CORFU TO MALTA

Sailed into Grand Harbour Malta on 8th September at the end of another great trip and wonderful adventure. When we sailed to Corfu in late May we went directly – 3 days non-stop sailing. On the return we decided to coastal hop along the foot of Italy and down the east coast of Sicily – we particularly wanted to see a few of the historical sites on this coast. Well it was everything we’d hoped for – astonishing history in Taormina and Siracusa, interesting ports off the beaten track and good meals ashore (and onboard I should add!).

We left Gouvia on Corfu on 27th Aug. It was a great base for the summer - very convenient for the airport (when the taxis weren’t on strike!) and for Corfu old town which we loved. The swimming pool at the marina was a special pleasure and helped us keep cool, keep fit and (Iain) learn to swim! We enjoyed exploring the northern Ionian (Paxos, Anti-Paxos, Levkas, a few ports on the Greek mainland and Corfu island itself), we had some lovely sailing (especially when the winds did what they are supposed to do and started up late morning , blew at reasonable strength in the afternoon and then most conveniently died down at night!), visited interesting places and met some good people. On the downside, the Ionian gets very busy and anchorages crowded from mid July to end Aug (we saw quite a lot of doubtful anchoring and had real concerns on several occasions at how close our neighbours were – thankfully the two worst culprits accepted they’d arrived after us and needed to re-anchor further away), there are too many who seem to have no idea of the rules of the road – nightmare stuff! – and quite a few anchorages were thick with weed on the bottom which our old generation CQR anchor doesn’t do well in (new anchor for Christmas?). But overall a great place and a most enjoyable summer.

On our return we had Doug, Phil and Pete joining us on board which made things very easy – we had thought of doing a few overnight sails but ended up day sailing as we wanted to explore the ports along the coast. Also, on the first evening as we passed the N end of Corfu the wind died completely so we motored back for 40 minutes to an island, Othoni, off the NW coast and anchored for the night in a beautifully quiet remote bay. Had a bit of good luck here as we found out when we swam over the anchor to check on it that the seabed was very rocky and I didn’t have a tripping line on the anchor – as we had anchored in 10m it would have been a major dive if the anchor had snagged on a rock but fortunately it came up in the morning without difficulty.

First stop in Italy was on the very tip of the heel – at Santa Maria de Leuca where St Peter landed apparently on his way to Rome and where Mussilini had built a wonderful staircase up the cliff to the lighthouse as the entry point to Italy. Next stop Crotone, a Greek colony where Pythagoras lived at one time, then Rocella Ionica which there’s not much to say about except the entrance is silted up and very tricky but also it has a wonderful pizza restaurant (for me the best pizza I have enjoyed anywhere!) before crossing over the straits of Messina to Taormina, a popular tourist resort with remains of a wonderful greek theatre, Norman architecture and great views esp of Mt Etna.

We called in at Riposto which is almost the opposite of Taormina – a local Sicilian commercial town with not a tourist in sight. But we had an exceptionally good dinner to celebrate Phil’s birthday – the freshest fish ever which wasn’t too surprising as we were sitting about 20m from the fish market!

Then Catania – least said the better! It was a convenient place for Doug and Pete to leave to fly back to the UK and for Simon to fly out and join us but I think we all agreed we’d be happy if we never visited Catania again and if we do it will only be to go into port to pick up visitors who fly in to the airport there. There are some wonderful buildings, both greek and roman theatres, a Norman castle, interesting statues etc etc but generally the town is dirty and menacing. Unfortunately Helen found out just how dangerous a place it is as some b**t**d tried to mug her – he grabbed her necklace (we know, shouldn’t wear jewellery when walking around) and pulled her backwards so hard she cut her foot as she was dragged along and had abrasions on her neck – fortunately (or perhaps not) the necklace was good quality and didn’t break and as Helen was screaming blue murder he gave up and ran off. She was really shocked. To cap it all (although a small thing by comparison) we got “done” on the price of a bottle of wine that night at dinner – with no wine list/prices and as we don’t speak Italian we should have got the price written down as its difficult to argue with a Sicilian afterwards – lesson learned.

The good news is we called in next at Siracusa and this is an absolute gem. It has the most wonderful history, a huge greek theatre, remains of a roman amphitheatre, beautiful buildings (the cathedral is an extraordinary mix of history – Norman with Doric columns! although rebuilt after the earthquake of 1693), the basilica of Santa Lucia ( with Caravaggio’s 1608 painting of her burial), good restaurants, an exceptional fresh food market – two days only allowed us an overview! I think we’ll all be going back there.

And finally a lovely day sailing across to Malta. We hope to get a few more days sailing this autumn in Malta and Gozo so the season is not over yet but the weather is expected to change soon and become less settled so its good to be back home before any storms come.

But as we’re home now this will be the last blog of the sailing season. Thanks to all who came out to help us sail ALMA – it was great to have your help and your company. We hope many of you will join us sailing again next year – let us know if you’d like to join us. Not decided yet where we’ll be – will do some planning this winter and let you know where ALMA’s Travels will take us next summer!

Very best wishes
Have a great autumn and winter
Iain and Helen