On 8th September Jackie, John, Tony and I slipped our lines and motored out of Zakinthos town harbour for Tioram to head West.  We motored the first 26 n miles in 7 true knots of light wind with a fairly lumpy swell caused by the thunder storms and lightening the night before.  We had delayed leaving due to the forecast for a possible force 6 with rain and had seen the lightening from the cosy harbour,  where we missed the storm.

The wind filled to 14 T knots and we sailed for the following 67 n miles.

 

In the early hours of 9th Jackie and John had the pleasure of dodging an iridescent blue flying fish which flew onto the decks and landed at Johns feet, flapping around, before being tossed overboard !!

After a total of 138 n miles we were motoring again in 7 t knots of wind. The day went by with very hot sun, 29c on our shaded thermometer and a nice warm wind.

On our second night at sea, 9th, we had an amazing sunset as we neared the sole of the boot of Italy--- John calling ‘land ho’ at 20.30 hrs.

Later we saw Mount Etna on Sicily--- with pink cloud streaming from the summit in the orange glowing sunset.

 

We dodged tankers overnight as traffic converged towards the Straits of Messina,  at its narrowest point only one and half miles between Messina on Sicily and the Italian mainland.

At dawn we were still motoring around the toe of the boot, southern tip of Italy before heading north west into the Straits.

We motored against a one-two knot current through the narrows with whirl pools and races on either side covered by small boats with fishermen fishing for a good catch in the mix of the waters of the Ionian and Tyrrhenian sea.

 

As we motored through at 10.00 hrs on 10th Sept. our log read 281 n miles.

 

Photos of---

Leaving Zakinthos in the early morning light

Sunset nearing Sicily and Italy ( Mount Etna in the distance)

Sunrise over the toe of Italy

Messina Straits

 

Love to all

 

Tina and Tony,  Jackie and John x x x