Marzamemi to Riposto

Mount Etna in the distance...steaming away.

I remember complaining about the size of Cyprus because it seemed to take forever to get past it, well ditto for Sicily. We left Marzamemi early and powered until the wind came up at around 9 am, starting out close hauled, then motorsailed (where the jib is up and the motor is helping us along as well). The waves were unbelievably steep -- about 2 or 3 per boat length and the rig and the boat were slamming as we have never heard before. We were worried about losing our fillings the slamming was so harsh. We had thought about getting to Taormini -- a beautiful town about 70 miles north of Marzamemi. After so many hours of it, we decided to head into our second choice: Riposto.

The gas dock...we were put on the back side.

We were tired and hungry so we called on the radio, pulled in -- they put us on the gas dock, then we suffered a little bit of sticker shock with an 82 Euro moorage fee. I felt like saying that I just wanted a slip for the boat, not a hotel room too! We negotiated a bit but couldn't get anywhere so we had a very long hot shower in their washrooms and filled up with water and left all our lights on to use as much electricity as possible (just kidding). We got up early again and bugged out about 7 am with the kids snug in their beds.

The view from our berth of Mt. Etna