Saturday 4 June 2011

Doesn't time fly when you're having fun?
We ended up spending two nights in Portarosa cause the weather was very iffy. Rather than sitting round on board, we hired a car for a day and set off to explore the area, but we got stuck on a back road through small and not very attractive towns and it wasn't until we got to Milazzo that we hit the coast and things improved - mainly because that was the point at which we found a very good restaurant for lunch!
Whilst in port we also took the opportunity to get an engineer on board to have a look at a few things including the grey water pump which had been playing up. Arturo spoke perfect english, which made things so much easier, and worked into the early evening to make sure everything was fixed properly. Brilliant!
The forecast for Thursday was a bit iffy, with the possibility of thunderstorms around but with gentle winds, we decided to make a move anyhow. We could only just make out the Aeolian Islands as we came out of port and there was a lot of dark cloud over mainland Sicily but the sea was calm, which was the main thing, and remained that way as we glided along the north coast of the island.
The Messina Straits are the stuff of legend - literally! Think Scylla and Charybdis and this is where it all happened. Scylla was, apparently, a multi-headed sea monster who would reach from the cliffs to the water to pluck unlucky seamen from their boats and eat them, whilst Charybdis was (or were?) the whirlpools on the opposite side of the Straits, waiting for boats sailing too close to avoid the monster. Fortunately Scylla was having a bad hair day as we went through and didn't put in an appearance with any of the multiple heads, but we did sea many a whirlpool on the surface of the water towards the Sicilian side of the Straits, and apparently things settled down considerably after an earthquake in the region in 1793 so goodness knows what it was like before that!
We had also read about some unusual fishing craft, the swordfish boats, and we lucky enough to see one in action. They have a high mast sticking up from the centre of the boat and another one sticking forward at the bow. The skipper sits high up in the gantry and spots swordfish, which apparently like to have a little doze on the water round here. Once sighted, he approaches the fish and the harpoonist, whose place is at the end of the horizontal mast, does the messy business and hooks the fish. We saw the whole procedure as we passed one of these boats, and at the end, the fishermen proudly held up their catch for me to take a photo!
The west coast of Sicily is utterly gorgeous - villages trailing along the seafront in the traditional faded pastel hues of this part of the world, and small towns clinging impossibly to the sides of towering hills. We slowed as we went past Taormina and immediately vowed to get a hire car and explore from the land. The sea conditions remained terrific for the whole trip, although through the Straits it was fascinating to sea how the wind whipped up whitecaps in tiny, isolated areas.
Our first night around here was spent in Riposto, in the shadow of Mount Etna which put on quite a display for us, the spumes of smoke illuminated in shades of pink and gold by the dying sun as it slid below the horizon.
Yesterday we went up to the fish market, where I'm sure we saw "our" swordfish, to stock up with fresh fruit and veg. The stallholder insisted on singing at the top of his voice as he served us, until other customers told him in no uncertain terms to shut up! (Maybe they were scared that we'd join in...) Once back on board, we were quick to move out of port and onto the calmest sea imaginable. We pottered across the bay at a lazy 10 knots and dropped the anchor beneath Taormina, where we enjoyed an idyllic day in the sunshine. We had promised ourselves a night there as well, but the generator decided not to work, which meant the batteries wouldn't be recharged, so in the end we came back into port and enjoyed a roast dinner in the cockpit, savouring the warm evening along with the red wine!
And today it's warm but overcast, so we're hoping to find an engineer to take a look at the generator before we pick up a hire car and go off for a spot of exploring!