November 24, 2015
Rocella Ionica, Italy
The fifth anniversary of our departure from Canada slipped past on July 1st, much like the past five years, but so much has happened, we have seen so many things and met so many people that it already seems like much more than five years have gone by.
This summer was a busy one because we were helping our friends to operate their mooring field at the base of Taormina; the location is spectacular. With the hilltop towns of Taormina and Castelmola and the volcano, Etna, in view on shore, and the Ionian Sea behind us, the scenery was so beautiful that we did not mind spending an entire summer in this spot.
One hot day in August found me in the nearby town of Giarre waiting for a train after running an errand. The temperature hovered around 100 degrees fahrenheit and a shimmering haze obscured the view from the station back toward Taormina. A slight breeze was blowing and hints of the cooler sea air mixed with the hot thermals rising from the gravel on the tracks. I had been waiting for about an hour because the train was late, and I was thankful for the shade I was in, but it was not enough to keep the rivulets of sweat from running down my leg and over the nine-stitch-gash on my ankle.
The work on the mooring field entailed soliciting business from boats entering the harbour, tying boats to the mooring balls, ferrying people to and from shore, and disposing of customers’ trash. One evening early in the season, a thoughtless crew person on one of the superyachts put an unwrapped, broken champagne bottle in the trash bag and never told me. I cut my ankle on it while carrying the bag to the dumpster. Four hours later, after a pleasant trip to emergency at the nearby hospital, I was back on H2OBO. It was six weeks, during the hottest part of the summer, before I could go swimming in the cool waters buoying up our home. The only respite from the relentless heat during that period was found after the sun set and in cold showers in the cockpit. Once I was able to swim again, it was glorious.
The only routine we have are the seasons themselves. Our plans change almost daily. We had originally intended to sail to the Aegean Sea this summer to visit Greece and Turkey and ended up staying in Sicily. The world is a radically different and dangerous place just three hundred miles from this idyllic spot. Desperate refugees are crowding unseaworthy boats to cross the Med and flee terror and poverty in Africa and the Middle East to reach a haven in Europe. Violence has taken many lives in places we visited a year ago and where we intended to go this one. We keep a watch on the weather and navigation hazards that now include geopolitical actions to a greater extent in order to avoid being caught somewhere not welcoming.
But if the preceeding sounds like I am complaining, I am not. I am actually bragging - our life is anything but boring.
The summer passed pleasantly, the work was done, so we decided to take a short cruise to the toe of Italy in Calabria, Rocella Ionica specifically. It was new to us and we liked what we saw, so we decided to stay for the winter. After two winters in Sicily it was time to see something different. Keep moving and keep it fresh, I think, take it all in.
Branko
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