Straight into the Strait.

We had spent our week at Cap D'Orlando marina and they helpfully gave us a questionnaire to fill out about our stay. Well Mrs K liked this and pointed out to them that their lovely marina was empty because staying in a five star hotel was cheaper. That it would be easier to dig your own landfill site then walk the miles to the bins and that the clever lighting system in the showers switched themselves off just as you got all lathered up. The lady in the office was very grateful for our comments.

Having vented our views on Marina prices we decided to anchor for the night East of the Milazzo peninsular to hide from a North West swell. This worked well and we had a reasonable night ready to make for the Straits of Messina. Not quite the sailors trial it  used to be in Kirk Douglas's time. No whirlpools or multi headed monsters. Apparently the earthquake activity has changed the underwater terrain making it a much easier passage these days. And I'm probably not going to talk about multi headed monsters!

This huge pylon type structure marks the entrance to the Messina Strait from the North and as we entered the clouds began to build and we were hit by a famous Messina Squall and got soaked. Messina harbour seemed like it should be safe but turned out to be pretty uncomfortable with large boats causing a surge through the floating docks testing Hermy's ropes to some tune. Messina itself was a bit scruffy as if no one had cleared up after WWII.

So after overpaying the marina who wanted 10 Euros for the pleasure of water and Electricity on top of 66 Euros for the night we left. The only positive part of the stay was meeting a mad Australian and his son taking his yacht 'Love Child' from Greece back to Oz.

We slipped across to Reggio Di Calabria on the mainland which had received a similar write up as Messina but very unfairly.  The guide book says you have to call up the port authority to request permission to enter which we hadn't had to do since Dover so using my best English I made the request and received a very professional response. Strangely he made me call up the empty Marina to see if they had a space which they did and we entered. There was some confusion as there was a man at the entrance waving to us to enter his little harbour but after a further call we realised he was just touting for business and we went to the inner south harbour which to our amazement was  only 35 Euros a night. We'll have two please! That was the first thing we liked about Reggio.

The second thing we liked was that it was clean and tidy and had proper shops and quite spectacular trees. It even had pavements too although you couldn't walk on them because there were cars parked all over them.

Prices all round seemed cheaper and Mrs K swooped on a pair of socks and a new jumper.

Of course the real highlight was the Archaeological museum and using my, now highly tuned, navigational skills we entered,  paid our money and started at the end and worked our way to the beginning.

This chap was described as a statue of a 'seated male with right arm raised!'

Makes you wonder what the question was!

The real highlight were the two bronze statues found in the sea at Riace on the instep of Italy in 1972 by a snorkeler . In order to see them you have to enter a chamber to remove any pollutants that may enter with you. Mrs K suggested that she was expecting me to be sucked out at any moment.

Both naked as we have come to expect from the Greeks.

The visit was only slightly marred by Mrs K asking me if that was what my body was meant to look like?

All in all a good museum with tons of stuff and  Mrs K showed no resistance until we were at least halfway through.

Well the weather wasn't improving at all so we decided to stay another couple of nights at Reggio. As luck would have it Reggio has an old Aragonese castle to go and look at so off we went.

You can see the excitement on Mrs K's face.

All in all if you are going to get stuck somewhere then Reggio is not a bad choice. We met a number of lovely people, English Dentists holidaying from somewhere up North. A Polish couple on the yacht Mia who liked Hermy. A Swedish couple on their yacht Sally with whom we sat out a ferocious squall drinking wine. and an Irish Italian family on Sea Too who were passaging from Greece with two very young but boat savvy and bilingual children. All very sociable and a pleasure to meet.

Mrs K likes to talk to normal people!