SICILY: 22nd June - 3rd July 2011

Syracuse was a very interesting place to spend a week. We were anchored in the bay in front of the old medieval town of Ortiga and took the dinghy in each day to explore. The streets of Syracuse were festooned with oleander trees in full bloom. The local market was to die for with fresh fruit and vegetables at such cheap prices and such good quality; tomatoes and nectarines both 1 euro a kilo were so full of flavour compared with what we get in the UK and Aus



Dave enjoying the sights of the medieval quarter of Ortiga in Syracuse during an early morning jog. caption



A new boat Hai Mei Gui withTony and Clare on board joined the clan. Nights were spent exploring local restaurants or getting together for drinks, barbecues, musical evenings on each others boats with guitars, harmonicas and violin and lots of beer and wine.



Stewart and Phil accompanying Dave









Dave and Tony jamming the blues



As well as having fun there was also work to do.



 One of the many highlights of our stay was a visit to Noto a baroque town in the hills south of Syracuse. The town was rebuilt in 1693 after an earthquake and was designed by a top Sicilian architect. All the buildings were a soft salmon/ terracotta/ cream sandstone; the soft colour of the buildings was contrasted by espaliered fig and oleander trees.

Noto Cathedral

After a week of fun it was hard to leave our friends behind but it was time to move on and do some more exploring. We sailed up the Sicilian coast to Taormina and anchored in a cove below the historic town high up on the hill above. The view, the ambience, architecture, trendy shops, and restaurants made the climb up the hill well worthwhile.



The eddies and whirlpools in the Messina Straits

 Messina Straits then beckoned us; we had great fun sailing between ferries, cargo ships, speed boats and windsurfers, not to mention the charybidis, bastardi, whirlpools and eddies. It was relatively calm so the renowned sword fish fishing boats were out; they look so unseaworthy with their 50 ft steel lattice masts and bowsprits; the captain sits on a chair at the top of the mast and contols the boat; when a swordfish is spotted sunning itself they sneek up on it the harpoonist walks along the bowsprit and fires the harpoon. In the picture below you can just see the harpoonist standing as if suspended about 10m in fromt of the boat.

Swordfishing boats

Milazzo was our next port of call; here disaster struck when we managed to foul the propeller on the bow thruster  as we were trying to pick up the lazy lines; as if this wasn’t depressing enough we damaged the electric lead  when the boat lurched in the swell from the ferries. Our friends from the Hunter Valley ,Jan and Cathy came aboard and Jan immediately set about to fix the lead. Dave dived to look at the bow thruster to discover the prop had completely fallen off, unfortunately in too deeper water to retrieve. Luckily we had a spare on board, so after much duck diving and cursing we were ready to set sail again. Light winds blew us to the Aeolian Islands.

Dave and Cathy admiring the colourful houses in Milazzo





Checking out of Turkey and passage through the Greek Islands to the Peloponnese 1st - 20th June

Good winds blew us back to Cesme where we had decided to check out of Turkey; this was a bit of  a nightmare; luckily Dave thought to get the bicycle out so he could get from place to place; first the Harbour Master’s Office, then Bank to pay an 8 euro tax then back to HM to get the paper stamped then to the Port Police and Customs 2kms away on the end of the pier another 2 stamps then back to the HM to get the final clearance; the whole process took 2 hours!

To recover and recuperate we had a great afternoon sail to Emborio a tiny fishing village on the south coast of Chios where we were privileged to be the only yacht anchored in the bay with crystal clear water. The beach just around the point consisted of pitch black shiny, perfectly round and oval pebbles

We hitched to the village of Pygri 12 kms inland; it was the centre of the mastic industry and all the houses including the cathedral were decorated in geometric patterns reminiscent of Arabic art.

We then began our journey south via Tinos and Kea to the Peloponnesus. It was great to visit Hydra again; this time we anchored in a lovely little cove in Mandraki Bay 2kms along the coast from the chora.

  Hydra was buzzing with tourists enjoying a weekend away from Athens. I was thrilled to find the little shop where 5 years ago I bought some embroidered cloth shoes made in Thessalonica; so I indulged and bought 2 more pairs as they are so stylish and comfortable.

We spent a couple of days at Porto Kheli provisioning and doing some DIY on Makoko. A short sail across the bay took us to Spetsai where we  enjoyed a long lunch before heading off to Kiprosis, a pretty little fishing village with crystal clear water and lovely white washed and stone houses built right on the shore beside the pebble beach and tiny harbour.

Strong winds 30+ knots around…… forced us to rethink and rather than head straight into the wind and big seas we decided to sail south to Kithera. We anchored off a long sandy beach near the village of Avelomona. Luckily it was very good holding as we were holed up there for 3 days sheltering  gales from the NW.

A long motor/sail across the bottom of the Peloponnese to Methoni where we anchored  near the ruins of the 14^th century venetian fort on the headland of a large sandy bay; a spectacular setting with the island of Sapientza in the background.

It was here that we met Stew and Steph on Matador an English couple who have been cruising in the Med for the last 5 years. They were a great fount of knowledge and helped Dave with SSB radio and sailmail and also a new computer based chart system that links into a GPS, so he was a very happy bunny as these things had been bugging him. Some friends of theirs Phil and Monika arrived on a catamaran, Miss Molly.

We decided to accompany them to Navarinou Bay we anchored near a long sandy beach with a lagoon behind the beach. It was here in 1827 the British fleet sailed into the maw of a much larger Turkish fleet with bands playing and gun hatches part opened. The ensuing battle was like a hand to hand battle with ships at point blank ranges. Carnage ensured but it was a win for the Brits which said more about the training of their gun crews than the tactics of their Admirals. This was the final nail in the coffin of Turkish domination of Greece and the beginnings of the new Greek state. After 2 days of relaxing, socializing and catching up on boat maintenance   near a long sandy beach with a lagoon behind the beach. An old Venetian fortress on top of the headland beckoned us to an early morning climb. We then sailed across the bay to Pylos where we provisioned up for our passage across to Sicily 230 nautical miles away.

We were lucky with the wind; we had a beam reach the whole way across and except for 5 hours when there was no wind, sailed all the way. Makoko performed well helped by Dave’s persistence in getting the sails right; we arrived at Syracuse on the SE coast of Sicily 10 hours before our friends on Matador and Miss Molly.