800 Nautical Miles in 25 days

 800 Nautical Miles in 25 days (May 22nd)

Yesterday evening as the sun was setting and Mt. Stromboli was off our port side, we pulled into a peaceful anchorage at the Aeolian Island of Salina, north of Sicily in Southern Italy. 

We were the only boat in the Marina Salina anchorage. Sixteen hours earlier, on May 21st at 4 a.m., we left the Italian port town of Agropoli. After 10 days with Roger and Tama during which time we saw very little wind and next to no sailing, our trip to Salina consisted of 12 hours of sailing, much to Neil's delight. 

So much has happened since my last blog posting when we were headed towards Bonifacio in Corsica, but I have found it challenging to keep the blog up to date with our experiences. It would be ideal if I could work away on the computer while on one of our passages, but I have never been one who can focus on reading or on a computer screen while in motion. Also, during our time with Roger and Tama, we were so busy with the adventures along the way that I did not take the time to pull out the computer. Relaxing in anchorages, hiking, dinghy rides (both psycho and sunset), exploring port towns, drinking pink wine, eating Italian food and playing competitive games of Triominos kept us entertained.

Once settled into the anchorage at Salina, we took a late night dinghy ride into the town of Marina Salina to let Finnegan set his feet on land and to pick up a take-away pizza to eat on the boat. Shortly after it was time for bed! After a peaceful, much-needed good night’s sleep, we loaded Finnegan onto the dinghy on Wednesday morning in search of a place to tie it up for the day while we explored the island by scooter. 

The people at the marina were very kind, allowing us to tie up for the day for free. Once we secured the scooter rental we headed to the other two “comuni” on the island  - the small town of Malfa and then on to Rinella. Rinella is a seaside village where we had lunch at Papero, a great little place where we each picked out small portions of 3 different dishes to try along with a glass of local white wine called Malvasia. It was quite tasty and refreshing and golden in colour. Neil noticed it’s sweet bouquet, which we later learned was a feature of this wine. We enjoyed the fresh peppers and fish the restaurant had to offer. The eggplant parmigiana was out of this world delizioso! And the Arancini balls were fantastic as well. 

This island, which is the largest in the archipelago and home to approximately 2,600 people, is only 27 square kilometres in size and has 6 volcanoes, but an eruption has not occurred for about 13,000 years, so nothing for us to worry about there. It is one of the greenest islands in the area where chestnut trees, prickly pear cactus, orchards, olive groves, and vineyards can be found. We also saw lots of lemon trees along the way.

After lunch we saw one of the black sand beaches in the area and continued on with our scooter journey to discover what else the island had to offer. After the hustle and bustle of the busy port of Amalfi, Salina is a welcome change. Although there are restaurants, services, and a ferry port, the island feels untouched by tourists with its more relaxing feel and slower pace. There was very little traffic on the roads and we have been able to take the time to enjoy it after the busy pace of the past 25 days.

Our goal is to be in Turkey by June 27th. This is due to the Schengen rule that non-EU citizens can spend no more than 90 days in the EU within the period of 180 days without an extended visa. Visas are not easy to obtain. We initially stayed in Port Camargue, France for 22 days to prepare the boat. From there, the trip to Turkey is approximately 1300 nautical miles which we have to travel within the remaining 68 of our 90 Schengen days. To date, we have covered 800 of those miles, more than halfway. When writing this, we still have 43 days left. The biggest leap is yet to come with the trip from somewhere on the east coast of Italy into Greece. We will plan our route once we get closer to that time and determine the best weather window. We will then spend 90 days in Turkey on a tourist visa. In the meantime, we are focusing on slowing down and enjoying a few of the spectacular anchorages in the Aeolian area.

May 23rd

What a peaceful night last night! It is always great to wake up to a calm anchorage with little swell and a calm breeze. This morning we planned to dinghy into town to go to the post office (more about this in a future blog) and to pick up some supplies. We had not yet decided whether we were going to stay in the current location or move to another spot. Once in town, we discovered that the post office is closed on Thursdays because they are out and about making deliveries. We did manage to get a few supplies, but we are finding it very difficult to find any kind of meat besides sliced salami and prosciutto or various other types of ham. We did find the local fish store and purchased some fresh fish of some sort to try. The woman who worked there did not speak any English, but convinced Neil to buy some little fish that were marinated in olive oil and seasonings. We carted our goodies back to the dinghy as a ferry with about a dozen tourists arrived.

Back at the boat, we decided to pull anchor and travel about 1.5 hours away to try out another anchorage. It is on the island of Panarea, closer to Mt. Stromboli. 

The sun is shining and it’s quite hot so Finnegan and I went for our first Mediterranean swim. The water was refreshing. Neil has been in swimming a few times already, but he enjoyed it as well. At lunch, the little fish from the market did not disappoint. We had them for lunch today on a salad and they were delicious!

Tonight our plan is to take the dinghy out to watch the sunset and we hope to catch a view of Mt. Stromboli’s light show as it is an active volcano and others in the anchorage have said it is a great sight.