Friday 19^th June – On Passage

37:03.596N 15:16.722E

We arrived at the entrance to the Messina Strait just as it was getting light and motored down through the Strait in no wind but with 2-3 knots of tide with us – making up for the foul tide we had on the way north. At one point we were cruising along at 8.7 knots.

The morning was incredibly still and very hazy, and with very few other boats around, except for the ferries in the Strait; we were able to catch up on sleep by taking alternate shifts as we motored along. We have been joined from time to time by porpoise and dolphin pods.

The wind increased very slightly, to around 5 knots, at lunchtime and we were able to motor sail and make good speed for the afternoon run to Siracusa. When we arrived at the area of fishing nets, there were none – maybe they were all in for repair after our trip north ☺. Anyway this meant a party for us and the dolphins – I actually saw one leap out of the water so far that I could see the sky between him and and water.

We arrived late afternoon at Siracusa and went up to the marina to look for fuel; the fuel dock was on the quay nearby and run by another company – there was a chance it would open at 5.30pm. There was a boat already waiting on the quay and no sign of the attendant. Instead we anchored and Richard took the dinghy in to wait for the fuel dock to open. It did not do so at the appointed time and so Richard took the cans to the local petrol station. We were then able to top up on our fuel. The poor chap on the other boat is probably still waiting.

We had planned to stay a couple of days in Siracusa but the forecast showed the weather blowing up very strongly in the Sicily Strait by tomorrow evening and continuing to blow for a few days. As we are committed to being in Malta next week we felt we should push on whilst we could.

So after re-fuelling and saying hello briefly to Star Dance we left Siracusa. We were sorry to leave as we were hoping to catch up with Charlie and Anna again before they moved on but the weather was not playing fair.

We left at 7.45pm and spent our second night at sea motor sailing across to Malta in a flat calm, dodging ships and fishing boats.