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 extendin...

Before we left Palermo we spent a further day sightseeing with Rosemary, including a visit to the Convento dei Capucinni, a large catacombs where about 8,000 of the great and the good of Palermo have literally been hung out to dry. Most of the bodies date from the 18th and 19th centuries and have been embalmed, put into their Sunday best and then hung up in niches around the catacombs. Some of the bodies still have flesh on them, like dried parchment, while others are just skeletons. The result is a bizarre social history of the dress of middle class Sicilians over two centuries. Far from being creepy or horrifying the catacombs seemed curiously tame, maybe we’ve become so used to super-real Hollywood special effects that reality is becoming increasingly anti-climactic.

It’s evening and I’m sat aboard La Fulica in my underpants typing this at arms length to keep the heat of the laptop as far away from my body as possible.   I’m covered in sweat and every now and then a trickle rolls down my stomach and is caught by the barely perceptible breeze to produce a mild chilling sensation.   Christ it’s hot.   Too hot to move or even to think much, too hot to get up and pour oneself yet another drink.   So hot that at last we’ve started to keep proper Mediterranean hours – up reasonably early to get stuff done, then a siesta from about one until five in the afternoon, when the pitiless Sun begins to let up enough for us to start thinking about doing things again.   So hot that the Sicilian dogs have given up the struggle to do anything but keel over in the shade and pant.   Friendly or aggressive they are all the same now, all raising an apologetic eye as you pass as if to say “sorry mate, I would get out of you...

From Marettimo we hopped to Favignana, the next of the Egadi Islands and thence to Marsala in Sicily proper.   We decided to make this our first port of call on the mainland for no better reason than that it has a wonderfully romantic name.   It derives from the Arabic “Marsah-el-Allah”, literally “the Port of God”.   The fact that it is also the home of Marsala wine was, of course, incidental.   We spent a few days there sightseeing and had the good fortune to make friends with two real Sicilians, Arnaldo and Mathilde who are spending August sailing to Pantelleria and Tunisia.   Arnaldo is a cameraman for RAI, the Italian state TV Company and Mathilde is a freelance, mainly unemployed, architect.   Arnaldo has some vines down in the far South West of the island and the bilges of their boat “Arne and Matt” are stuffed with the strong red wine which is their product.   My memory of the two evenings we spent with them is a little hazy,...

We left Cagliari on 31 st July and headed back to Villasimius on the South Eastern tip of the island and the nearest point to Sicily, our next destination.   I guess it’s a sign of our increasing experience that this 160 odd mile passage held only as many terrors for me as our crossing of the English Channel just over one year ago.   At Villasimius we met up with Chris and Auriel of the yacht “Blue Jade”.   We’d first met them at Calvi in Corsica and a few times since then around the coasts of Sardinia and Corsica, but hadn’t really got to know them.   It turned out that they were also planning to cruise to Sicily and we spent an enjoyable few days in their company waiting for good weather.   We both left at dawn on 3 rd August, with Blue Jade intending to head straight for San Vito Lo Capo on the North West tip of Sicily, while we had decided to head first for the Egadi Islands off the West coast of Sicily, shortening our passage to about 140 mi...

Last time I wrote we were in Cagliari in Sardinia, where we ultimately stayed for nine days, partly I think due to cruising fatigue.   We have been experiencing so much this summer that from time to time we just need to stop and let it all sink in.   Also, this life is quite physically demanding, especially as we have been spending a lot of our time at anchor rather than in marinas and there are times when we need to physically rest up.   Cagliari is an undemanding sort of town and refreshingly multicultural.   Along the harbour front there is a colonnaded walkway with several cafes, a popular spot for the evening passagiata when the locals stroll around their town and sit in the cafes chewing the fat with old friends or flerting.   One hot afternoon sat in one of the cafes we watched three of the local drunks.   They were at the “you’re my best mate you are” stage, but beginning to edge into “just who the fuck do you think you are?” ...