To Messina through Charybdis and Scylla, 27-29 May

 We leave Lipari for Messina in the morning of 27 May. On the way we greet Sea Cloud II moored in the Bay. She has been following us since we crossed the Bonifacio straight en route to La Maddalena.

Sea Cloud II anchored in the bay of Lipari

But the adventure of the day will be the crossing of the Straits of Messina, falling from Scylla into Charybdis, under the strict guidance of Homer!

To Stromboli, 24-25 May 2023

We leave Vulcano at 10am for the 35 mile ride to Stromboli. The plan was to arrive just after sunset on the west side of the island, where eruptions occur every 20/30 minutes. So on the way, we stop for a few hours at Isola de Panarea in the Nonna Malfada anchorage for a good lunch, a swim and to clean the bow thruster blades that I forgot to do when I refitted the boat in April.

Then we leave the anchorage at 17:30 to reach the Stromboli at sunset. And we were not disappointed by the show!

To Vulcano, 22 May 2023

With a week to explore the Aeolian Islands, we decided to leave early on Monday 22nd May to reach the island of Vulcano by the end of the day, 77 miles with very light winds. We left at 6.15am, heading east-north-east towards the island of Vulcano. With back light reach winds, on engine, we reached 5.8 knots for most of the day and arrived around the island of Vulcano at around 21:00, in time to see the amazing sunset over the islands of Alicudi and Filicudi.

First sight of a volcano shape in the island of Alicudi and Filicudi

The crossing was uneventful, apart from some of the crew getting seasick!

In Palermo, 18-22 May

The routage proved good when we left Arbatax on Sardegna at 2:30 in the morning as it took us 36 hours to reach Palermo with balanced winds. I have been using Weather4D for routage, and despite it is difficult to find its way through the screens and options, one finally get a meaningful routage. In our case, it worked perfect, and this is particularly useful when you have 200 miles to go with unstable weather situation.

Street food market. Tempted?

Palermo and Sicily did not disappoint us. The maze of streets in the centre, the market districts where you can find everything, the influences of the various periods on the architecture, everything is made to surprise and captivate. 

To Palermo, 17-18 May

On the 200 nautical mile crossing to Palermo, we soon found ourselves alone in the Tyrrhenian Sea, with no coast or boats in sight for 360 degrees. I love this feeling. But while we were looking around, we happened to see a young turtle (30cm wide) swimming westwards to an undetermined destination... A few hours later we came across a large shoal of dolphins who took the opportunity of our boat passing by at 7 knots to jump and play. What a treat to sail with dolphins! But this made it clear that you are never alone in the middle of the seas!

So, what else was on the way?