The Straits of Messina and Taormina

Sue and Rosemary both found the Straits of Messina a bit of a let down, I think, although I was fascinated. At their narrowest the straits are maybe only half a mile wide and there are strong currents caused by differences in the times of high and low water in the Tyrrhenian and Ionian seas. The two seas also have different salinity levels which creates small whirlpools and eddies. I think Sue was hoping that we’d skirt the edge of Charybdis, the legendary whirlpool of “the Odyssey” and see Poseidon looking up and beckoning us down the plughole. We did hit a small whirlpool, but it was a flat calm and windless day and all that happened was the autohelm struggled a bit to keep us on a strait course. A greater hazard are the ferries that ply in a constant stream to and from Messina to Villa San Giovanni on the mainland. While in the Straits we were lucky to see three or four of the swordfish boats that hunt there on calm days. They are quite small boats but with a walkway extending from their bow by as much as fifty feet and are steered by the Captain sat atop a twenty or thirty foot tower. The boats move in predatory circles around the Strait looking for swordfish, which apparently take catnaps a little below the surface of the water. The Captain can see the prey from the tower and steers the boat so that a man with a harpoon can zap the unsuspecting fish from the extended gangway.

After the Straits we headed south and anchored under the fashionable resort of Taormina. Having struggled ashore in the dinghy we searched in vain for a bus stop or a taxi and decided to take the footpath up to the town. Five hundred feet later we emerged on the edge of Taormina exhausted, sweaty and fit only for a lie down. After a reviving beer we struggled on into the centre, we walked up a narrow lane as the sun began to set and wham, we were hit by a solid wall of tourists bustling up and down the town’s main shopping street. Despite the effort and the crowds Taormina was worth it, a beautiful jumble of elegant palazzos, villas and churches sat on the northern slopes of Etna with wonderful views over the coast from its main square.