Taormina

We met Chris and Alice (one of Sam's friends from his ski season and his girlfriend) in Syracuse, and after giving them the grand tour of Odyssee we found a beach area for a swim, before dinner and drinks in the town.

On returning to the boat, I started to feel pretty unwell and was promptly sick. I was shocked that a couple of glasses of wine had had such an effect on me, but it soon became apparent that the alcohol was not to blame (and as a silver lining, neither were the mussels in Sam's case), this was some kind of stomach bug! After a sleepless night I promptly slept for nearly 24 hours straight, feeling right as rain, ready for our sail the following day. The others spent the day at the archaeological park we'd gone to previously with Helen and Steve, and enjoyed sunset drinks and dinner overlooking the harbour.

We set off, heading north along the coast again for a lovely sail with textbook conditions, arriving by mid-afternoon at the bay we'd discovered the week before. With lightning forecast in the area we watched with relief as it passed away to the northeast of us, resulting in impressive views of lightning over Mount Etna. We weren't as fortunate with the wind, which with impeccable timing did a full 180 degree turn and gusted up to 25 knots within seconds of us commenting how still and calm it was! Poor Al and Chris had a bit more excitement than they had bargained for as they were in the water at the time. Al was pulled through the water clinging onto the ladder and Chris watched as the boat rapidly swung away from him around its anchor point.

Ever unpredictable the wind then dropped right down again and we were able to get the barbecue lit and play a few games. The significant change in wind direction did however mean that the swell was at odds to the new wind direction so we had a rollier night at anchor than we had expected.

My grand plan to catch a bit of extra sleep in the morning while the others went for a swim was swiftly scrapped as I was woken by a helicopter circling the boat. Having established that none of our party was in imminent danger we realised that it was just the coastguard practicing some drills (and definitely doing a bit of showing off for the watching boats!)

We set off towards Catania and having scoped out the available marinas on our last trip we were treated to a definite upgrade, by which I mean it actually had a toilet and a shower that wasn't in a rickety portacabin! The view was pretty special too.

The next day was Chris's birthday and an absolute highlight of the whole trip. We went on a guided tour up Etna, which was absolutely spectacular and made even better by our amazing tour guide Giovanni (who had not only grown up on the slopes of Etna but was a geologist too), we couldn't have asked for a more knowledgeable or enthusiastic guide! He also happened to be dating a food blogger who we, of course, mined for some restaurant recommendations.

With a forecast for very little wind and knowing we would be heading back down south later in the week we took the advice of the slightly mad French bloke in the boat next to us in the marina and took the train up to Taormina. It turns out this wasn't exactly the more relaxing option. Having taken the bus previously with just surgical masks we'd assumed this would be OK on the train. It turns out we were wrong and it's also fairly strictly enforced. Thankfully, there was another passenger in our compartment who did a fantastic job of keeping the conductor distracted. The two of them spent the entire train ride screaming at each other, while the passenger filmed it all, and the conductor even got the police on board at the next stop. At this point Sam and I did our best to keep our heads down to avoid getting kicked off! One of my favourite pastimes when people-watching the Italians (a famously passionate group), is to play "angry or just Italian" and this was a clear case of angry!

Taormina is a stunning town built into the cliffs with a definite Amalfi feel. We'd booked an apartment last minute and were treated to one of the best views in the town, overlooking Isola Bella in the bay. After a dip in the pool (and a game of flipflop frisbee for lack of any more conventional pool toys) we headed up to the main part of the town for dinner followed by a ballet at the ancient Greek theatre (possibly the most beautiful setting to watch a show).

On our final day together Chris and Alice set off for a romantic walk to watch the sunrise over the beach and Chris popped the big question and our Al came back with a significantly more sparkly left hand!

A lovely way to round off a brilliant week and we went out to celebrate in true Sicilian style with the best granita and brioche in Sicily before taking the cable car down to the beach. We left the lovebirds to it and took the train (with FFP2 masks this time) back to Catania ready to start our trip back down south.Read more