behind us.   We slow down and manage to get it up with the boat hook.  It is just a very long piece of nylon string!  Heaven knows how we picked it up, but there is no harm done.

After all the horror stories I have heard about this piece of water, I am rather nervous to enter.  As we enter there is a lot of choppy water, but that only lasts for a few minutes.  We motor on keeping to the coast to stay out of the way of the shipping lanes.  We see a few large boats, but mostly see ferries, which seem to be very numerous.  Richard seems determined that we should find Charybdis.  He has even set a waypoint to it.  Well, that is just a legend, but there were indeed a whole lot of small whirlpools that pulled us about as we went through the area, but never was there any danger.

We originally planned to clear the strait and go to Taormina today, but Richard has decided we will stop in Messina.  He has just realised that the charts we have for the plotter more or less end at the beginning of the straight and we have no proper charts for the rest of Sicily!  The book says there is a chandlery in Messina, so he hopes he can buy charts there.  There was a chandlery in Milazzo, but it never opened!  So we make our way to the marina.  I call up on the radio and this time they answer and speak English.  Not only that but we are given an alongside berth, albeit on the breakwater which is going to be rocky, especially with all the ferries coming and going.

After lunch and registration we go to find the chandlery.  It is there, but looks closed, maybe for good.  We have a bit of a walk around, but there really is nothing very interesting here.  I go back to the boat while Richard tries to find somewhere to buy charts.  He succeeds, finding the first shop has now opened.  So hopefully we are safe for the rest of the trip.

So dinner on board and that is the day.  No great drama in the strait and that is now behind us!