LIFE: Part 2

Current Location: Porto Empedocle
Current Position: 37°17.03'N, 13°31.64'E
Distance sailed since last post: 57 nautical miles

After the relatives and the gales departed, we ourselves departed from Marina di Ragusa.

It was a beautiful sunny Sunday, and we left the harbour in light winds in company with Big Sky, Castor en Pollux, and Deja Vu III. Fabuloso, skppered by our friend Roger of Burnout, was a couple of hours ahead of us travelling under motor only.

The destination for all of us was Licata – some to take advantage of their offer of free berthing for the month of May, others just to pass through.

For about an hour we were making 4 kts with the spinnaker up, and managed to take some photos of each other.
Then the wind dissapeared and we had to motor.

And then for the final two hours we had a nice breeze again, allowing us the hoist the kite once more.

Licata is a huge harbour with only two pontoons so far built. Many of the store fronts are still empty, but there is a nice mall right behind the marina.

Potentially a pleasant place to stay, especially since they are making some very attractive price offers for winter berthing, but it has three big downsides:

1. The lazy mooring lines were thick with sea growth, weed and snails – unpleasant to handle, and suggestive of what your boat might look like after a few months stay.
2. There is no security – other than an few unlocked waist-high gates that separate the quays from the public promenade. Which means that, come evening, when the locals come out to ‘promenade’, you have the feeling of being in a zoo – and on the wrong side of the viewing bars. The all come to walk up and down and look at the yachts, and the residents within having their meals. And what is to stop them coming aboard if they see no one at home?
3. The showers were tepid – and that was mid afternoon with the marina practically empty. hmm.

The next day we took our leave and sailed in a brisk force 5 – 6 downwind to Porto Empedocle, where we had previously anchored. It’s entrance does face East, so it was a little bit rolly inside, but a nice place to wait out the forecast gale. And so good to be at anchor away from Marinas again.

We took the bus up to visit Agrigento town, but not the temples this time, and bought a pile of stuff in the chinese store.
The winds now subsiding out to sea, the plan is to depart this evening (Tues May 1st) for an overnight broad reach to the island of Pantelleria, half way to Tunisia. The forecast is for moderate to winds, though a bit variable in direction. We will probably spend a few days there before proceeding to Africa.

My parents have left, after a great 2 week visit.

The maintenance work and upgrades have been done.

The sun is shining, and a nice 15knot breeze blowing in the right direction.

So we are off!

First just going down the coast to Licata and then Empodocle, and then headed for Tunisia via a brief visit to Pantelleria.

We will keep you informed!

From Canada we went to the UK, where I spent a week freezing off my butt in ridiculous temperatures, while Ceu wen to Portugal to visit her family.

We then took an EasyJet flight ,with a 15hp outboard engine in our checked luggage, and arrived in Catania, Sicily at 9pm. A large van took us to Marina di Ragusa, and we arrived on board Life Part 2 at 11pm!

That was two nights ago, and now we are settling in. My parents are also visiting.

But of course life is not without drama on board! Last night, in the middle of cooking our chicken, the gas ran out. Fortunately the chicken was cooked, but not the onions, so we just had some salad to go with it instead.

Today we are trying to hire a car so that we can do some touring, and fill up our gas bottles in Ragusa.

It seems we brought to good weather with us. Prior to our arrival they had been having gale force winds and rain. Now it is blue skies and sun.

Let the summer begin!…

Having a great winter, with some awesome skiing.

 

But now the winter is over, the bags are almost packed (full of bits for the boat, again, of course), and we depart on April 1st to UK and then onwards to Sicily.

The adventure continues. 🙂

 

Current Location: Marina di Ragusa, Sicily
Current Position: 36°46.87'N, 14°32.79'E
Distance sailed since last post: 42 nautical miles

On Saturday we had our last sail of the year. 🙁

From Syracuse we motored in a calm down to Porto Pallo, where we anchored on the west side in about 2m of water, nicely protected from the SW swell and expected winds.

Then on Saturday we set off with 15kts from the South. There was a 2m swell, but the wind didn’t match, and dropped down to 10kts, despite the gale warnings for just about every sea around Italy. It did pick up again to 16kt and so we made good time to Ragusa. We fueled up, and backed into our med moor slot (no dramas this time!), and are now nicely tucked up. If you click and zoom on the map, you can see exactly where in the marina we are!

Marina di Ragusa is huge. Biggest of all is the walk from the yacht pontoon (everyone is on a branch off one main pontoon) to the showers. Literally a 5 – 10 minute walk. They couldn’t have put it any farther away.

People here are friendly. Lots of Americans (almost the first ones we have seen through the whole Med, so don’t know where they have been hiding out). Also met someone else who had an even closer encounter with a water spout – as in actually getting hit by one. His boat was knocked down and he lost is masthead instruments and most of his electronics. Wow.

Anyway, we will get some jobs done on the boat, and then on the 15^th November we fly to the UK.

Will be seeing you all soon!

Current Location: Off the coast of Augusta, Sicily
Current Position: 37°7.4'N, 15°19.24'E
Distance sailed since last post: 101 nautical miles

Man, was that scary!

We set off from Catania for Syracuse at 9am today. The forecasts was for  5kts of wind from the East. But as we set off, it was actually 19kts from the east, with dark brooding clouds and some rain.

Because it was raining, we didn’t feel like putting up the main, so we were cruising south at 6+kts with just the jib.

The rain cleared, the wind dropped a little, and so  up went the main with a single reef in it. Now we were creaming along at 8+kts and life was good.

The radio issued a gale warning: “thunderstorms with localized gusts” over the South Tyrrhenian Sea and Ionian Sea. In other words just the area we were in. That made sense as we could hear thunder and see a big dark cloud to starboard, close to land. No lightning, though. We were about three miles off the coast of Augusta by now, pretty close to where that big ship was wrecked just north of Syracuse.

Just then I saw what looked like a patch of steam rising off the sea, about 45 deg to starboard, 2-3 miles away.

“Ceu,” I said, “Look at that. What do you make of it?” as I handed her the binoculars. And at that point the cloud drooped down to meet the sea, and a twister was formed.

“Holy Mackerel! Where is the bearing compass?” We took a bearing: 210 deg. Turned on both engines, turned 20 deg to port (away from the shore), and gunned it as fast as we could. The boat did almost 10kts, and the bearing of the twister gradually increased, indicating that it was going behind us.

We could see the top end of the twister bending to the North which, I hoped, meant that the whole system was moving north and not towards us. To the north of it the cloud was black, and rain was pouring down.

Another big red ship, that had been traveling south along the coast parallel to us also turned and headed out to sea.

After a while the twister was off our stern quarter and died. But just then another one formed, again on the starboard bow. More anxious gunning of engines. The wind was now 24kts. We had full jib, main with one reef, and two engines, all working hard, so we were moving. We both clipped on our harnesses. And soon that twister was falling back.

As we heaved a sigh of relief, we then saw another one start to form. This time it was about 200-300m off our starboard bow. That was too close for comfort. Sorry, but we were too stressed to be taking pictures at this stage!

At this point I decided it was time to get all the sails down. If one of those things hit us, it would just rip the sails to shreds from all directions. We might go slower with just the engine, but I didn’t want to be hit by hurricane force winds from all directions with sails up.

Fortunately this one didn’t fully form, though it did look like it was heading more our way but, again, we left that one behind too.

And then another one formed. Even closer. Fortunately, it too was weaker and didn’t complete. We could see the sea whipped to a frenzy in just that area, though where we were it was still about 24kts, blowing towards to shore and the twister.

Once we passed that one, things settled down. There was still one black cloud around, but not as menacing. The sun started to peek through and the wind dropped. We put the jib up again, and left both engines going.

Then, suddenly, the wind switched to offshore, dropped to 5kts, the sun came out, and we saw just the top of a rainbow behind us.

Soon we were entering Syracuse bay, and tied up at the town quay. The wind was now from the north at about 15kts. The sky was partially blue, and we were nice and safe and snug.

Phew.

Time for a beer!

 

Current Location: Stromboli, Aeolian Islands
Current Position: 38°48.43'N, 15°14.27'E
Distance sailed since last post: 45 nautical miles

Hello all

Now that you have read Noel’s post about our experience with the water spouts let me tell you what we have been up to in the beautiful Aeolean Islands the past 2 weeks.

Vulcano

After the strait of Messsina, our first stop was at Volcano Island where we climbed to the crater and enjoyed some amazing views.

Noel and I soaking in the sulfur mud pools and jumped after into a hot spring bubbling sea.

After a beautiful evening at anchor, we woke up with the whistling sounds of the strong winds, which we were expecting, but not quite that strong!. We got up to see if everything was all right. As we were unlocking the door and step outside….big bang! The blades of our wind generator, all blew away! Crazy.

In the morning after the storm we realized one of our paddles from the kayak had blown away from the boat. Noel set off to the beach to look ashore, since it was onshore wind, while I kept looking from the boat with the binoculars.

Success! Not only he got the paddle, from far away it looked like he was also carrying a suitcase, turned out it was a seat cushion, also a throw line, BUT…..he’s coming back with a Dinghy!

Now I am just laughing my head off and chatting with the neighbor, about us losing a dinghy, but finding a replacement. Well, we knew very well someone would be very happy to have it returned. One of the boats that was missing it, had just moved to the next protected bay, where everyone else was moving to. We arrived just as they were setting off with the Coast guard to look for it…and there I am yelling the boats’ name out and pointing to their dinghy. They were jumping, soo happy. Later they brought us a bottle of champagne. I only wish someone as nice had found our dinghy…

Lipari

Lipari, is the biggest and most populated of the 7 Aeleon Islands. The Castle and pre historical settlements

We stopped here to visit and have a swim in the beautiful turquoise waters. The town of Lipari was at one time very prosperous, not just with the mines, but way back in 5000BC it was exporting obsidian, the black glass erupted by the volcano here.

Salina

 

This charming village sure looks more like a Greek island than Italy, with all the classic white houses and brightly colours bougainvilleas. Panarea is expensive in terms of accommodation and other facilities. It said that is popular with the wealthy. Some hotels will not even take you in if you have children.

In the background is an ancient Bronze age village in Bay of Calajunca .It was discovered in 1948. Has all these huts, about 20 of them dating back centuries. Many more ruins not excavated yet. It was a beautiful walk there just above our anchorage.

The evening before that we were sailing along, about to anchor by the Pumice mines, and I looked at this colourful flag, when Noel pointed out it was South African and it maybe Roger. Binoculars out. There he is waving away!! Nice surprise, small world! For the next couple of days we sailed and got together for drinks and games. It was fun

Stromboli Fireworks!

After dashing through 3 times in attempt to do the evening hike up to the volcano, we finally made it!

The winds were pretty unpredictable, funneling around the island and we didn’t really want to leave the boat unattended. There are only a couple of anchorages around and not very protected, can only be done in very calm weather.

First time we set off in the afternoon to arrive just in the dark to see the fireworks.

It was a beautiful show. The volcano is erupting every few minutes and sometimes we could see the stream of lava coming down the hill rolling into the water with a big bang! Unfortunately we could not anchor near by, so about 9;30 pm we left back to anchor in Volcano island. Arriving at our anchorage at 1:30 am was not a problem as we were familiar with the nice big bay. We didn’t mind the night sail. We enjoyed Stromboli very much and the amazing sky covered with stars! We couldn’t wait to go back for more. By now we were really convinced we wanted to do the hike and experience it to the fullest!

We are now back to Stromboli for the hike. Not allowed to do it on your own. Must be with guide. Large groups form in the Piazza every afternoon for the highlight of their trip.

It  took us about 3 hours to get up to the top of the crater. We went with an organized group of about 25 people. You are not allowed to do the hike on your own. There were people of all ages and not a very fast pace, although quite steep up the hill sometimes.

W e stayed up there for about 45 minutes watching the eruptions. It was  magical. We were actually right above the craters. There were about 4 of them of which 2 were always going but smaller  and then the other 2 were erupting every few minutes with a big bang and lava everywhere.

Headed to the Messina strait and along the coast to Marina Di Ragusa where Life Part2 will stay for the winter.

See you all soon!!

 

 

The forecast said that the westerly winds had ended, and a southerly should be in place for today. That was good enough for us. So at 05:50 this morning we upped anchor and set off with great trepidation to brave the savage whirlpools of Charybdis and Scilla.

High Water Girbraltar was at 0008 hrs. The north flowing current in Messina Strait begins at about 1:45hr before HW Gib, and ends at about 4:30hrs after HW Gib. Add two hours for our time zone and that meant the southward stream began at about 06:30. Which is why we wanted to get going before the contrary stream became too strong.

It was a flat calm. We put on both engines, for maximum speed, and we stayed close to the shore to keep out of the current. Soon a light wind on our starboard beam was assisting us so that we were doing over 6 kts, even with the current, which we could already feel.

As we went north, the strait narrowed, and the time progressed, both of which increased the current. Before too long our speed was down to 3kts and we were about to round the corner where Scilla lurks.

And there it was!

In fact, we motored right over one whirlpool, which you could just about make out, though there was no actual hole in it. At one point our boat was turned about 15 degrees. Wow. I was so scared.

And that was it.

I’ve played in more exciting eddies on the Thames in my kayak.

By now it was daylight. We had seen a few fishing boats but no other traffic at all. As we excited the strait, we turned west and headed for Vulcano. The wind had now picked up, so up went the main, off with the engines and away we go!

Pretty soon we had 20kts funneling through the strait on our port beam, giving us 8kts of speed for about half an hour.

And then that ended.

The rest of the journey was motoring in flat calm and glassy seas. Arriving at Porto Levante on Vulcano island at about 16:00hrs.

We tried to fill up with water here, but there was none. So we moved on to Lipari island, got our water, and anchored for the night.

Looking forward to climbing some of these volcanoes!

Beautiful Taormina is situated in the south coast of Sicily almost at the tip where you get the boot!

It is again, after Syracuse, one of the nice spots we visited before we’re headed through the Messina strait, which separates Sicily from mainland Italy in the Ionian sea.

Taormina is about 200 meters above sea level. It has an appearance of a terrace, beautiful landscapes and amazing views.

We were moored in the seafront town of Naxos, so we took a bus up to Taormina as recommended.

Taormina was born 358 BC and it was a typical Greek colony till the Romans arrived and did a lot of renovation works, but you can still see a lot of the beautiful architectural finds left by the Greeks.

The Greek theatre dates back to the 3th century and it was later transformed by the Romans into an amphitheatre where gladiator shows were held.

Every corner, every street, is worth a stop to admire and appreciate, the architecture, the culture and the beautiful art.

The nice shops, good food and the beautiful landscapes…

The nice piazzas,( which I missed while in Greece) surrounded by Palazzos, Churches, Fountains and the cute old men that just sit there chatting away and people watching!!!

2 km up the steep hill and a few hundred stairs later, we arrive in the cute little town and treated ourselves to a nice lunch. This time we even included dessert, the popular Sicilian conollo. It’s a pastry roll filled with ricotta cheese. It was really good, but a bit sweeter than I expected.

We hiked up to the Castle and Castelmola, the town you see up above.

Every drop of sweat is worth it! Plus, we must keep fit. The views from this place were just breathtaking. Mount Etna of course is their protagonist (like my $50 word?). You can see all around, and all the way up the Ionian coast, into the Messina strait and across to mainland where the boot is kicking….

Deep in Taormina bay is Isola Bella, a nature Reserve, and this little island is connected to mainland only by a thin tongue of sand right from the beach!  Very popular with fishermen in their colourful little boats and tourists.

Later in the afternoon we refreshed with their famous granite. It’s just like a slushy, or a sorbet served in a sweet bread bun or cut into pieces. They have many really good flavors…here we have a spoon of each, chocolate and almond. It’s really good , but a strange combination. I enjoy the granite on its own. It’s yummy.

The day ended way too soon, it was hard to leave it behind so fast! But time to go home and plan the next voyage! “Let’s see the weather forecast” the famous words around here!!

As I finish writing my post we are up the Messina strait. Tomorrow at this time, if the weather cooperates, we will be at the north end kicked away…hopefully gently into the Volcano island. Looking forward to visit Strombolli.

Update:

Yesterday after refusing to pay 100 Euros at the harbor…we anchored  in a beach around the corner. We had a nice peaceful night here. The water is so clear, warm and tempting, but had to skip our daily swim because we saw a few jelly fish around the boat!!!

Also…after a nice long walk into town we got Internet, and some more food…FRUIT and VEGGIES

Let’s see how it fits into the kayak!!!

The front of the kayak had to be balanced with Noel’s heavy backpack he’s carrying!

It’s all part of the adventure…but this is not what I signed up for!!!

Stay tuned for the next adventure.

In the meantime, check out some more photos on the gallery.

 

 

 

Current Location: Reggio di Calabria, Italy
Current Position: 38°8.19'N, 15°39.27'E
Distance sailed since last post: 26 nautical miles

Taormina is beautiful. Perched up on the mountain, it is all quaint narrow streets, beautiful venetian balconies and, of course, dozens of churches. We spent a lovely day climbing up the mountain to the castle and to Castelmola, the town above Taormina. We will get photos up as soon as we can.

Ok, so today we left lovely Taormina and headed in a flat calm to Reggio di Calabria, to stage for the Messina Strait on Thursday.

We get there about 1500 hours, and hold back to let the two ferries go in first. Then we turn into the little yacht harbour.

A young man comes out on his bike to help us. Well, the usual story. 14kts of cross wind and we are supposed to do that Med Moor thing again. We go in forwards and toss him the windward bowline. He ties it up. But now we are drifting to leeward, and the port bow is threatening the concrete. We put on some reverse port engine while Ceu walks the lazy line to the starboard (windward) quarter. We tie it up nice and tight. But what use is that? The boat still sags off downwind. We tie up the port quarter, but still we sag. We tie up the port bow, but that doesn’t help, as it is slack anyway. So here we are, starboard bow line tight. Stern lines tight. Boat at about 30 deg off perpendicular, with the port bow still threatening the concrete.

Bright idea! Another line from starboard stern diagonally across to the dock. It uses up the whole slot next to us, but how else do we keep the boat straight? Beats me.

Finally we jump ashore by means of a nice plank that the marinero passes us. We go to the office to settle up.

Now, it is LOW season. But still they want 100 euros a night!?  And the place is a dump. Don’t be thinking about classy marinas surrounded by cute cafes, bistros and designer stores. Here it is just some concrete and cheap apartment blocks backed against a railway line. 2km walk to town. Very different from beautiful Taormina yesterday!

And they want 100 euros? In their dreams. They drop down to 80 but that is still way too much. And this is supposed to be charge band 3, as opposed to band 5 in Messina across the water.

So we leave. Motor around the corner and drop anchor in 23m on sand, just off the beach. Not too bouncy and not much wind expected. Should do for the night. At least we have some privacy here 🙂

But it seems our internet has expired. At present we are connected through someone’s free wifi somewhere. So the morning calls for a paddle ashore in the kayak, laptop in dry bag, to do some desperately needed shopping (as we were too busy  being tourists yestserday) and to get the internet working again.

The aim is to transit the Strait on Thursday when the west wind settles down. Will keep you informed!