In antiquity a passage through the Strait of Messina was considered perilous in the extreme, but was pursued for the obvious reason that the alternative was to sail all the way around Scilly. In a small yacht, a yachtsman is in a much better position to understand and appreciate the dangers encountered by Odysseus on passage through the strait than the powerful engines of a passenger ship or tanker. Yachtsmen encounter the dangers at gut level. Circe warned Odysseus of Scilla and Charybdis: Scilla “the Render” and Charybdis “the sucker down”.

Scilla was said to dwell in a cave on the eastern side of the strait, she was 12 feet tall with six heads each with a neck composed of snakes and bearing a triple row of sharp shark’s teeth. With packs of ferocious dogs emerging from her nether-regions, she ripped apart all that dared to fall within her reach. Both Ovid’s Metamorphosis and Homer’s Odyssey mention her, and the storey goes that she was transformed from a beautiful woman due to the jealousy of a sorceress and her spurned love for a half-god. 

Across from Scilla, Charybdis was said to be a giant whirlpool which swallowed ships which strayed too close to it.

In 1783 an earthquake altered the sea bottom and to some extent tamed Scilla and Charybdis but the strait still has to be respected by sailors transiting it north or south due to the strong currents, unexpected squalls that come off the mountains and strong eddies that can make life difficult for a small yacht.

After spending a few days at anchor in Bova Marina (not a yacht marina just the name of the village) waiting for the right wind and current direction to transit the straight. We finally had our chance on the 2nd September. The wind and tide were good for the transit north so off we set expecting to have to motor all the way. However the wind filled in with a gentle F2 behind us so we put the spinnaker up and managed to sail for 2 hours under spinnaker.  We decided not to sail up the straight with it up though due to the many ferries and commercial shipping transiting the traffic separation zone and the “roundabout” near the top of the straight. Yachtsmen have to stay in a narrow channel outside the main traffic zone and give way to the commercial traffic at all costs in the strait, so we motored up the strait with current taking us along at 7kts.

We exited the strait without encountering Scilla or Charybdis and made our way to an anchorage just off the village of Scilla where the goddess Scilla was supposed to have had made a cave her home and from where she picked off passing ships.

Scilla is a sleepy fishing village with a castle on the top of the hill overlooking the strait. We didn’t see the cave but had a walk around the narrow streets and alleyways of a typical Italian village, all be it with Greek influence due to the fact that this part of Italy was once Greek. The main occupation and trade of the village is Swordfish fishing. The fishermen have small long boats with an exceptionally tall metal structure that the fishermen climb up to look down onto the surface of the sea to identify sleeping swordfish. Then, armed with a harpoon, another fisherman goes out to the end of a very long boom on the bow of the boat and harpoons the sleeping fish. Apparently swordfish sleep on the surface of the water during the day, so this makes them easily identifiable from high up a mast from a boat. Swordfish fishing and a small amount of tourism, does not distract Scilla from remaining a sleepy Italian village. 

on the way to Messina Strait 

Mount Etna on the way to Messina Strait

Calm Messina Strait

Scilla

A state of Scilla the goddess

Scilla church

The main occupation, swordfish fishing