Sicily and the Aeolian Islands

October 2020 

It's amazing how time flies.  Its been a while since I have written anything.  I have created our vlogs and we've been busy making the most of the end of what is going to be our 2nd year of sailing this wonderful journey.

Sicily is an island of 2 dimensions.  On the one hand it is beautiful with its tiny lanes, high buildings to keep out the sun, stunning beaches, crystal clear waters, magnificent cathedrals and churches and fabulous towns.  Then there's the other side of overflowing bins with rubbish everywhere, run-down buildings, stray street dogs and bureaucracy.

We left Arunella heading for Cefalu with a great wind behind us.  Cordelia and the weather had other things in mind for us though and with the wind picking up and 2-3mtr seas and a broken steering cable we decided to sail overnight to the Aeolian Islands.  We arrived at the island of Vulcana, slept and was woken up with a braying donkey, who we realised was grazing on the hillside just 200mtrs from us.  We relaxed in the warm sun, had coffee and decided we would overnight in the next anchorage north of the island.  We sailed up the coast of Vulcana with its blackened volcanic scenery until we reached the anchorage where we would spend a few days.  This overlooked the volcano and a very small fishing village.

The island of Vulcana is wondefully magical.  An island that seems to be stuck in time with its one-story houses (most of them unoccupied), very tiny roads but with all facilities within walking distance. The small shop that sold everything from meat and cheese to hiking boots.  This is a place that we could have easily spent weeks just relaxing and pondering our wonderful life.  

We hiked the volcano, which has not erupted since 1888 so we felt safe enough.  Its 1000mtrs high and took us about 90mins to climb.  We've never experienced anything quite like it.  When we reached the top it really took your breath away, we felt like we were on top of the world.  The crater was enormous with steaming sulphur escaping through the gravelly ground.  The view over the island and towards the other Aeolian Islands was magnificent.

The local fishermen also sell their fish direct from their boats, so as we had travelled nearly 3000nm and only caught one fish, we decided to buy a couple.  What started off as 2 small fish for €5 each ended up being 2 large fish for €15 each.  With the language barrier we could not complain, we laughed and thoroughly enjoyed the fish, even though we didn't know what we were eating.

After our week exploring we decided it was time to head toward the Messina Strait.  We were on our way to Siracusa, which is half way to our winter berth in Ragusa.

On route we visited the coastal town of Milazzo.  A fairly protected anchorage where we stocked up on provisions for the next few days and visited Milazzo castle.  We saw dolphins in the anchorage that visited the 3 nights we were there.  A pretty town with the traditional colourful small fishing boats pulled up on to the beach.  It was here that we bought the best pork chops we had had in ages, a real 'to die for' taste.

Our sail through the Messina Strait was uneventful.  Steve had researched and researched again the best time to go through and obviously he had been keeping an eye on the weather.  The weather was perfect, the sea was calm, we motor-sailed through with ease.  It is 1.25miles across with mainland Italy on one side and Sicily the other.  We overnight sailed to Taormina, where we spent 2 nights before our passage to Siracusa.  We were looking forward to Siracusa, not only because of visiting the famous old town of Ortigia but we were also meeting friends.