We slipped our lines at 5:30 this morning and motored all day to go through the Straits of Messina. This is the channel between the Italian mainland and the island of Sicily. It is less than 2 miles wide at its narrowest point. A lot of water funnels through the channel as a tidal flow between the Ionian Sea to the southeast and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the northwest.

We motored from Catania into light winds and seas. As we approached the straits the wind and seas continued to build and then magically flattened out. Within the straits there was a lot of ferry and other small boat traffic. We did pass a couple large ships in the shipping lanes going both directions. At the narrowest part of the straits our GPS showed 9.4 knots over the ground while boat speed thru the water was 5.1. You would not want to take a sailboat thru the straits against this current. We saw very turbulent water with standing waves and eddies. When motoring thru eddies the boat would simply change course significantly and have to be brought back. The beach at the cape on the north end of the strait was covered with people watching the natural wonder and the traffic.

We exited the straits at 16:30 and headed to an anchorage about 4 hours away. There are not many coves along the north shore that work as good anchorages but this was a good one. We arrived at dusk and set the hook in 34’ of water in the company of 3 other sailboats. The sunset was a good ending to a long day in which we covered 83 Nm in 15 hours.