There was less wind during the night than expected and so I was starting to wonder whether this whole bad weather thing was going to happen at all. It would not have been the first time that a weather front changed direction and throw the meteorologists completely off track. By 5 am. in the morning it even turned wind-still for a little while. However this was the “silence before the storm”. When we approached the Messina pilot station the wind gradually started to pick up and kept picking up. The pilot came on board while it was wind force four; when we made the turn into the Strait of Messina it was wind force six and by the time we were in the strait it was wind force 10.

Wind force 10. That is heavy, heavy storm. The wind meter gave a peak wind of 52 knots. This was going to be very interesting I thought. The pilot, who had just announced that he was going to retire in six months after 25 years on the job and thought he had seen it all, was slowly getting nervous. I had already ordered a tugboat for arrival to off-set the drifting of the stern that would be caused by the then predicted wind on the funnel and now the pilot was calling this tugboat every 5 minutes for a wind update. Luckily you can approach Messina to about 1.5 miles from the harbour entrance and still turn safely away. We call this the abort point and as long as I am not past such a point I am never unduly concerned. As long as there is a plan B, I am always willing to try something.

The wind in the port was about 25 to 30 knots, but full on the beam when docking, and that can be done but it can be marginal for the Prinsendam. The main problem here was that the dock is 220 meters long and the Prinsendam is 204 meters long and thus there would not be much room to play with. However some luck a man must have in life and while we were approaching the port entrance; and I was watching the distance to the abort point very closely, my plan B, the wind started to subside to fewer than 20 knots in the harbour. We were in business. At the entrance to Messina harbour is a large statue of Christ the Savior located at the end of the break water and the pilot spoke a few thank you words of relief while we were passing.

messina The harbour entrance of Messina with the Christ Statue at the end of the breakwater. The golden figure is lit up during the night and has a blue lit Halo above the head.

Thus we parked ourselves alongside. Just as we were fully docked with extra lines out, as we were expecting more wind; all the wind died away and it there was only rain. When I checked the weather chart after arrival; not the prediction but the real weather of the moment, I saw that the frontal system had been going over Messina just as we were approaching. Later in the day I checked the swells running at Naxos and they had 9 feet, so it was a good thing that we did not go there.

Although it rained our guests at least had places to go and things to see; and could partake in the tours instead of having to spend the day at sea. Messina was heavily damaged in the 2nd world war but there is still a lot of old stuff around to have a look at. I kept a look at the weather and was congratulating myself on the fact that by 17.00 hrs it was still wind still and thus it would be an easy departure. Murphy must have heard that as by 17.15 it started to blow from the NW with a wind force 5, pushing the ship against the pier and thus it was going to be an interesting departure. Mainly as it would not be easy to get out of the tight dock that we were sitting in.

So we came slowly off the dock, bringing the stern into the wind with the aid of a tugboat and then came around by spinning on the spot and using the wind on the funnel as a sort of free tugboat. However the North Westerly wind blew all the rain away and it was a beautiful sail-away through the Straits of Messina. We had our travel guide on the bridge for a narration so the guests would get a bit of in depth information about what they were seeing as well.

Stromboli is about 2 hours North of Messina and on the course track to Naples our next port of call. Thus I sailed by there around 9 pm. And, as the skies were clear enough we could see a lava flow and a little bit of fire works coming off the cone on the North side of the crater. We passed by just between the shows, so everybody who wanted to have a look could do so without missing anything on board.

Tomorrow we are in Naples. It is supposed to be Wind still, 75oF. and sunny. Wind still is good as I have had enough wind today to last me for several weeks.