Reggio was surely one of the least attractive places we've stayed since the boat was new. Right on the highway and the railroad tracks, run down buildings everywhere. But "only" Euro 80 for the night! In fairness, we didn't make it to town which is supposed to be nice.

We had an interesting passage of the Straight of Messina which again showed us how important geography is to the wind. We started sailing in Reggio with a Southerly around 10 knots, as forecast. That jumped to 22 knots 4 miles from the Straight and then to 35 knots right after the Straight, only to fizzle out to 3 knots a few miles hence. The shore is mountainous on the mainland side but pretty flat on the Sicily side - I wouldn't have predicted a Venturi effect. Since the middle of last year, I have the jacklines on Kincsem permanently rigged during the season because you just can't predict when you might need them. Good thing because in the 35 knots stretch I had to go forward to rig the running backstays for the staysail which we use instead of the genoa if it gets above 30 knots or so. I could go (read crawl) forward to the mast and back to the aft locker where the backstays are stored fully lined in because of this new practice.

Milazzo was our next harbor, again nothing attractive there but better than Reggio. Oil refinery and a ferry running its generator all night long right next to the marina did not make us want to stay longer. We found a great fish store in town, however, which enabled us to have some great sword fish the next evening at anchor. The Straight of Messina is known for great sword fish fishing and the specimen we bought a small slice of certainly was big! Good to see that there is some fish left in the Mediteranean.

We anchored at the Tindari marine reserve, which is not much to look at either, just a sand pit providing some shelter from the NWerly winds. Here is where we made the decision to go up to the Aeolean islands to get away from the somewhat disappointing scenery of Northern Sicily so far.

Leaving the Tindari marine reserve

Our first stop was Lipari, where we anchored just West of the Castello. There is always something to watch here with the water and diesel ships coming and going and usually anchoring just here.

View from the Castello of Lipari

The town is nice as ever - there are some stores here that don't sell touri stuff. I've been here before but Rieke and Benno are always good for some new discoveries .....

We got to this anchorage on Isola di Volcano yesterday and it certainly was a challenge to anchor the boat safely. The bottom here is volcanic rock with a layer of some dark sand on top (in most places) and it slopes severely from about 5 meters to 50 meters in many places. Closer inshore is occupied by mooring balls that are not serviced early in the year so are not available. The first two tries the anchor seemed to hold but at 1500 rpm in reverse, the rumble started and we picked up speed backwards. Ultimately, we got lucky because one boat which had occupied one of the sandy spots left and we managed to claim the spot. With 50 meters out in 5 meter depth, we were ok. Benno and I hiked up the volcano which is extinct except for some pits that spew Sulphur gases. Great scenery though and terrific views now since the Sahara sand has blown away to somewhere. We could see Mt Etna (some 40 miles), Stromboli (25 miles) and even the mountains of the boot of Italy which must be 50 miles away.

Italian mainland in the background

Mt Etna in the distance

When we came back to the boat the anchorage was suddenly full to overflowing, with some 10 additional charter boats mostly from a Russian organizer. Christoph and Rieke had defended our anchor well though - so far, no other anchors over ours! But this was only the beginning - charter boats kept coming and going until late at night and anchors everywhere. We watched how one 50 footer got its anchor chain wrapped around the chain of the Scotish 25 footer next to us and numerous other near misses. We asked the boat on our right side how much chain he had out. He answered: "I don't know and I also don't know how deep it is where we dropped it ..... "

As Murphy's law would have it, the wind shifted 40 degrees when the sun went down and picked up to 20 knots with higher gust. In the morning, the anchorage was a lot less occupied with several boats, including the boat on our right side, having been blown out to sea .... A diver was busy unwrapping chains and recovering anchors that had been let go during the night because the chains were wrapped around other chains. Good morning entertainment with a cupa in your hand! We are off to Salina, the island North West of Lipari.