Alexanders in the Mediterranean: Isla Vulano to Messina

Messina is a major shipping channel in Europe with a deep water passage between Italy and Sicily. There is traffic galore and it gives us a chance to try out our AIS system on the chartplotter. We were quite fortunate to have the wind from behind all the way from Vulcano. Marina and I woke up and took the dinghy to shore to get some groceries for the day, then powered for an hour to charge up the freezer and then pulled the sails out. We contemplated putting the spinnaker up but chickened out as the wind was pushing the high teens.

Main and Jib...wing on wing.

We ended up sailing most of the way wing-on-wing with the main and jib on different sides of the rig – the autopilot has trouble with doing this in waves so it let us hand steer for a while. As we made the turn into the Strait the wind died so we powered in watching the intricate patterns of the swordfish boats looking for fish.

Swordfish boats.

Swordfish are prized in the Med and are worth a fortune. The boats are quite unique with very tall masts where 3 guys sit in a crows-nest, and a huge bowsprit – probably twice the length of the boat – where they harpoon the swordfish from. We were hoping to watch them catch one but fortunately for the local swordfish population, it appeared to be a slow day.

Marina Netuno di Messina is very nice but pricey (120Euros) and we settled in, got directions and went grocery shopping. We knew we needed a few days’ provisions so we went into town – nice waterfront, though a bit seedy in some of the areas we walked, and then found the grocery store.

Tara at Marina Netuno di Messina

We got beer and wine, water, some meats and Ross’ favourite, a kilo of Parmesan cheese. It’s 13Euro per kilo here –a little less than half the price we pay … so we load up. On our last stop in Italy will try to buy a few kilos – it is way better than chocolate.

Ross and his 13 Euro parmesean wedge...yum!

After filling the water tanks and hosing down the boat, the kids revelled in the high-speed wireless internet access – just as fast as at home. Ross downloaded some new games from Steam and Jess spent the entire evening Skyping to friends. No problem, Marina and I enjoyed each other’s company watching the ships come and go.

It's not often we get a dock to hop down to...was weird actually.

Marina and I felt that we would like to spend some more time in Messina – it has the feel of a town with a lot of history – like Rome or Venice. Unfortunately our schedule is pushing us forward. One great thing happened however, we found out that Roccella Ionica – our next stop was deep enough for us to go in. Phew one of the big potential obstacles turns out to be no problem at all.