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