Italy or Bust

After a lovely last night in Greece, in the little harbour of Lakka on the north side Paxoi Island, we set off across the Ionian bound for Italy. The winds cooperated some, but we still did a lot of motoring. We rounded the bottom of the Italian "foot" at dawn and motored up into the Messina Straits, the body of water between Sicily and the Italian mainland. Now, mind you , the Straits are notorious, since antiquity, for violent squalls, water spouts, fast running tidal currents and giant eddies that will swallow ships, or so the legends go. We had no idea what to expect as we approached with wide eyes and vigilant recognisance, except Homers Greek mythology about Scylla and Charybdis.

Scylla and Charybdis were mythical sea monster on opposite sides of the Straits. Scylla was a rock shoal (described as a six-headed sea monster) on the Italian side and Charybdis was a whirlpool off the coast of Sicily. Many idioms came from this, like "having to take a narrow path between two bad choices", or "between the devil and the deep blue sea" or "between a rock and a hard place". Now a days, you also have high speed ferries and heaps of fishing boats to contend with. But hey, if this guy can do it, so can we, no worries.

And so as it turned out, we only got tossed about a bit, no violent squalls (early in the morning), no monsters tugging at the keel, nor any water spouts to flip us over. We did have to actively make our way across the shipping lanes full of rather boisterous eddies and rips. At least we were able to keep moving forward, unlike the Komodo islands with their massive tidal currents.

And so we kept going and landed later that day on the side of another daunting natural wonder; Stromoli, a very active (though somewhat sleepy) volcano, complete with puffing clouds of smoke, streams of lava and floating pumice known as "the wandering rocks". We hoped she would stay asleep so we could get some sleep ourselves before heading off to Pompeii and another notorious volcano; Mt. Vesuvius. We also had in the back of our minds that this area is called the "Aeolian Triangle", not much different than the Bermuda Triangle in the Atlantic. Hummmm...., and we still have 130 miles to get to Pompeii. Gales blow here without any prediction, but brave little sailors we are (and fingers crossed) we set off the next morning, nothing in the forecast to worry about. We did make it as we are still here, though we had to motor the whole way, again.

The next morning, we found ourselves sliding along the cliffs under the Sorrento, a beautiful peninsula to make landfall on the Italian mainland. The Roman ruins, some dating back to 600 BC, are obvious and grand, still standing with many buildings perched on top.

But we are on our way to Pompeii where we have a marina berth reserved so we can leave EQ safely while we travel inland to Venice, finally. :)

So, that's the news from EQ, where the winds are fair (if at all), seas calm (flat), and the crew content to be in Italy. Hippeeee. PIZZA!

With Equanimity and Joy...