When Lori and I lived in Massachusetts we used to walk on the beaches most weekends. On one such we encountered two girls about ten or eleven who were playing an the rocks and tidal pools. Getting from one spot to another involved tricky clambering across the slippery rocks.
As always, one girl was bolder than the other and she instructed the other on the best routes - “this one is the easy:hard way, but that one is the hard:easy way” she shouted to her hesitant acolyte. It wasn’t clear if her instructions were heeded (perhaps due to the popsicle-induced purple lips and tongue of the would-be leader) but the categorization definitely had some subtlety and merit.
So when it comes to sailing from Greece to Sicily, there is the easy:hard way and the hard:easy way. The hard:easy way we have done before a couple of times. It implies sailing north to Corfu, crossing to the Italian mainland at Santa Maria di Leuca, traversing the sole of the Italian boot and finally making the long day’s leap form Roccella to Taormina. It’s an easy route to follow but it has more long legs than is comfortable, is susceptible to bad weather and requires 5 or 6 sailing days.
So this year we determined to do it differently - the easy hard way. This involves s direct sail from Preveza to Roccella. This is easy in the sense that there are no complexities but it’s hard because the single leg is 208 nautical miles (the longest leg we have sailed). 208 nautical miles takes about 36 hours, so for a significant period it is dark and you are far from land.
Choosing a weather window is key; you don’t want to be messing about on deck in the dark with bad weather. We have a perfect one - we’ll probably motor most of the way but all will be calm.
You may be wondering what it’s like to sail at night. 100 miles offshore there is no light pollution whatsoever, so when it is dark, it can be really, really REALLY dark.
The orange blob is the moon rising and the little dot to the right of it is another sailboat about 5 miles away. NOW you understand why we have radar.
However if the sky is clear, the stars never cease to amaze. The Milky Way looks a dusting of snow crystals on a vast invisible Christmas tree. And when the moon is out you can see for miles across an oily-black sea. On this trip we have the added spectacle of bioluminescent plankton in our bow wave and wake.
The boat waves crest the effect but it’s really eerie when dolphins swim around the boat at night and all you can see are their darting luminescent trails.
Roccella Ionica
The trip to Roccella is uneventful but we plan to rest here for a couple of days before the last leg to Taormina on Sicily.
Roccella Ionica is in Reggio Calabria - a historically poor region in the south of Italy which has been slow to benefit from international investment and economical development. The people are friendly and incredibly helpful. We want to go to a restaurant with authentic Calabrian cuisine but it is about three miles away and we are in the middle of a heat emergency. The local taxi driver is not available, so the marina staff insist on driving us into town where we can meet up with the cab driver. We are told not to worry about the trip back - the taxi driver is again unavailable but all is in hand.
The restaurant has been in business since 1899 and they have certainly used the time to hone their culinary skills.
After the meal, we discover that the arrangements that were made for our return are that one of the restaurant staff will drive us back to the marina. When we insist on giving him a tip, he looks embarrassed. As I said incredibly friendly and helpful people.
The crossing to Taormina is straightforward but involves crossing the bottom of the Strait of Messina which can work as a funnel for all sorts of strange weather (as we will see later). But today the weather in the Strait is better than the forecast and we make good time to the buoy field below Taormina and its handy, over-sized (but hiding in the heat haze) navigation beacon.
Mount Etna through the heat haze brought on by the extremely hot weather this year.
Sometimes little things serve to remind you of the long history that you are wandering through. Giardini Naxos (Naxos Gardens) the town below Taormina was founded in 735BC and is the oldest Greek settlement on the island. The name is derived from that of the island of Naxos in Greece where the first colonists came from.
Taormina, up some very steep mountain slopes from the water’s edge, predates the Greek settlement but has thrived over the last 125 tears and has become a sophisticated tourist destination that, among other things, has its own Film Festival.
And here is where past and present clash (for me, at least). One of the iconic classical ruins of Taormina is the Greek Theatre. (Not really a “Greek” theater but a Roman one built on top of the structure of an earlier Greek one. You know the Romans - never saw something that they couldn’t improve.)
Anyway, I wanted my version of the shot. We pay our ten euros; climb up to top of the hill to see the view and …
Now I like films as much as many people but this is going too far … I want my ten euros back!
Taormina is our first encounter with a striking Christian image that may have its roots in pre-Christian times. The image is that of Christ Pantocrator (seen here in Taormina cathedral).
It’s a complicated image. Some say it has its origins in Classical Greek times and is derived from images of Zeus. In the Christian context this is an image more rooted in the Orthodox Church rather than the Roman church. It is unknown in the Protestant church.
“Christ Pantocratoe” can mean “Christ Almighty” or “Christ All-powerful”. But looking at the Classical Greek with its subtle nuancing, others say it means either “Christ who does all things” or “Christ who can do all things”. Now that’s a nuance worthy of discussion!
We hope to see more examples of this image in the coming days.
More prosaically, Taormina is also an opportunity for people-watching. The main pedestrian street is lined with cafes ideally situated for sipping an Aperol Spritz and watching life go by.
Today is Saturday and, apparently, the day for weddings in Taormina - we count four. All have a similar timeline and all involve the bride riding in a car decked with flowers and accompanied by either her father (before the wedding) or her husband (after the wedding).
