24 04.5 N 14 39.3 E

We took fuel from the pontoon in Milazzo before heading out to our next port of call. Beware the berth for fuel is incredibly shallow we nudged our way in and recorded depths of just under 2 meters!

What a difference a day can make - our passage to Sante Agata was delightful - a flat sea sparkling sunshine, blue skies and wonderful green mountains to the south as we motored along. This coast line looked very inviting with small towns and bays and beaches then to the north of us were the outlines of the Aeolian islands last visited by us in 2009. This morning we saw many ferries rushing off to the islands and several yachts heading there for the weekend. The icing on the cake of today's passage was the sighting of a very large whale (what I could see was at least 8 metres) sunbathing on the surface with a bird perched on it's back. We cruised past heading west while it floated along some 200 metres from us going east. Every now and then blowing spray into the air - it was so magical and my first close to encounter with a whale!

This little harbour is a bit like ones found in Greece - partly built by EU funding but not finished! There is a large breakwater which provides shelter from all points except the SE and south. A new set of pontoons have been added and are operated by a company that has some charter boats here. We do have electricity and water but no other facilities and it is a long walk into the town. However the staff were very helpful when we arrived and we had no problems getting a space here without pre-booking. We were glad we had consulted the Cruising Association Captain's Mate site as there was a warning regarding a sand bar at the entrance. It was there and has now thankfully been marked with a couple of buoys.

The weather forecast is set to deteriorate from Monday night so our plan is to get to Palermo by then and await Wiz and Watson's arrival on Thursday.