This part of the trip has given us a few navigation challenges: crossing over from Sardinia; the yet-to-come crossing of the Ionian Sea to Preveza (a good mate is coming out to help Richard do this); and also getting through the Strait of Messina.
For those of you whose geography is on a par with mine, the Straits of Messina is the narrow water way that separates the north-east of Sicily from the Italian main land. When we were little, there was a popular rhyme:
Long-legged Italy
Kicked poor Sicily
Right into the middle
Of the Mediterranean Sea
Well, all I can say is that Italy couldn’t have been very good at football in those days because it didn’t kick Sicily very far. The Strait starts off very narrow at the northern end (barely one and a half miles across), bends westward and then starts opening out to over seven miles wide at the southern end.
The reason that it strikes terror into the hearts of so many sailors is that there are strong tidal streams in both directions, which are caused by different times of high and low water (that’s high tide and low tide to you and me) between the Tyrrenhian Sea to the north, and the Ionian Sea to the south. Twice every lunar day, there is a strong stream running north, and a strong stream running south, up to 4 knots. This in itself is not such a problem, but conditions are exacerbated by two factors – whether the tide is springs (higher high tide) or neaps (lower high tide). Some of our British coastal flooding occurs when we have a storm coinciding with a spring tide.
The second factor that can have an extreme effect is, of course, the weather. A strong wind running with the tidal stream can increase its speed, whereas one running against it can create choppy, uncomfortable conditions. Added to this are sections where you can get whirlpools or eddies, plus it’s a major shipping channel up and down with fishing boats and ferries going across, and you can see why it’s a section of water to be respected. You may remember the story of Odysseus, where he sails down the narrow stretch of water between the whirlpool Charybdis, and the sea monster Scilla. It is generally agreed that it was set in the Strait of Messina.
Richard, of course, has been though the Straits before, when doing a yacht delivery as professional skipper. He pointed out that we have equally strong currents in the Solent, equally strong weather, and much busier shipping lanes (although not at the moment if you believe the UK media). We’ve also encountered whirlpools on our sailing trip to Vancouver Island. He added that when we were through, I’d wonder what all the fuss is about. In addition, Missy Bear is a decent-size boat with a good engine, rather than a small yacht which could get tossed around more. Of course, all the cargo ships and ferries with their tonnage and powerful engines wonder what all the fuss is about.
That’s not to say, however, that he (Richard) does not respect it, or that he would go through in anything but benign conditions, therefore we spent quite a lot of time looking up tide time tables and tracking weather patterns. The southerly tidal stream (known as the scandente) starts to run 4 hours and 30 minutes after high water at Gibraltar, so first of all we needed to check the Gib timetable. We started on Saturday 23rd October which was our planned arrival date in the area, and did the calculations for the next few days. It was in between springs and neaps so we should be ok. The best of day for us to arrive is when the tidal stream is slack, i.e., at the start of the southerly run, and of course, preferably in daylight.
Our initial plan from the weather forecasts was to head off on the Sunday. Milazzo is a town about three hours sail away from the start of the Strait, so we booked in there for Friday and Saturday, with the intention of heading off early Sunday morning. We spent the afternoon looking around the Castello on the hill overlooking the town, and got back to the marina late afternoon to find a boat flying the British Red Ensign moored up next to us. There was a very British-looking chap on the deck. Of course, we got talking. I think Richard half-wished we hadn’t… he (Adrian) and his wife (Jax) had set off to get through the Strait, and go on to south Sicily. They’d headed across to the point at which you turn to go down into the Straits, and had increasing wind and sea swell. They had waves breaking over the yacht. Once it reached F7, they decided to return to the marina in Milazzo. Hmm. We had another look at the weather forecast. Actually, Saturday (i.e., the next day) was now looking better than Sunday. We decided we would head out, take a look and if we didn’t fancy it, also come back. We rang the marina in Messina and booked the Saturday night, and then went out to enjoy a quick drink with our new friends.
Alarm at 6 a.m. Saturday morning. First thing was to check the weather. If it looked bad, we’d just go straight back to bed, but if anything, it was looking slightly better again. ‘Windy’, our preferred weather app was showing the wind in the Strait coming from the north-west behind us (which is what we wanted) although the other apps showed it as being southerly winds on the bow – not so good, but such low wind gusts that it wouldn’t matter. But you can never really tell as there are very local conditions there. We got everything ready and were away from our berth just before 7am. It was pointless going any earlier or we’d have had to wait for the tide to be slack. As we worked our way along the final stretch of north Sicily, the wind picked up, and by the time we reached the spit at the north, we had a F5 and were creaming along at 9 knots while double-reefed. Unfortunately, it was a southerly, i.e., it would be on the nose as we went down the Strait and would make for a choppy passage. Oh well, the narrow bit is only for two hours. We decided to turn into the channel and see what it was like.
Engine on, most of the sails furled, we turn into the Strait– and the F5 southerly drops to a F4. Good start. And actually, we still had a knot of current against us so we had a smooth sea. Even better. We knew the points at which the whirlpools were most dangerous, and Richard displayed his sailing skills by pointing out patches of water where he said there would be eddies. But you know what – the sun was shining, the wind was very manageable and we passed by some pretty houses and scenery.
We were careful to keep out of the channel for large ships, keeping to the passage for yachts. You can incur a hefty fine if you get in the way of a large vessel as they cannot manoeuvre quickly. There are channels for boats going south, and for boats going north. You cannot cross from one side to another unless you use the virtual “roundabout” i.e., you can only do it at one place, and even then, you must radio the coast guard to alert them. A few ferries glided across our path now and then, and a couple of catamarans sailed back and for, but otherwise all was well. In fact, we reached our planned marina slightly ahead of schedule.
As it was still early, and conditions were still good, we wondered if we should push on to our next port of call - Riposto, from where Richard and Tony will take the boat across to Preveza. We have some parcels to collect from the marina in Messina, but we could hire a car and drive back up. We checked the forecast and rang Riposto – yes, they had room, and therefore we pushed on.
As we made our way down the east coast of Sicily, we noticed that we were accumulating swathes of black dust on the boat. If I tell you that we were heading for the “Marina dell Etna” you can guess what it was. Missy Bear was getting covered in volcanic ash. I’ll let Richard do a Mount Etna blog, but suffice to say there had been a fairly hefty outburst that morning.
I won’t deny it was a long day – we arrived at 18.15, but we got safely tied up. We were aware that there was a hefty storm coming over from the Ionian in the next few days, and hence our keenness to get there before the storm came over, as the harbour in Messina is reported to have some exposed pontoons. It is now a few days after we arrived here, a storm came and went on Sunday and we had winds gusting gale force eight forecast through until at least midnight. More high winds expected this week again. [Ed, it’s the same deep low pressure which keeps going away and then coming back like a yo-yo].
But at least we are in the marina not on the sea, and there is a 24-hour marina team walking around, checking boats.
I was going to finish this by saying that the dire Strait of Messina wasn’t actually so dire for us after all. But with this wind, and the way all the boats are bouncing around, it seems that the Sultans of Swing have caught up with us.