Sirens and things

The last time I sailed the Med was on a delivery from Cape Town to
Croatia. Flew through Gibraltar and four days later reached Sicily. Got
delayed there for three days due to 50 kts of wind through the Straights
of Messina. It is the little gap between Italy and Sicily and rich in
Greek mythology. The Straights were inhabited by sirens, some say
two, some say four. The sirens were creatures with bird-like bodies,
girl's faces, and exquisite singing voices, so exquisite that almost
every mariner who passed the island fell completely under the spell of
their seductive voices and stayed there listening to them forever
more, or else smashed their ships to smithereens on the rocky coast of
the island. It was littered with the shipwrecks bleached bones and of
their countless victims.

Although almost all the ships which passed the islands of the sirens
went down, mythology reports two successful attempts to pass the sirens
unscathed. On his lengthy return journey from Troy to Ithaca, the hero
Odysseus heeded the advice of the enchantress Circe and stopped the ears
of his men with wax to prevent them from hearing the enticing singing.
Since he was keen to hear the sirens himself, he left his own ears
unprotected. He took the precaution, however, of having himself strapped
to the mast of his ship and ordered his men to bind him even tighter if
he appeared to be too carried away by the singing.

The Argonauts, the heroes who had set sail on the ship, the Argo, led by
Jason, chose a simpler but no less effective solution.One of those on
board the Argo was the great singer Orpheus. With his own lovely voice,
he effortlessly drowned out the voices of the sirens.

So one has to deal with this on top of strong currents, strong winds and
lots of traffic. But if you time it right it is also one of the most
beautiful, awe inspiring places you will see. With Mount Edna on Sicily
to our right and the cliff-carved temples on our left, I will ask the
guys to plug their ears with Prestik, tie me to the mast, and hopefully
we will have a safe passage through.

In the meantime we are zig zagging our way towards Greece, slight
headwinds predicted for the next few days. Our position at AM 11:30 UTC
is 36*29'N/00*56'W,google earth it if you like. Felix has plans of
serving chicken for supper. First lightly cooked and then baked in the
oven. I just finished baking a bread and Felix and myself have already
had half of it with some soup. When Brad wakes up he will no doubt also
have his fair share of bread and it will see us through till suppertime.

Take care

Paul