Sailing to Siracusa

After an uneventful but windy sail from Augusta, we set up shop in the beautiful harbour of Siracusa. Entering this harbour was a real joy; Siracusa is a very attractive ancient city built of glowing white limestone, sited on an island, Ortigia, on the edge of a very attractive and sheltered natural harbour.

Siracusa harbour at dawn

The small inner harbour where we left Spit.

Pavlov is out there somewhere

The old sea wall of Siracusa

Looking down the old town to the fort

Renovations underway on Ponte Umbertino

Siracusa is also a foodie heaven, and it prides itself on its local produce and cuisine. We visited the local market and were encouraged to try all the local wares. We literally ate our way down the street.

Beautiful fresh produce

Large crowd for the fresh oysters and champagne, shucked on the spot.

Swordfish and tuna

The deli in the market 

Free tastings everywhere

Siracusa is a melange of different influences, having been a major city for the Greeks, Romans, Spanish, Ottomans and Arabs. Each culture overlaid and updated previous architectures, resulting in a heady and dizzying mix of classical and baroque architectures.

Temple of Apollo

Temple of Apollo, main wall and two columns remaining

Piazza del Archimedes

Baroque building facades

The Duomo 

Piazza del Duomo

Siracusa's one Caravaggio is displayed in Santa Lucia's church

The much trumped Exhibition of Caravaggio turned out to be just the one painting, albeit a very famous one that the artist actually painted in Siracusa. 'The Burial of Saint Lucy' is sited in the church that bears her name. It really is an impressive painting to see, if you love the sumptuous richness of Caravaggio and the way he portray's this luminosity that reaches out from larges masses of colour.

Local street musician

A very Italian Alfa Romeo

The Fonte Aretusa

An Italian puppet shop

Windy lanes, but always a place to eat

Check the ironwork on the balustrades

Even after 4 days in Siracusa, we hadn't mastered the atrocious Italian buses, so we walked down to Castello Maniace, the fortress and citadel situated on the southern tip of Ortigia. It was constructed in 1232 by Emperor Frederick II, and served as a home for generations of Sicilian queens.

Walking down to the castle

Sicilian beach

In the back streets of Ortigia

Tiling on the roof of gunnery batteries

Castle walls

Light house on the fort

View back to Ortigia

View to sea

Finally, we deciphered the bus routes, and caught a bus north of the city to the Parco Archeologico della Neapolis, an archaeological site with Greek and Roman amphitheatres, as well as some fascinating man-made caves. The Greek amphitheatre was impressive as it was carved out of solid limestone. Above the theatre were grottos dedicated to the Nymphs. The area just north of the amphitheatre was used as a quarry, and it contains the 'Ear of Dionysius', a man-made cave carved out of the limestone cliffs in the shape of a human ear. The cave was initially used for water storage, and was named by Caravaggio after Dionysius I, the Tyrant of Siracusa.

Greek amphitheatre

remarkable as its hewn out of solid bedrock limestone

Grotto to the Nymphs

Waterfall in the Grotto

Entrance to the 'Ear of Dionysius'

Inside the ear

Final stop for the day was the Archeological Museum and the huge monument, 'Madonna della Lacrime'. Next day, after a week enjoying Siracusa, we departed for Porto Palo, heading ever westward to our winter home in Licata.

Huge monument to the Madonna of Tears 

Archeological museum, full of pots!!

Park looking to the monument

A Maltese tall ship visiting town

Syclla & Charybdis

Between Syclla & Charybdis is an idiom meaning 'to be stuck between two evils'. It has the same intent as idioms such as 'between a rock and a hard place' or 'the devil and the deep blue sea'. Syclla and Charybdis were two sea monsters created by Homer, and thought to dwell on opposite sides of the Straits of Messina.

The Straits of Messina and our route

Syclla was rationalised as a rock shoal on the Italian side of the Strait and Charybdis as a whirlpool off the coast of Sicily. Such mythologized stories eventually entered idiomatic use to describe having to navigate between two opposing evils. It was often used in political satires, as illustrated by this cartoon.

Navigating between the rock of democracy and the whirlpool of arbitrary power.

So, why am I regaling you with this information? Let me tell the story.....

Last blog, we were in Crotone on the eastern coast of Italy, just above the 'heel' of Italy. Megan had spent 6 days recovering from a bad bladder infection. She was still feeling under the weather, but we decided to push on while we had a good weather window. We had a long 70 mile sail to Rocella Ionica, leaving at 0530 in the morning. A night in the marina, and we were ready to head off to Sicily, across the Straits of Messina. We had planned to go to Taormina, and there was a fair weather anchorage at Giardini that we thought would accommodate us for a few days while we visited the unusual cliff-side town of Taormina. It would be a long day sailing, so we departed at 0430 to give us daylight for the journey.

Pre-dawn off the Italian coast

The first touches of light on the eastern horizon

I love sun rise at sea. I think it has such a majesty, as the night greys slowly fade, and then the first

orange rays of the sun burst onto the scene.

Venus at dawn

Just before sunrise, the greys fade to pinkish hues

The first burst of orange light

and we bathe in the rosy glow of the sun.

We were well underway on our trip down the Calabrian coast. There was absolutely no wind, which was not as forecast. We were expecting fair winds from the north which would have greatly assisted us to cover the sea miles. We were just lolling along, watching the coast slide by. Ironically, with reference to what is to come, I had sent an email last night to our old sailing instructor Iain, quipping that we were crossing the Straits of Messina, and I hoped that the fate which befell Odysseus, who had to choose which monster he would have to confront, would not affect us.

Absolutely calm conditions sliding down the Italian coast

Passing the 'toe' of Italy, Megan fast asleep

I should not have insulted those ancient monsters. Half way across the Straits, in absolutely calm conditions, we saw a few tall waves to our north. That was the only warning we got. About 3 minutes later, we were hit by a blue line squall. The wind immediately jumped to 35 knots, and we quickly had 3 metre seas. We hastily reefed Pavlov down. Bashing across that wind, we realized that our planned anchorage would not be tenable in these winds. We turned downwind and ran to the nearest protected anchorage, which was another 40 miles away. Initially, Pavlov flew downwind in that wind strength. We were sitting on 8+ knots with just a twice reefed main.

Entering Augusta harbour at night

Capturing the mood of a stormy night at sea

However, the wind died after a few hours and we were left floundering around in a confused and lumpy 3m sea. The monsters had struck and left their mark! Motoring again, we made Augusta, on the south eastern Sicilian coast at around 2230. Augusta is a huge industrial port with many terminals for oil tankers, and petroleum distilleries clotting the shore line. We gingerly entered this huge port, probably the largest harbour we've seen in the Med. Miles north from the entry port in the seawalls, we anchored amidst a flotilla of floating hulks. Yes, the only safe anchorage was in a ship's graveyard.

Ship graveyard in Augusta

A few floating docks, taken from Pavlov's anchorage

And oil tankers stretching into the distance

The actual town of Augusta is on an island inside the harbour

So, we'll bobble at anchor here while recovering from two full on days. Yesterday was about 18 hours of non-stop sailing, with some pretty difficult conditions at the end. We covered 107 nautical miles, which is our longest leg ever. Next stop, Syracuse; then Licata, here we come for winter.