38:15.37N 15:43.02E  Tuesday 24^th – we work out our leaving time carefully to make sure we pick up a north going current to get through the Messina Straits and leave just after 0830 on a beautiful calm morning.  Today is just a short hop and it proves to be very fast as the current has us doing 9 knots at one point, with eddies and overflows making us grateful for the lack of wind.  There is a traffic separation scheme in operation in the Straits, which is like a ship super highway with imaginary white lines and traffic lanes that shipping must follow.  There are a couple of big boys passing through the scheme but nothing that causes us a problem.  When we get to Scilla we pick up a buoy and gaze at the Italian village pasted to the hillside.  The fridge isn’t working, my computer’s throwing wobblies and we have no internet access but, before you feel sorry for me, these photos shows the view from Deep Blue.

Heather and I use the water taxi to go ashore and wander along the tiny lanes, meandering our way up to the top of the hill to admire the view and then back down again for a lunch of fresh pasta washed down with local wine.  It’s the first day of true rest since we started this project and it’s wonderful.  Gordon stays on board (enjoying having the place to himself I suspect!) although we all go ashore again in the evening.