A lovely early Ryanair

flight 06.15 🤪 from Stansted to Lamezia Terme in Calabria.

We are back on board 😃😃😃😃 yippee.

This is the final month of this years adventure & we will be exploring the Aeolian Islands, the north coast of Sicily & the Egadi Islands off the west coast of Sicily.

We have a full boat for this first week or so with Seb, Steve & Liz on board as far as Palermo.

Believe it or not, although summer finally arrived in England just before we left home, \240it has been stolen from here!! Here it has been raining on & off today but at least it is warm & it is lovely when the sun shines with a sea temperature of 25 degrees.

Today we did a little day trip to Tropea a bit further down the coast by train. A pretty cliff top medieval town famous for its onions. This is only the second place we have visited on VA which is famous for onions, Roscoff in Brittany and now Tropea. (See below for a picture of the famous onions, very tasty roasted with olive oil 😋).

Whilst in Tropea we visited the Sanctuario di Santa Maria on the rock & the centro istorico, we had a local lunch & bought some onions. All very lovely. Sadly Andrew had lots of boat prep jobs today so couldn’t join us but he got the new Bimini & new helm chair sorted whilst we were out.

Tomorrow we head over to Isola Lipari, one of the Aeolian Islands passing Stromboli on the way & hoping to see the fireworks from the volcano as we pass.

A long 6 hour journey here to Lipari but mostly eventless. We had a starboard engine warning as we set off but luckily this was just a spurious data on the network issue and was resolved with a reboot (what isn’t 🤣). The trip was a little rolly but otherwise pleasant.

We passed the active volcanic island of Stromboli which is impressive. We had hoped to stay there on a bouy but it was much too rolly for that sadly so instead we came into Lipari one of the other Aeolian islands in the archipelago north of Sicily & it’s lovely. A very real & unspoilt island (10km by 6km) with past volcanic activity, small pretty town & black volcanic sand/pebble beaches.

In Lipari town we visited the old harbour (very pretty), the cliff top area with amphitheatre & museum (sadly mostly closed that day), the Norman cathedral & other ruins. The quaint streets had mostly tourist tat shops but some were quite nice. We found a fabulous fishmonger for delicious prawns & squid & we got ripped off by the main selling fruit & veg from his truck outside the marina 😫 (we like to think of it as helping the local economy). The lovely Frederica was available for shuttles into town when we needed & the bus was cheap when she wasn’t around. Finally we had sunshine too which was a bonus.

Today we pass by Vucanella (another aeolian island) on our route to Cspe d’Orlando, our first time on Sicilian soil.

So we left the beautiful island of Lipari passing the amazing island Vulcanella on route & then the shortish trip over to the Sicilian mainland. Another quiet & easy journey really.

Capo D’Orlando is a new modern marina with bars & restaurants which is big & clean but not much else there except a large beach so it is just a one nighter. It is also really expensive but convenient. We did have another nice swim & we found a very good restaurant for dinner & witnessed an amazing sunset so not all bad.

However when we got back to our boat after dinner there were hundreds if not thousands of house martins roosting on all the boat stanchions in the marina & they were shitting everywhere. There were maybe 50 house martins on our boat and they had shat a lot!!! I know that they are just gathering here from Northern Europe before the long flight back to Africa but I really don’t appreciate the mess left! Thank goodness we are only here for one night 😱.

Cefalu \240is a fabulous town half way along the North Coast of Sicilia. We are in the marina around the corner from the old town underneath a huge limestone rock that towers above us & the town - stunning. The sea is turquoise the sky is blue & it is wonderful.

Last night we had a little wander around the town & found a lovely restaurant for some local Sicilian food & wine (delicious). Today we made an early start to climb to the Castello at the top of the rock before it got too hot, and it was definitely worth the climb despite getting very hot & sweaty. Some amazing views and some great ruins along the way - spectacular. Back down for well deserved capuccinoi & lunch & a visit to the grand Norman Duomo.

As a perfect end to a fabulous day here I got to paddle board around the beautiful rocks and found a tiny beach to land & swim from - heaven 😍😍.

Tomorrow we head on to Palermo to drop off Steve, Liz & Seb & pick up Victoria.

We have been in Palermo now for a few days & I like it here. It is a little bit grubby & jaded but was clearly once a stunning city with amazing architecture. Every building has amazing architectural details with some amazing doorways, windows & ceilings. The grand Duomo is spectacular (part Arabic part Christian), the palazzos are impressive & as always for Italy there are churches on virtually every corner - all unique. The streets here are busy & the traffic is a little bit crazy but it’s quite an easy city to walk around. The marina is in the process of an upgrade but is in a handy place for the city so all good.

We sadly said goodbye to Steve & Liz on Wednesday morning and then waved Seb off at the airport later that evening (I won’t see him again for another nine months now 😢). Since everyone left we have done boat cleaning chores & spent more time perusing the streets & markets of Palermo. The markets are amazing a real blast on all the senses & as good as any we have seen.

We have bought 2 large Tessa di Moro for Sandford House, traditional Sicilian pottery Moors heads that we first saw on The White Lotus season 2 & knew from then that we needed one but since they come in pairs we bought 2. They are quite big & quite heavy & now very well packed up for transporting home but they look similar to the ones below.

Victoria arrived on time on Saturday & we are heading West tomorrow.

After 5 fabulous days in Palermo we have cruised to this pretty hillside town further west along the north coast of Sicily. We collected Victoria from the statzione yesterday lunchtime & gave her a very quick tour of Palermo’s main sites & a delicious dinner.

Castellammare del Golfo is a pretty seaside town surprisingly with a Norman castle overlooking the marina. We had a very calm & lovely trip here. On arrival we met Diana & Leo who are English Italians (lived in London for 48 years but now retired) & they were very helpful booking us in their favourite restaurant. We had a lovely meander around the town before departing yesterday morning. We have had to change our plans due to a big storm due over the weekend so instead of heading to Trapani on the west coast we are just going as far as San Vito lo Capo and will then head back to the very protected harbour in Palermo to weather the storm for a few days.

A perfect day at anchor here in this idyllic cove. Lunch on board, swim off the boat, paddle board along the rocks & then a little trip in the tender up the coast. Heaven.

Our last stop West is here in San Vito lo Capo, the home of the worlds largest international Cous Cous festival and it happens to be on now 🥹.

San Vito is a holiday resort, has a beautiful Sandy beach & lots & lots & lots of restaurants but really not much else. The marina is rough & ready & overpriced. We found enough to do to keep us busy for the day, walk to lighthouse & end of cape, walk around town, Cous Cous tasting & swim. Time to go back to Palermo to sit out the incoming storm.

Back here again ……

It’s not often we go back to a place but given the weather forecast & the fact we cannot miss our flight home on the 3rd we had little choice but to start heading back towards Vibo. Palermo Galizzi marina is very protected & at least in Palermo there is plenty to do. So here we are again …..

Victoria left us on Friday morning after a day trip by train to Cefalu so that she could at least see another place. We had a lovely trip there & last night with her here.

Since then we have done a few chores onboard, we have explored more of Palermo & we had a great meal out last night at a fine dining restaurant just by the marina. It rained cats & dogs yesterday & the wind whips up into quite a frenzy but in between the weather is cooler & ok.

We hope to leave here on Tuesday in the meantime we are becoming experts in getting around Palermos narrow streets.

We made it…….😜

It wasn’t at all pleasant , in fact much worse than forecast but we are now moored up back in Cefalu & another 32 nm closer to Vibo. The waves were side on all the way here so very rolly & we got drenched with spray many times. Luckily we had our life jackets on & were able to stay on the flybridge the whole way.

It’s very rolly here in Cefalu & a bit dangerous to get off the boat so we may be stuck onboard tonight. Since we’ve already been here twice that’s not a problem. Here’s hoping for a better journey tomorrow 🤞🤞.

And we are now back here again, lovely Lipari. Just for 1 night before we do our final leg for this year back to Vibo Marina. Today we passed the 1000 nm mark this year & will probably finish on almost 1100 nm by the time we get to Vibo. We have travelled mostly South East down the coast of Italy but then this month West to the Aeoilian Islands & then south to Sicily & west along the north coast. Sadly we ran out of time & hit poor weather so didn’t quite complete our plan but next year is another year…….

On route today we saw 2 whales (possibly Fin Whales) just spouting & fins & backs, a small pod of dolphins feeding & maybe a leaping tuna. After weeks of seeing nothing at all it was lovely to catch these glimpses.

We are back in our winter port Stella del Sud in Vibo Marina. We had a good 6 hour trip back with one pod of performing dolphins & an Emma poke bowl lunch to entertain us. Poke bowl lunch is the new favourite in cruise lunching, \240taking over from Egg Mayo baps this season, \240although we did eat quite a few of those too 😍.

We have completed 1093 nm of Italian coast this summer & have stopped at 31 ports. We have visited 7 islands (after all we are island people) on either VA or by ferry. We have seen 4 more fabulous Italian cities, Genova, Rome, Naples & Palermo. We have been to some of the greatest Roman & Greek archeological sites as well as seeing the incredible geology of the bay of Naples & the Amalfi coast.

We must have eaten at least 20 gelatos, 30 bowls of Spagetti Alla vongole & so many fresh fish & red prawns we can’t count them. What’s not to like about Italian food and as a bonus we both lost weight 😍😍.

We are now putting Verano Azul to bed for winter here & wont be back until she gets lifted in February for her annual clean & service.

We made it home by car, plane, train, taxi, train, ferry & taxi with our Tessa di Moro wrapped up & hand carried the whole way. It all went smoothly & to plan & we even have some sunshine here.

Here are the fabulous Tessa in situ - fabulous.