Monday 29 September 2014 - Catania

There is a lovely Arthur Ransome book called “We didn’t mean to go to Sea”.  Well today we have a variant on it called We didn’t mean to go to Catania, but here we are.

We had a dreadful night on the mooring in Taormina.  Instead of the sea calming down, the swell got worse and worse.  We were woken up by violent swaying of the boat several times.  The suitcase I use as an underwear drawer fell off its shelf twice!  By morning I was really fed up and so was Richard.  So when we woke up we decided to go right away.  We did not wait to wash and brush our teeth or have breakfast.  We threw some clothes on and left.

Richard had identified two little harbours where we could spend the night.  We got to the first one and there was nothing there!  There were supposed to be pontoons, but not a sight of one.  For that matter, it did not look like the charming place referred to in the pilot book.  So on we went.

About 4 miles down the cost was another harbour called Acitrezza, which George, the Cruising Association rep in Taormina, did recommend.  We went in.  Firstly we could not see anywhere we might moor except for one dodgy space on a wall with fishing boats.  We motored round and round and no one came to show us a berth.  Then we tried to speak to someone on a sailboat.  His English was very limited, but we did understand that the best we might get was permission to anchor somewhere.  After last night neither of us was keen on that.

So the next place was Catania and that is why we are here.  We are not in the main harbour, which everyone says is filthy and in the middle of an industrial site.  Richard has identified a little private harbour called Porto Rossi (although it has a different name in the pilot book).  He phoned them up and they said they could give us a berth and quoted a charge of 73 Euros, but what the heck.

We have been motoring all the time today.  There is very little wind.  We did put the genoa up at one point to add a bit of speed, but had to give up on that when the wind dropped to 2 knots.  Despite the lack of wind, the sea is choppy with a nasty swell, so a protected berth would be very welcome.  When we get to Catania, we have to find the entrance to the harbour.  It is not the main harbour, but to the north.  Richard has put in exact waypoints to take us there, but neither of us can see any entrance until we are more or less in it.  It is very narrow and hidden amongst rocks!   In some ways it reminds us of the entrance to Beaucette marina in Guernsey, just looking like you are about to sail straight in to rocks until suddenly there is water in front of you.

There seems to be no one here when we get in, but we do find someone.  We are put in a very peculiar berth.  Well, it isn’t a berth at all, we are in the dock for the hoist which lifts boats out.  It is comfortable enough (being alongside) and it has water and electricity, so no complaints.  Also they now say the charge is 40 Euro.  We can’t make it out but do not complain.

After a bite of lunch we decide to go in to town.  The pilot says this harbour is near the centre of town, but we think that is unlikely. However, we are wrong.  Once out of the marina it is a short walk to a main square and then to Corso Italia, the smartest shopping street in town.  So we do a lot of window shopping, have an ice cream and even find a little supermarket to buy some things.  We are very short of food, but I am not taken with the shop, so only top up on a few essentials.

We do buy Aperol.  This is the new drink we have discovered.  It is an alcoholic aperitif  (rather like cassis, but herbs, not fruit) that you mix with prosecco to make a cocktail called a Spritz.  We are quite taken by the drink and will like making it on board for the next few days.  We may even buy some at the airport to take home if we see it.

After our Aperol Spritz we have dinner on board.  We plan to go to Siracusa (Syracuse in English) tomorrow and hope to stay for at least two days, including my birthday.

Sunday 28 September 2014 - Taormina Bay

We do set out today even though the weather is not much different to yesterday.  As we leave the harbour we have a force 4 wind from behind and so we put up the sails right away and turn off the engine!  We have a long way to go, but we are moving nicely.  The wind builds up to between 17-24 knots.  We are doing 6 knots through the water with the sails goose-winged on a poled out genoa.  This is our first really good sail.

The only problem we have is despite all Richard’s calculations, we have the tide against us.  So for the first three hours we have an adverse tide of nearly 2 knots!  But we do well and keep up sailing until after lunch, when again, without warning the wind just dies. It was blowing a force 6 one minute and quarter of an hour later it is down to 3 knots!  So alas, the engine has to go on again.  As a consolation, Mount Etna appears.

With these fluky winds we are not sure where we should spend the night.  The winds have dropped, but what will they do next?  In the end we go to Taormina Bay.  It is very pretty and there is a rep from the Cruising Association here who runs a mooring buoy concession.  So that is where we have wound up.  On a buoy in Taormina Bay.  Only have two problems.  We cannot be bother to blow up the dinghy so we are stuck on the boat (we visited Taormina a few years ago).  Second problem, the sea is still very rolly and we are rocking about badly, which is not great.  We have been offered the buoy for free tomorrow night, but we shall go on.

Saturday 27 September 2014 - Messina

When we get up the wind is building.   It is blowing 20 knots in the harbour.  Richard has looked at the weather and initially says it will be fine.  The winds are a bit high, but they will be from behind.  But as the morning progresses, he changes his mind.  It isn’t the getting to the next port that is the problem, it is whether we can find a safe and/or comfortable place for the night.  Most of the accessible places need calm conditions. 

So we decide to stay on an extra day as the weather looks more settled tomorrow.  This means a fairly dull day.  I finally get around to polishing the chrome work, but it is a bit late in the season for that!  We book to eat in a recommended restaurant which is the other side of town.  Richard has bought us tickets so we can travel there and back by tram (which runs next to the marina).  The only problem is that the timetable we see shows the trams stop running at 9:30pm, before we will finish dinner.

So the day goes to plan.  We have a pleasant meal out and then try to get back to the boat.  We can see no buses or trams, so we wind up walking.  Back to the boat exhausted and just fall in to bed

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!

Thursday 25 September 2014 - Milazzo

When we wake up this morning it is pouring with rain.  So that decides it.  We are not going anywhere today.  So it will be a leisure day.  We spend the morning wandering around the town trying to get our bearings.  We work out where the supermarket is and some of the other shops.  Eventually we find the tourist office.  They help us work out what there is to see and recommend an ice cream and pastry shop.  So we take their advice and before going back to the boat for lunch we have delicious coffee granitas with cream! Very evil.

Now that it is lunchtime, the weather has cleared up a lot and it has got very hot.  I can barely endure it.  There is no swimming beach (although there is a beach lounge area in the marina).  So we stay on the boat in bathing costumes and spray ourselves down with the hose on the pontoon from time to time.

But we cannot laze too much because we must climb another steep hill to see another citadel!  It is a long hot walk, and climb, but we make it.  It is an interesting building.  Obviously at some stage it was used as a prison, but there are also a few restored rooms.

We rush back via the supermarket to do the last of the shopping and then to the boat to get ready to go out to dinner.  We have a pleasant meal, but rather boozy.  This is mainly because they keep serving us free Spritzes.  We are also now told how to make this drink.  It is half Apersol (which we have seen in the shops, but do not know if it contains any alcohol) and half prosecco, filled with ice and toped up with soda water!  As we are finishing our dinner in the garden, it starts to rain!  We weren’t expecting this.  I have a small umbrella in my bag left over from this morning.  That is a bit of help, but I am wearing sandals which get soaked and my dress gets quite damp.  But poor Richard has nothing and is pretty wet when we get back to the boat, despite taking shelter in every doorway and under every overhang on the way home.

The boat is rocking a lot and it is very warm, especially as we can’t open the hatches because of the rain, so we just collapse into bed.

Wednesday 24 September 2014 - Milazzo, Sicily

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.

Tuesday 23 September 2014 - Lipari

We had a comfortable night’s sleep.  The predicted thunderstorms never materialised.  The day has started hot and sunny.  We decide we ought to find out about the town, so we dress in our lightest clothes and start off to walk to town.  The pilot book says there is a bus you can take, but we find no sign of a bus stop.  After a few minutes we realise that the only way in to town is to walk along the main road, which has no pavement.  Neither of us is keen.  So after only 10 minutes we decide to leave the marina and find a berth in the town.  We are told in the pilot book that the main disadvantage of the town berths is that there is a swell coming in which together with the ferries coming and going mean that the boat rocks around a lot and it is not comfortable.  But given the seemingly benign conditions we will give it a go.

Like many other of these ports, the berthing is on individual pontoons run by different people.  We haven’t a clue which one to go to, so when we get to the first and a man waves us in, we go there.  It is a pleasant enough spot.  There are no showers or toilets, but that is par for the course with these single pontoons.  It does have water and electricity and when we arrive there is not too much swell and it seems comfortable enough.  It also has free wifi, but we find that we don’t need it because the signal is still strong from the marina we left!

It is not in the centre of town, but very close and that will mean it will be a bit quieter.  So we dress and go in to sus out the town.  I find plenty of shops to buy food and things we need and indeed there is quite a large well-stocked supermarket in the middle of the town.  It is like many of these towns.  There is the more modern part (say 1700-1800’s) and then there is the ancient bits up a hill. So in the heat of the day (Mad Dogs and Englishman like) we walk up.  There is a large cathedral with a very ancient Norman cloister and some very old Greco /Roman ruins- which are just foundations really.  There are lots of touristy and jewellery shops, but I’m not buying.  We do however find the restaurant recommended in the Red Guide, so we make a booking for this evening. 

Back to the lower town where we have a light lunch and then shop in the supermarket, where I buy much more than I planned.  We note a lot of boats go out just for the day presumably to anchor and swim, but we haven’t done that.  May we should do more like that, but we worry about finding a berth when we get back in the evening.  However, here that is no problem.  Back on the boat we watch the staff trying (without much success) to lure boats to this pontoon.  After such a hot day, it is a disappointment that the sky clouds over and it gets quite cool.  We were going to have another go at washing the boat and spray each other at the same time, but that isn’t so appealing in this weather.

By the time we need to get ready to go to dinner the weather has badly deteriorated.  There is a significant swell coming into the harbour and the boat is moving about most uncomfortably.  Then the thunder and lightening starts and it is raining - 24 hours later than forecast!  Nonetheless we are off to the restaurant where we have an excellent fish dinner.  Then back to the boat, where the motion is really bad.  I have no stomach or desire to do anything, but take a sea sick pill and go to bed, which is just what happened.