Single-handed to Mallorca

It is not often that you find yourself completely alone.  We have all been at home alone for a weekend, seeing no-one, maybe a trip to the shops for  a paper. But even then the TV, the radio, and the knowledge that outside the door and at the end of the phone there are friends and family, and if need be, the emergency services.  But today I find myself sailing Juno alone from Sardinia to Mallorca. 

Ionian Sea

The anchor chain snakes over the bow roller and disappears into the deep blue waters of the bay; a long line from our stern is tied around an olive tree on the shore, holding us off the rocks creating a perfect swimming pool beneath the bathing platform. The screech of cicadas is the only sound in the heavy midday heat that has settled over the boat, snuffing out the breeze. We are anchored in Abelike bay on the island of Meganissi, in the Greek Ionian Islands.  We came for a swim and a short overnight stop; a week later we are still here.

Taormina

We slip quietly out of the port of Lipari just after dawn, our bow slicing through the flat, mirrored surface of the lazy morning sea.  The Aeolian Islands slowly merge in our wake, then fade and disappear into the haze.  We are heading for the Straits of Messina, a strip of water just a mile wide that separates Sicily from the Italian mainland, where the currents run fast between the Tyrrhenian Sea in the North and the Ionian to the South. We plan to catch the last of the south-setting current to push us down the East coast of Sicily to the famous hilltop town of Taormina.

Filicudi

A deep ravine cuts a jagged line down the steep slopes to the waters edge where a cluster of pastel-coloured houses nestle above the shoreline, each one framed in white stucco, a gallery of water colours on the shore.  

The new season starts

The mountains of Sardinia lie low on the horizon, the morning haze softening the harsh silhouette of jagged peaks and plunging cliffs; a single clump of white cumulus cloud hangs over the land, the only feature in the powder-blue morning sky.  As we leave our anchorage, a light wind pushes us slowly east towards Filicudi, an island in the Aeolian group, off the north coast of Sicily, where we plan to make landfall tomorrow.