29 Jul - 30 Jul 2002 Reggio Calabria

Mediterranean Sea

Southern Ionian Sea

Italian Republic

Strait of Messina

Reggio Calabria

Town Harbour

SY "Kamu II" alongside the town pier.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our harbour berth:

N 38° 07.37' E 015° 39.12'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2002 Map

Spotting some very big harbour rats that live around the warehouses of the waterfront in this grimy harbour on the toe of the Italian peninsula boot which are even mentioned in the official nautical pilot books.

Refuelling with 150 litres of diesel fuel for € 0.89 per litre at a ramshackle Sicilian fuel jetty about 2 nm N of Messina, dodging the numerous ferries and trying to leave the dangerous waters and the perils of the whirlpools (much recorded in Greek myth and legend) of the Strait of Messina between Sicily and Italy behind us as quickly as possible.

02 Jul - 29 Jul 2002 Catania

Mediterranean Sea

Southern Ionian Sea

Italian Republic

Sicily

Catania

NIC Yacht Club +39095531178

SY "Kamu II" with her stern to the pier and a permanent bow mooring.

€ 21.- per night.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our marina berth:

N 37° 30.04' E 015° 05.86'

Mediterranean Sea
Southern Ionian Sea
Italian Republic
Sicily
Catania
Commercial Harbour
SY "Kamu II" alongside the breakwater.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our harbour berth:

N 37° 29.69' E 015° 05.97'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2002 Map

Exploring the city of Catania (motto: "Melior De Cinere Surgo" or “I Arise Better From My Ashes”) mainly built from dark volcanic rock and located at the foot of the active volcano Mt. Etna (which was the source of both benefits and evils to the city: (i) for on the one hand, the violent outbursts of the volcano from time to time desolated great parts of its territory; (ii) on the other, the volcanic ashes produced a soil of great fertility, adapted especially for the growth of vines) and tasting the genuine Sicilian slush puppy aka granite which was invented in Roman times when runners brought the natural ice from the glaciers of Mt. Etna down into Catania.

Taking a guided walking tour around the Fontana dell’Elefante, the symbol of the city of Catania, assembled in 1736 CE by Giovanni Battista Vaccarini and made of marble, portraying an ancient elephant (Vaccarini's original elephant was neuter, which the men of Catania took as an insult to their virility, and to appease them, Vaccarini later appended appropriately elephantine testicles to the original statue) and recognising the various distinctive layers of the city which had been totally buried by lava a few times in recorded history.

Visiting the 2nd-century BCE Greek-Roman theatre whose remains are located beneath Piazza Doumo, browsing through the vast number of historical churches in the baroque city centre (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and listening afterwards to Vincenzo Bellini's (son of Catania and born here in 1801 CE) operas in our cockpit and rolling in the delicious Catanese Pasta a la Norma (which is cooked with aubergines and topped with ricotta salata) in order to relax from the cultural intensity of the city.

Watching the big Grimaldi Lines and TTT Lines passenger ferries entering and leaving frequently the relatively narrow commercial harbour and admiring the great display of excellent seamanship.

Matt: Taking the long-distance bus from Catania/Italy to Leipzig/Germany for € 89.- (one-way ticket), visiting his family in Saxony and some of his friends in Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland and flying back from Leipzig/Germany to Catania/Italy with Air Berlin for € 125.- (one way).

28 Jun - 02 Jul 2002 Taormina

Mediterranean Sea

Southern Ionian Sea

Italian Republic

Sicily

Taormina Roads

Isola Bella Nature Reserve

St. Andrea Cove

SY "Kamu II" anchoring off.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 37° 51.15' E 015° 18.20'

Mediterranean Sea
Southern Ionian Sea
Italian Sea
Sicily
Taormina Roads
Taormina Town
SY "Kamu II" anchoring off.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 37° 50.82' E 015° 17.25'

Mediterranean Sea
Southern Ionian Sea
Italian Republic
Sicily
Taormina Roads
Giardini/Naxos
SY "Kamu II" anchoring off.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:
N 37° 49.55' E 015° 16.42'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2002 Map

Anchoring at the foot of a hilly coastline with popular Taormina on the 200-m high first level, later climbing up the almost vertical foot path from the beach to this picturesque and famous place of pilgrimage for tourists and artists (where Oscar Wilde, Nicholas I of Russia, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Nietzsche [who wrote here his “Also sprach Zarathustra”], Richard Wagner, Wilhelm von Gloeden and Otto Geleng spent their vacation), thus entering the stylish world of high-end tourism and merging with the glitzy, kitsch buying glitterati crowds of Italian and international tourists.

Separating from the glitzy, kitsch buying glitterati crowds of Italian and international tourists at Taormina and climbing up even further into the beautiful old and untouristy mountain village of Castelmola, situated on the 500-m high second level of the steep coast, almost on top of Taormina.

Observing how a nearby anchored luxury cruise liner from Princess Cruises professionally disembarked her passengers for a visit of Taormina using modern, fully enclosed ship tenders (designed to double as lifeboats) that seem to have come straight out of a sci-fi movie, and coincidentally discussing Hardin’s Lifeboat ethics, an ecological metaphor for resource distribution.

Being impressed by the quiet grandesse of Ennio Morricone (the composer of many scores for Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns that emerged in the mid 1960s) who conducted the Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta which played his unforgettable movie evergreens (“A Fistful of Dollars”, “Once Upon a Time in America”, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”) in the stunning ruins of Taormina's Greek open-air theatre (one of the most celebrated ruins in Sicily, on account of both its remarkable preservation and its surpassing beauty of its location against the backdrop of Mt. Etna as a spectacular natural stage setting).

Running aground on a shallow sandbank in front of the harbour of Giardini Naxos and coming free with the unselfish help and a long rope from an unknown friendly Sicilian fisherman.