We both had a terrible night. The motion of the boat kept waking us
up. It was so bad that a
suitcase I keep on a shelf as a drawer fell over and dumped its entire contents
on the floor in the night. That
has never happened in harbour before!
Not even when everything went mad two days ago at anchor on Stromboli.
So we are eager to get going. We pop to the nearest shop and buy some
bread to make sandwiches for lunch and off we go. At first the weather forecast seemed correct and there was
no wind. But within minutes we had
a nice force 5 on the beam and we were sailing! But, of course, these things never last and after about an
hour and a half it is back on the motor.
We have been on the Aeolian Islands for the last
few days which are technically part of Sicily, but now we are going to the main
island proper. Richard has
identified a town called Milazzo where there is supposed to be a comfortable
marina with all services. It is
really a jumping off point for going through the straights of Messina, the next
place we have to negotiate. We
enter the harbour and cannot see anything to tell us about berthing. There is no answer on the VHF. So we spot a large alongside berth
behind another sail boat and moor there while we go off to the office and see
where we can stay. Despite it
being out of season they tell us they cannot give us a berth at all! I have been dreading this. We didn’t think there was anywhere else
in this town and were facing a night at anchor, without knowing if we would
have sufficient shelter. However
the marina directs us to another marina, which is in fact just a couple of
pontoons, more in the centre of town.
They do have a berth, so at least we are sorted. It is however much more exposed to the
swell than the first marina, and I suspect it will be another lumpy night.
We have a little walk around the town. The architecture is interesting, but
there really is nothing here. We
have managed to buy some ice cubes, so we have Pimms on board and then dinner. I am writing this in the cockpit
because it is so hot below. Not
sure how I will manage to sleep.
Richard is working hard to figure out when we
should go through the Messina Strait.
It has a bad reputation and is to be avoided in strong winds. There is also a strong tidal flow (very unusual in the Mediterranean) so timing is important.
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