Our first Italian pizza-deliciosa!

After three summer seasons in Greece we feel we know it's cruising grounds very well. We are sad to leave this beautiful part of the world and all that if offers, but are looking forward to new horizons. As well,we will miss Moussaka, Greek salad and reasonably priced wines and enjoyable nights out dining at local tavernas!

Argostoli is the port where we can check out from Greece. We are heading for Sardinia in Italy and because both countries are in the EU it is not a requirement to have your passport stamped out. However, because of the Shengan agreement we are only allowed 90 days in a 180 day period in the EU. This makes the cruising season very short if you spend all that time in EU countries. Any days that can be saved while you are in transit are a bonus. So the local police in Argostoli are happy to stamp our passports and we set off on our 4 day passage to Sardinia. The weather is light and we motor sail a good part of the way. The highlight of the trip is our transit through the Messina Straits at 1 am where we mix it with large ships going north and south. The Messina Strait is a narrow passage of water between Sicily and mainland Italy. Fortunately there is a full moon, so plenty of light around but the lights from villages that line the shores make it hard to distinguish the lights of ships, against this well lit background. Once again we express our gratitude for having AIS, it makes navigating amongst other shipping so much easier. There are designated lanes for shipping going north and south but the waterway does narrow off considerably. To add to the confusion there are ferries crossing from east to west between the mainland and Sicily so we have our eyes peeled for port and starboard lights crossing in front of us! Approaching the Strait we are called up on VHF by Messina VTS traffic control. They have picked us up on AIS and are keen for us to identify ourselves, and ask for information about our last and next port of call, number of people onboard and how much fuel we have! The Italian accent is very strong and we have difficulty understanding what the Controller is asking but we think we gave him the right answers!!! We don't hear from him again so we guess we have done it all correctly! All was very orderly until we reach the narrowest point of the strait, a sharp corner just where the ferries cross the shipping lanes. We have a large ship going our way on our port side and a ferry crossing at 15knots ducks behind the ship and heads straight for us as we are passing the ferry terminal entrance. Instead of waiting half a minute for us to pass the entrance , the very assertive ferry charges straight for the entrance and us and flashes us with a powerful spotlight. We have to make an emergency U turn to avoid a collision. There is a great sense of relief as we exit out the other side and after turning left then we settle back down to our three hour watches. We have another two nights of sailing before we arrive in Sardinia. The weather is still light, blowing from the NE and not strong enough to support sailing alone, so we are still motor sailing. We are burning more fuel than we expected to, so a refill in Sardinia will be necessary. The days are still hot ,so we keep our awning up as much as we can to keep the boat cool. I guess we look like a Chinese junk with a large piece of sunbrel covering the boom and over the boat but at least we are cool! After a relatively easy passage we arrive in Cagliari, Sardinia early on Sunday morning following four nights at sea. We don't feel too bad considering we have shared three hourly watches for 4 days. We have both managed to get some sleep when off watch and this makes a big difference to how you feel overall. As there are no places to anchor in Cagliari, we check into a marina and continue the tradition of popping a bottle of champers to toast our arrival!