Moving north from Taormina we have to pass through the Straits of Messina. This narrow stretch of water connects the Tyrrhenian Sea (to the north) with the Ionian (where we are today). Because of different water temperatures and different tides in the two seas, this stretch of water can be tricky on bad days and sometimes even downright nasty on days when the wind and current are moving in opposite directions.
The trick here is to time your transit correctly. With modern technology we have websites that show the net current flow at any time of the day. You want to go through when the current is helping you; if you try it when it’s against you, you’ll have a slow day and may not even make it through.
One of the manifestations of all this disturbed water is a number of whirlpools. This is not so bad as it sounds; these are not the “sucking down vast oil tankers never to be seen again” kind of whirlpools but they do make helming a little surprising sometimes. However their locations are well-known and you can avoid them if you need to.
In history, the Straits of Messina are where Odysseus (yes, him again) encountered the two monsters Scylla and Charybdis. Both of these are references to whirlpools. Charybdis is still there today and we will get to meet her on the way back. But Scylla is gone. An earthquake changed the shape of the seabed and Scylla moved and became less significant.
In Greek, Scylla sounds like “Silla" and has pronunciation overtones of “scimitar”, “scythe” etc. - just a little ominous. In Italian, “Scilla” (as it is now spelled) is pronounced “Sheila" - not scary at all. It is as if King Kong was remade as “Queen Sheila” - marketing would not be happy.
We leave at 7:00 to make the best time window to get through the Straits. It is calm and quiet and it looks like we will be motoring for most of the day. As we make our way north, the wind starts to swing round and strengthen. Soon we have about 12 knots on our nose; not usually anything to remark on but remember that bit about wind against tide? If this continues, we will have exactly that situation when the tide switches to our favor about 11:30 or so. Hmmm.
We plough on. the other thing about the Straits is traffic. Big ships go through here in each direction. Also there are ferries, many, many ferries going from the mainland of Italy to Sicily and back.
The big ships are easy - you can avoid them without too much trouble. The ferries zipping back and forth are a slightly different matter. They will come quite close to you but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before in other parts of the Med and is almost entirely uneventful.
At the north end where the Straits are at their narrowest, the tide turns just about when predicted and we are just about where we predicted. Perfect. But to give you an idea of the change in a period of about two minutes we went from making about 2.8 knots of forward progress to making over 7 knots without changing our throttle setting. Sometimes nature just likes to remind you of who is really in charge.
Our overnight stop is in the harbor of the little fishing town named after the monster, Scilla. It’s a very traditional town that has lots of fishermen’s houses clustered along the waterfront. It’s still an active fishing harbor but slowly the houses are being turned into holiday apartments and restaurants. However its character still remains.
There are a few buoys here for visiting yachts and we have reserved one for the night. The owner of the buoy comes out in a dinghy to help us moor. While we are in this process a beautiful 60ft yacht , Simeron joins in the dance. She decides to anchor in the entrance to the tiny harbor. She is 60ft and the harbor entrance is about 90ft with the moored pleasure craft. By the time you add her anchor chain, she is covering the entrance and her stern is between us and the guys helping us moor! Nothing for it but to let them do it. Once they are done they make a mock bow suggesting that we may continue mooring now. What is the Italian for “dumbass”?
True Colors (center) moored in Scilla
We moor nicely out of the way of local craft and Simeron. But a little while later a local swordfish fisherman comes up to them in his boat. From the language, the tone, gestures and the reactions it is clear that he knows the Italian for “dumbass” and, apparently, quite a few other terms in a similar vein. He makes his point and they slink away looking a little lessself-satisfied than when they arrived. it is sad that a classy boat has a less than classy crew.
The swordfish fishing is quite a fascinating enterprise. I don't know if this is done like this anywhere else in the world, but here they have specially-fashioned boats. The captain and maybe one other are perched atop of a structure which must be more than forty feet above the boat. He steers from there. Apparently swordfish like to sleep near the surface of the water and this enables them to be spotted from the boat superstructure. Once spotted they creep up on them and and snag them. Not entirely sporting (like catching Bambi when she's napping) but the result is quite delicious. Ah! - the ethical problems of being an omnivore.