Well, we have been stuck
here in Riposto for four days due to bad weather. We knew there might be poor conditions coming. However the only alternative was to
start out at 5:30am on Saturday to do a 70 mile crossing to Calabria. But after 7 hours at sea on Friday
neither or us wanted to do that.
We really needed one day at least in port to recover and provision the
boat.
So we stayed on Saturday and
hoped for the best. The town is
very pleasant. It is not a tourist
place, but a real working town. It
has excellent food outlets to provision the boat. Right across from the marina is a street made up entirely of
fishmongers ending in a fish and fruit and veg market. There are a number of nice
delicatessens selling all sorts like local cheese, salamis and local
wines. So I get to buy some nice
things for us to eat over the next few days.
However, on Saturday R
suggests that we have what will probably be our last slap up meal. So we taxi into Taormina and go to the
restaurant in the top hotel- the Belmond
Grand Hotel Timeo. We didn’t
have much time to walk around Taormina, but we did have a lovely view over the
sea. The only disappointment is that
we cannot see any eruptions on Etna.
Our waiter says that it has stopped. However, as there is a heavy layer of cloud over the
mountain, that could be the problem.
When we got back to the boat
we looked at the forecast again, just to make sure it was suitable to go first
thing tomorrow. It is bad. The wind is forecast to be on the nose,
up to force 5 and the wave height is predicted at nearly 2 meters! So we are staying in port. In fact, the weather does not look good
until Tuesday.
So we are here on Sunday and
Monday. Sunday was rotten
weather. Cloudy, cool and finally
raining. We have just been lazing
about. I am reading one Montalbano
mystery each day! On Monday we do
have a longish walk up the hill to the next town where we find a Vodafone shop
to recharge our internet device.
We also finally buy some fresh fish in the market and have a very nice
dinner of grilled bream with asparagus.
So now we are preparing for
the long crossing to Calabria (70+ miles) starting at the crack of dawn
tomorrow. The forecast is good.
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