All is well as we're motor sailing along at about 9 knots (almost 10 knots speed over ground--SOG). Tweaking of the sails is important to our speed. Dave and Carol are "on watch" now. Midge and I follow at 1800--6p--and will hope to keep the speed up as we sail further from Sicily and closer to Sardinia. (We hope our ETA is about 1000 in the morning.) the jagged peaks of Sicily have disappeared now. The temp is so much more pleasant now at 84-85. The wind helps ...

We're on our way to Cagliari outside of Palermo, Sicily. (It's about 10 hours from point to point.) Although we left at 0700, I don't think we'll see any of Palermo. :( (One of the odd things about this blog is that my location choice does not include Sicily. Since a location is required, I've had to incorrectly choose Italy. The Sicilians would definitely not like that! It will be interesting to see if Sardinia is listed separately.) Had a safe landing in the...

We arrived Marina Villa Igiea along with another Oyster. Port authorities squeezed us in first, moving other boats to make room for the Oyster 72. I took pictures of the bumper collection when the boats were tucked in safely. When all deck work was finished--particularly our neighbors, we sang Happy BD to Lindsay while she drank champagne. After our cocktails, we headed to dinner. Fortunately, we had a change in plans from a hotel restaurant to Ristorante La St...

The marina is like a small town with only a few amenities: one delightful restaurant overlooking a large swimming pool and beach area, one closed restaurant--understand it was pricey from last year's stop here, and a market and shops--more on that later. The plan today was a sighting trip to Mt. Etna. We were off only to have to stop before we got out of the marina due to a medical emergency for one of our "crew." Fortunately, it turned out to be sun exhaustion ...

After an overnight sail, we arrived at the marina without incident. We enjoyed playful dolphins that entertained us (and them apparently) on our way, didn't have to dodge boats on our course, and enjoyed the sail at between 8-9 knots. We entered the Straits of Messina early this morning, making good time as we saw the heel of the boot on our starboard and Sicily on our port. It continues to be hot and most of the ac is now on since we're in port. Tonight we eat s...