TE Ionian Sea and Sicily 2025
After a few days in Barcelona, we arrived in Corfu at the Gouvia Marina on May 9 and were greeted by our great winter crew, Ilias, Dimitries and David. Over the winter we continued with the 10+ year upgrade program with new interior upholstery, new solar panels and dozens of small fixes and tweaks.
Leaving Corfu we made one more stop in Greece before heading over to Itlay. We had previously visited the island of Ereikoussa, with a population of about 500 souls. The waters here and on the adjacent island of Othonio are some of clearest we have ever seen. Unexpectedly, the marina was quite full; however, we found a spot.
From Eikousa to the ‘stiletto heal’ of Italy is only about 60 miles. We got beautiful weather and having visited Otranto on a prior roadtrip, we decided to take a 170 nautical mile run to Cortone. This south coast of Italy along the sole of the boot is not very interesting. In four days we arrived in the Reggio Calabria area.
We had expected to find several first class marinas in this area….what a surprise. In Porto Baler we found a small marina that had been built in the rustic style. We met the owner and it was clearly his design choice not due to a financial constraint. We rented a car here an headed up to Tropea, a classic hill top Italian town. While in the area, we made arrangements to store the boat during the latter part of July and early August at the only boatyard in the vicinity.
We were now ready to start of circumnavigation of Sicily. We started on the east coast at Riposto. As is often the case, we like to leave the boat for a few days in a new area and explore the interior by car or train. From Riposto we took a train to the wonderful town of Taormina with its Roman ruins. Back on the boat we cruised to Catania, the major city in the region where Anna joined us. At Syracusa, more Roman ruins. Ragusa become our base where we returned several times.
At Licata we rented a car and headed for Palermo where we dropped Anna at the airport returning to Licata by a different route. This gave us a good chance to see both the interior and the coast of the island. Returning to Ragusa, we took the ferry over to Malta. Malta is one enormous fortress sitting at the divide of the eastern and western Med. St John’s cathedral was one of the most embellished we have ever seen.
Rounding the south west corner of the island we stopped at Marsala for a few days. Given the weather, we elected to take the ferry over to the island of Favigana. We also visited the ruins at Castelvetrano, amazing. On to Trapani with a side trip to the mountain town of Erice, what a ride.
On to Palermo where we joined up with Steve and Tiffany. Cruising the north coast we spotted the hull of s/v Bayesian that sank off the town of Imerese. Cefalu was a great stop with crystal clear waters and a fine town. Soon we were back on the mainland at R Marine in Reggio Calabria where True East was hauled and stored for a month.
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