I'm in the same place that I wrote the last blog entry from, Taormina Sicily. This is the Yacht's 3rd time stopping here. The second time stopping here without guests. Its been nearly 10 days since my last entry, so I will back track some to fill in the missing pieces.
We dropped the guests off on Sunday, 6 days ago in Catania, Sicily. The finish to the 2nd guest cruise was great. After Taormina, we took the yacht with guests to Siracusa. This ancient town has some insane architecture and the piazza is really fascinating. The guests did some tours ashore there, and the crew got to take some time ashore in two groups as well. I was in the second group, which went into the town on Sunday morning. At breakfast I had chocolate and vanilla gelato along with a strong latte. After taking some photos in the piazza, Rob and I made our way into town and found a street market. We tasted some capers and Rob bought some locally grown and pressed virgin olive oil.
Before dropping the guests at the dock in Catania for the airport shuttle, we stopped at the Isola di Ciclopi; Cyclops Island. This is Southern Sicily's weekend party on the water spot. Locals and tourists were on the water in tenders, paddle boats, kayaks, and anything else that floats. Many women were topless, some men had on swim wear that was smaller than the females'. While the yacht was anchored there, it was a constant source of attention for the many boaters. The Sicilians circled the yacht, and we waved and responded to their greetings as much as was appropriate to do with our guests present.
Guests successfully dropped, yacht once again anchored in the Naxos harbor, near Taormina. It was time to unwind, relax, and release from a long period of work. The process began with some wakeboarding. Followed by some beers and hot tubbing. Next shots of tequila, and a tender run to the beach to pick up pizzas and more beer. Pizzas eaten, World Cup won by Spain, and more hot tubbing. Next we started jumping and flipping off the top of the yacht, about 40 feet off the water. Chilling, eating, drinking and having fun on this yacht was almost like having it to use for personal fun. The next job was to get the yacht back to Palermo to drop off our rental tender and pick up the loaner tender, plus get some diesel fuel.
Not sure if I clarified that we had no towing option with the rental tender. The bow eye and cleats were too weak to be used as attachment points. We had no way to put the tender up on deck, our new davit has not yet been installed. This left the only option of one of our deck crew to drive the tender as the yacht was driven from one port to the next. Complicate this with the fact that the 18 foot tender with a 115 horsepower only had a 55 liter gas tank; which is about 14 gallons. This gave us a range of only 45 miles at 25 mph. Some of the distances between our ports were 70 and 80 miles, which meant that one or sometimes two fuel stops had to be planned for the small tender. It was really kind of fun figuring out where we could stop for fuel and how to communicate with a pump attendant who did not speak English.
Between Naxos and Palermo, we anchored in Cefalu. I was on watch that night, but I did get to leave the boat and go to shore before dinner to take a walk for an hour. I split my time between the beach, the shopping street, and the piazza. Hauled anchor, and steamed to Palermo the next morning. There we cleaned out the garage and made room for the loaner tender that would be stored inside the yacht, via a door that lifts up inside the transom. The tender was delivered, it was started, and without any hassle it fit into the stands inside the garage. With our rental returned, the yacht was relocated to a town just East of Palermo, Termini.
Alongside at a commercial dock, we were position in a cool area. The main town was a few hundred feet higher atop at hill, and it was a brutal walk up there. A one story building painted flat red housed the only summer weekend gathering spot for young and old. Only Rob and I were out, the rest of the crew being tired had chosen to stay in and sleep. The bar was featuring belly dancers this night, and the dances were spaced out with one or two pop songs playing in between so the dancers could change their costumes.
The following day, my crew member Katie departed for a visit home to Florida. The yacht left the dock early and our crew cruise started in earnest. The yacht anchored off Fillicudi, next to the blue hole. Crew grabbed kayaks, paddle boards, and snorkeling gear. Taking to the water, we explored the cave and the multiple swim through formations of the site. The water was saturated with jelly fish, about the size of soft balls and with 5 foot long tentacles. All jelly fish in the Mediterranean sting humans, so everybody was careful to steer clear of the jelly fish. Still, anybody who went into the water snorkeling got stung, myself included. The stings weren't that painful, and wore off quickly.
That evening, after drifting off town to run for provisions, we steamed to Stromboli for an evening lava show. Once to the island, the yacht motored slowly along the shore. I sat out on the bow, looking up at the pitch black mountain top for an explosion of molten lava from the caldera. I spotted the lava first, but everybody else quickly looked because I could not contain my excitement and let out a yell. The lava shot out of the caldera in a violent plume towards the sky. It is difficult to judge distance, but I could guess that the lava was shot in excess of 200 feet above the visible part of the caldera. A thick plume of smoke was barely visible in the darkness, and it was only 10 minutes to the next eruption. We watched one more after that, and after went around to the other side of the island and anchored. The next day was sunny in Stromboli, and the crew took advantage with trip into the town on the volcanic isle. The narrow streets there are lined with caper trees flowering. Hotel courtyards are shaded by overhead grape vines, plump with ripe grapes. Citrus and fig trees reach high to the sun behind stucco and volcanic pumice rock walls. The beaches are fine black sand and smooth black stones.
From Stromboli the yacht came here once again to Taormina.
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