Here we go Southern Italy and Sicily
Drop the mooring!
That's the captain's announcement. The time has come, we cast off and leave the harbour in Castellammare di Stabia. We've spent six months here, getting our boat ready and planning our first stage. And now we're actually setting off, how exciting! 😎
Leslie is also on board, she will be with us for three weeks. It's amazing that we are now leaving this harbour knowing that this will be our last "fixed" location for a while. A thought that is hard to grasp. What's going on inside you? Somehow I'm nervous, because there are so many unknown things to come from now on. My own answer to the question of whether we'll manage it all is "we'll be fiiiiine" 😅 But I'm not scared at the moment, I think we'll manage and I'm looking forward to finally getting started.
Down the south coast of Italy
Our plan basically looks like this: We now have about a week to get from Castellammare to Catania. There we will pick up Christian and Ayse and then the five of us will explore Sicily for a week. Unfortunately, the wind isn't really in our favour and we're collecting our first engine hours... 😩 The Italian west coast offers charming little harbours (all of which are still empty and free in May) and pretty little towns. We were particularly taken with Tropea. A personal highlight for me is visiting my brother Kilian with his wife Marianna and little Alessio and Letizia. The four of them are in the area anyway, so we meet up at the marina in Scario. It's raining ☔ so nobody really feels like going out. But carbonara on a boat has its charm 😍 I'm really pleased that another part of my family has seen how we live.
Past Scylla and Charybdis
For all of you who are not quite as addicted to Greek mythology as I am: the two sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis are described in Homer's Odyssey as inhabitants of a certain strait. Scylla lives on one side of the water, has the upper body of a young woman and the abdomen of six dogs. She eats everything that lives and comes within her reach and favours grabbing unwary sailors with her tentacles. Charybdis, on the other hand, rules the other side of the street and sucks in the seawater three times a day before roaring and expelling it again. How scary 😉 Which strait are we talking about here? You might have guessed it: the Strait of Messina. And yes, we passed through it without being eaten or sucked in 😁 A great moment for us, as we are now in waters that are new to us: the Ionian Sea. 🌊
Once we arrive in Sicily, we witness the natural spectacle that is Mount Etna: at night, we can watch the volcano spew fire and lava from our anchorage 🌋 what a spectacle! The bay off Taormina is also the place where we welcome our new crew members: Jägi and Ayse will be joining us for a week 🥳 The five of us will be travelling down the east coast of Sicily. Of course, we can't miss a stop in Siracusa - after all, we've heard a lot of positive things about this city. So we moor at the town quay (free of charge, yay) and spend a wonderful evening in an early summer atmosphere. Only one blemish spoils this memory: probably the worst food and the worst service we have ever experienced in Italy 😅 From still-frozen arancini, to swordfish fried to death, to vegetarian gnocchi with meat (?), rounded off by grumbling waiters. We take it in our stride and laugh it off, there's not much more we can do anyway 😂
After a cosy night at anchor, we reach Marzamemi, where we find a marina due to the wind. There's also time for a barbecue on the boat and it's worlds better than our restaurant visit 😂 There's also room for a short kite session for Ayse, Thierry and me. And now we have to make our way back to Catania, as all three crew members are leaving us here. Thank you for being there and accompanying us in the first few weeks of our new life ❤
We're about to embark on our next adventure, because the Adriatic is calling! We're sailing to Croatia. The wind is favourable and I'm so ready for my first night sail 😉 Let's go! We sail back to the mainland first. We have a good wind in the Strait and make good progress, but unfortunately it's a different story as soon as we approach the mainland. The wind drops completely and we decide to anchor somewhere and wait for the wind forecast for the next day. After a very bumpy night, we get up early and can actually sail! 🙌 The day went really well and we set off on the Cervino's first night sail. During the night, we take turns every three hours so that someone is always awake and keeps an eye on the situation. Everything went smoothly and we sailed through the next day to Otranto. Here we sleep in a marina, the last one in Italy, and probably for a while 😅 Very grateful for all these incredible impressions, we stroll through the beautiful little town, eat a delicious meal and fall into our bunks dead tired. Goodbye Italy, after almost 10 months it's time for us to leave. But something inside me tells me that we'll see each other again 😉
