On our way South along the West coast of Italy we ended up staying in Marina Carmelo for five nights until the weather conditions improved so that we could sail across to Stromboli, we needed good weather conditions for our sail around the Aeolian Islands of which Stromboli is just one.
During our stay in the marina we took a train one day with Helen and Marcel to Tropea, which is approximately 20 miles further along the coast and is supposed to have a really lovely old town sitting on the cliffs above the marina there. The reason we didn’t sail there was the cost per night in the marina would have been very expensive compared to Marin Carmello, and actually when we saw it we were not that impressed.
The old town of Tropea is very nice with its very narrow streets and old buildings many of which need a great deal of TLC, some really good renovation projects around if anyone was interested.
The town itself is very touristy with lots of shops selling tacky souvenirs which in a way took the shine of the place, there are also lots of restaurants to choose from which are very reasonably priced, along with coffee bars and Gelateria’s. We stopped off at one and decided to treat ourselves to iced coffees, when they arrived they looked great and we couldn’t wait to tuck in, unfortunately they were not as nice as they looked and we ended up leaving most of it.
After spending a couple of hours walking around Tropea we decided to head back to the station, and all agreed that although the buildings in the town were nice to look at, on the whole we were not as impressed with the place as we thought we would have been.
On our final day in the marina we decided to get some jobs done, one was the washing and the other was someone needed to go up the mast to get the measurements for the new head sail, as it was a calm day I volunteered.
So with all safety gear on Kevin winched me up, at the top I worked with Kevin to take the measurements form where he indicated (or I thought so) and then took the necessary pictures. It seemed to take Kevin ages to write down the measurements and by the time we had finished my groins were killing me where the straps from the harness were digging in to the point I was begging Kevin to get me down. Helen stood on the side lines shouting encouragement and once I was back on the ground indicated she wouldn’t mind having a go and so Kevin assisted her into the climbing harness and hoisted her up.
Unfortunately I hadn’t taken the measurements correctly so it then meant I had to hoist Kevin up the mast so he could do it properly, I am not sure what the marina staff made of all this tooing and frowing up and down the mast.
Miss Lilly and Dakini left Marina Carmello early the next day and we said our farewells to the very helpful marina staff, it was a shame that there was not a little more to the town Vibo Valenta.
As we crossed over to the Aeolian Islands we could see Stromboli in the distance, and approximately every twenty minutes you could see smoke rising from the crater as it let off mini eruptions. When we arrived at one off the anchorage sites we did not expect to see the second as in the pilot book they look to be two very separate anchorages when in fact they are just a few meters apart.
At first we dropped the anchor with the trip line attached, but somehow it got caught around the rudder and so we had to release it and set the anchor again, on the second attempt Kevin decided not to bother with the trip line. By the time we were sorted Dakini who had been a good thirty minutes behind us were anchored and ready to go ashore.
Once ashore we climbed the hill to the town at the top, very narrow streets which only three wheeler electric cars and trucks can get through. Again the town was very touristy, which spoilt its potential charm and neither Helen nor I were particularly impressed with it. We found a restaurant with a good view over the bay to have our evening meal before going back to our respective boats, we needed an early night in readiness for our early start to see the volcano irrupting in the dark.
The alarm was set for 0400 and we were up prompt, made our preparations and then started to lift the anchor at the same time Helen was lifting Dakini’s. However at the ten metre point our anchor got stuck and we weren’t going anywhere so we sat down had a coffee and watched as Dakini sailed out of the bay. We did try to radio them to inform them of our predicament but as it turned out their radio was not on. Eventually they realised that we weren’t following us and radioed us, after a few brief discussions they turned around and picked us up and we sailed with them to view the volcano.
Unfortunately it was quite cloudy and our view was obscured, and then when it did erupt we were unable to get a really good picture of it, we did however get a great photo of the spectacular sunrise.
After our sail to see the volcano it was back to the bay where Miss Lilly was caught fast on something, in daylight we could see that the anchor was caught under either a cable or chain. Helen and Marcel prepared to get ready to dive to release it for us when with a little amount of maneuvering we were able to release it ourselves, with that sorted we set of for Vulcano another volcanic island as its name suggests. We have now however set an objective to learn to dive for ourselves in case we ever get in this situation again as it can cost anything up to 400 Euros to get a diver to release you.
On arriving at the anchorage on the east side of Vulcano the heavens opened and we were in the middle of a thunder storm with lightening all around us, fortunately it was short lived and so we didn’t get too wet setting the anchor.
The bay in which we anchored was lovely and you could see the steam rising from the crater of the volcano and so we decide we would all climb it the following day.
So it was another early start, not as early as the previous day though, we picked up Helen and Marcel and headed for shore, there was a slight breeze and much of the climb was in the shade and so was quite pleasant.
At the top you could smell the sulphur fumes and the smell was disgusting, we walked around the rim of the crater trying to avoid inhaling the fumes where possible, having never climbed a volcano before and always being fascinated by them I truly thought it was a great experience so good that Kevin and I climbed it again a few days later.
On the way down we passed the mud baths again the smell was awful and so we decided we would give them a miss, even though they are supposed to be good for you, from where I was standing they did not appear so.
The following day Marcel and Helen took us in their RIB across to Lapari another island just a short distance from Vulcano, again a very picturesque town with narrow streets but not so touristy this time, even though there were a large number of tourists arriving by the ferries off the mainland every few minutes or so it seemed.
The bay off the town though is not a very good place to anchor and the marina prices extortionate and one day was all that was needed to see the town.
Our next sail was to Salina and an anchorage on the North West coast although, this one is not mentioned in the pilot book. The anchorage is over rocks and so this time we did set the trip line when we dropped anchor. There was not much of a village at the top off the cliff as Kevin had expected and we were surrounded by cliffs which were made up off various rock formations, enabling you to see the lava flows from previous eruptions, it was quite fascinating.
As I was not that impressed with the anchorage enough to stay longer we made a decision to head back to Vulcano and then west to Milazzo to take shelter from the storms forecasted before sailing down the Messina Straits.
We informed Helen and Marcel of our decision, they too had changed their minds about sailing to the other two islands and had decided to head for Cefalu 50 miles west on the mainland as they needed to get over to Tunisa to get their papers stamped outside off an EU country. We said our goodbyes wished each other a safe passage and would see them again in Ragusa, by the way the score in Brandi Dog stands at five four to the girls.
We waved them off and gingerly raised the anchor to ensure it wasn’t wrapped around a rock and set off back to Vulcano. We anchored in the same bay as previously as this afforded us the best shelter, our intention was to stay there for two nights before heading to Mizallo. In fact we only stayed the one night, we got up early to climb the volcano again, and then back on board Miss Lilly we checked the weather again, the predicted storms seemed to be approaching sooner than originally forecasted and so we decided to lift anchor and set off for Milazzo that afternoon.
We managed to sail all the way there even though no winds had been forecasted which made a nice change from having to motor, which seemed to have been the case most days recently. We arrived in Milazzo early evening and although the sun was shining it still looked a grimy place with its oil refinery taking up much of the east side of the coastline. However the anchorage had good holding if not a little noisy at times due to the ferries with the associated swell as they passed by. This all stopped after about 2000 and so we did manage to get a peaceful night, although a little smelly at times due to the oil refinery.
The following day we went ashore leaving our dingy in the marina, the staff there again very helpful, they said we could leave our dingy where we wanted no problem a very rare occurrence indeed. Ashore the town did not change our initial impression, there is an old castle at the top of the hill but we chose not to visit it, we are starting to get castle and church fatigue.
As Milazzo is the last anchorage site on the north east coast of Sicily before the straits it’s a good place to stop, but we didn’t find anywhere where we could stock up on provisions, maybe because we went ashore on a Sunday, and although there were several shops open selling bread we could not find a big supermarket.
On our last day in Milazzo the storms predicated did not arrive although it did become overcast, our intention was to set off the following day at 0400 hours so that we could start to head down the Messina straits at 0800 and get the best out of the south going current. At 0100 the thunder storms and the rain hit, we got up and put all the portable communication equipment in the oven with the intention of going back to bed for another three hours, however the rain had come in through the small vented window and the bed was soaking and so I had to strip and remake the bed before we could get back in. the storms kept me awake for most of the night and managed to just nod off when the alarm went.
Although you could still see the lightening around us the sky above was clear and so we decided to stick to our original plan and head for the straits. We arrived at the planned time, Kevin radioed Messina VTS to inform them of our intention to sail down them, apparently if you do not do this then you can be fined 2000 euros on the spot.
As we rounded the headland we had our first good view of the Straits, they didn’t look as scary as we had heard, the rain had stopped and the sea was calm.
As we motor sailed down the straits there were not as many ships as we expected, we did wonder how the Italians would manage if they had to monitor the shipping lanes in the English Channel. We timed our passage well and had 2 knots of current in our favour and at one point we got a top speed of 9.2 knots. Our passage went smoothly and we did not encounter any of the whirlpools or swirling currents other yachtsmen have told us about.
We reached our destination Taormarina at 1315 hours. We picked up one of the buoys for 30 Euros only because by now the winds were gusting to 26knts as we wanted to go ashore and were not sure what the holding was like if we anchored, when anchoring we normally stay on board for at least an hour to make sure things are secure before leaving the boat.
First impressions of Taormarina are good although the plan is to only stay one night here before heading south to Siracusa where we plan to spend a few days chilling out before we decide to head to Ragusa or make a detour to Malta for a few days.
Distance Travelled 2012: 2471Nm
Distance Travelled 2413: 2311Nm
Total Distance: 5182Nm
Our Present Position: https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=36.782617,14.545186&hl=en&sll=36.793065,14.563751&sspn=0.114373,0.234318&mra=mift&mrsp=0&sz=13&t=m&z=13 
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