Sailing off Albania coast

We are off the coast of Albainia,heading towards Montenegro. We have
about another 16 hours to go. The coast is very rugged and barren. I
was shocked when i tried the Kindle and got a signal. We have not even
seen a town along the coast so far. Just wanted to do a quick update
while I had a signal...

Anchored in Greece

We made it to the Greek island of Othonoi and have anchored in a nice
bay on the South end of the island. It is quite a beautiful place. No
Internet here. Using Kindle to post now. Leaving in the morning for
somewhere.

Arrived safely in Santa Maria di Leuca

We had a nice crossing last night from the "sole" to the "heel" of Italy. We are now anchored in the marina of Santa Maria di Leuca. The winds were very calm and the seas flat last night so we were motoring most of the way. We got a little wind around 3 AM and were able to sail almost the rest of the way into port.
The calm seas last night offered some great star gazing after the moon set. Reflections of the stars, planets and the Milky Way could easily be seen across the ocean. Keep an eye out tonight for aurora lights at all latitudes because of a big geomagnetic storm heading towards earth. I know I will!

Leaving Crotone, Italy

We have pulled away from the dock at Crotone. It is about 70 miles to our next port of Santa Maria di Leuca. It should be about 14 hours or so for this short passage. Our planned arrival will be shortly after sunrise on Saturday.

Landed in Crotone, Italy

We have just secured to the dock in Crotone, Italy. If you are looking at a map of the boot of Italy, we are at the back part of the ball of the foot. Our next leg will take us under the sole to the tip of the heel at S. Maria di Leuca. In the picture we are at the red pin now and our next port will be the purple pin.
The crossing over from Taormina was really quite special. Every time I came up to the cockpit to begin a new shift the weather was completely different. Every weather report we checked was wrong, again. We left Taormina in morning and as soon as we got out of the anchorage we were in 20-25 knot winds from the North. The winds were rushing down the Straits of Messina and the waves were already kicked up. We were beating hard for about 6-8 hours in rough seas and a very wet cockpit. I warned Charlie, who follows me in shift rotation that he needed to dress in either a swim suit or his foul weather gear. I was soaked the majority of the time but dried over and over again because the wind was blowing so hard that dried I out quickly. I was a salty dog at the end of my shift.
I went down for a rest after my shift and within an hour I heard the engine start up. The wind had died completely and the seas were calm as we passed beyond the edge of the straits. We ended up motoring for a few hours. Before the sun set, the wind picked up from a nice direction and the evening shift was just wonderful sailing. I cooked us up a nice dinner after my shift and went to get some sleep before my midnight shift began.
I came out at midnight and we were motoring with very little wind but quite a few small boats all around us. None of the lights I could see were on AIS which meant they were probably local fishing boats. As it turns out they were. And I soon found out there were things going on that I did not understand. The lights on the fishing boats appear to be placed for functionality rather than for navigational purposes. I studied and studied the lights of the fishing boats and could rarely ever determine which way the boat was going or what they were doing. I did my best just to avoid them at a good distance. One set of lights passed my to starboard and everything seemed fine. I thought we were doing well. Another boat started getting close to us so I angled about 20 degrees in towards land to give him some space in case he was pulling a net or something. He kept getting closer so I kept going further into land to get out of his way. Soon it looked like he was getting pretty close, like closer than comfort so I ran down and called Don up because it was getting a bit confusing. By the time we got back to the cockpit they were on a interception course with us and basically blocking our path, like driving right in front of the boat. We stopped and tried to communicated at this point because there was a lot of yelling in Italian going on. We stopped the boat with them and had a discussion. After some communications work we realized they had a net out that we needed to go around. They agreed to escort us around their danger area so we followed them until all was safe. We could see the two lighted ends of a big net stretched out across our path. I'm glad they came out to intercept us because we would have driven right through the net. It would have been messy for all involved.
After we left that group of boats we could see quite a number of lighted boats ahead of us and we decided to just go way out to sea to get beyond them and give them some room in case more nets were involved. We did not want to go too far out into the shipping lanes so we found what we believed to be a happy medium between the two. By the time my midnight shift was over the fishing boats were no longer a danger and it was all dark in front of us. I was ready for a little sleep at this point. In less than an hour as I was trying to sleep the seas started picking up again and getting pretty bounce. We were on a port tack and I had not put the lee board up yet. It was challenging to stay in the bed during some of the rolls going on. We had now moved out into the open space of the "sole" or the foot and the winds began to howl down the bay of that space. Needless to say sleep was not likely through the night and by six AM for my next shift I awoke to 4-5 foot seas and high winds again. The sun was just coming up and began to warm the air. Yet, by the end of my shift, things had settled down again and Charlie asked me why we were not sailing when he came up to relieve me.
We unfurled some sail and got in a nice morning sail. As you can see there are quite a variety of conditions out here and the influencing factors are still mysterious to me. The Ionio Sea has some very unique weather conditions and sailors need to pay close attention when navigating these water.

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Swordfish hunting machine!

In the Straits of Messina we crossed paths with the weirdest looking boats. I took some pictures of them but they were too far away to see much in the pictures but we could see them fine with the binoculars. Fortunately for us, maybe not so for the crew, one of them came into our little anchorage this afternoon. The water was quite rough and bouncy and once you see these boats you realize that they are only meant for calm waters. Evidentally this one got caught out in the rough water and had to come into the calm of the anchorage this afternoon to pull it it's booms.
We saw him motoring into the harbor past us and throw out a stern anchor. After an hour or so, I glanced out our cabin window and just saw a big metal frame. The forward boom of this boat was right outside our window! I called Charlie and we ran up to hold the boom off the side of the boat. They had been working on retracting the front boom and forgot to be watching around them and got too close to our boat. The captain ran back to the wheelhouse and gunned the engine in reverse to get away from us. No problem, all clear. We had been joking in the cockpit earlier when they pulled in that they used that front boom to visit anchored boats and try to sell their swordfish steaks.  That thought did flash through my mind when I saw the boom outside the window.
The close call did give me a chance to get a good photo of the boat. This was taken after he had retracted the front boom and let the upper boom down a little bit. When we saw them fishing in the Straits there was one guy up on top in the crows nest, another out on the front boom and the captain driving. The spotter on top would direct the boat when they saw a swordfish and the guy on the bow used the spears located right at the bow to spear the fish. I have no idea what happened after that but I'm guessing it was pretty exciting.
This boat design was something entirely new to me and I thought I would share it. It gives me a greater appreciation for swordfish steaks. Hmmm, swordfish...

 

Taormina anchorage

We have made it to a new anchorage in Taormina on the East coast of Sicily just South of the Straits of Messina. This evening will be our third night at this anchorage. The city of Taormina sits high upon a hill. In the first picture, taken from the boat you can see the city up on the crest of the hill. It's a really steep cliff and from the boat we could see no way to get up to the top of the hill. There is a train line that runs right along the edge of the water along with a road. We figured if we got to the train station we could find out how people got up to the top. Getting to the train station ended up being a little trickier than we thought it would be. Some local knowledge would have really helped at this point.
There was a nice arch shaped tunnel in a stone wall with wooden steps leading down into the water. That looked like an ideal place to leave the dinghy, walk through the tunnel to get on the other side of the railroad and road. We got through the first part of the tunnel and found a sturdy steel gate padlocked on the other side. Hmmm. The tunnel opened up into a draining canal with stone flooring up a very steep angle. I climbed up the drainage canal hoping it would pop me out somewhere nice. It would have been ideal if I were a mountain goat but I'm not.
We ended up backing out and moving the dinghy to another location and trying a different tunnel. This one was better and obviously well used. We still ended up exiting at street level though a gate with a Privito sign on the outside of it. Mi Italiano is still not so good, I wonder what that meant?
After some talking to folks at the train station we found we could either take a bus all the way to the top or take the bus part way and then ride a funivia to the top. I've never ridden a funivia before so that's what we decided to try. It turns out that it's a cable-car that all the cars are together like a little sky-train. It was a fun little ride and passed right over a soccer field.
Taormina has much history in and around it. The main attraction is a theatre built and used by the Greeks and the Romans. Some construction was going on during our visit adding a stage and lighting for performances of some kind. It was quite a neat place and well worth a visit if you are ever close.
The rest of the town of Taormina is very tourist oriented, lots of shops and street vendors. One finds very old churches and city gates mixed in with newer buildings. Sometime a portion of an old wall or building is integrated into the design of a more modern building. It's a facinating place.  As we were walking around we stumbled upon another old theatre that looked like it had been excavated out right in the middle of the city. Everywhere you look there was interesting things to see.
I included a picture taken from a plaza up on top looking down on the boat. I also did a pretty good pano from up around the greek-roman theatre.