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| Transiting the Strait of Messina - between Sicily and the south of Italy |
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| Facing the wind and the sea... |
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| Ferry between Italy Mainland and Sicily |
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| Mafioso Ferries awaiting their cargo |
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| One of the monster cruise ships dwarfing the port town on Sicily's side of Messina Strait |
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| Walking Prinsendam Promenade Deck in the Strait of Messina |
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| Aaahh, let's test and taste the savours of the world at an introductory wine tasting |
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| Not a bad collection for mid afternoon... |
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| A table with a view... |
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| the 5 'S' of tasting See, Stir, Smell, Savour and (Spit - for the experts) Swallow (for the regular tasters) |
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| Leaving the Strait of Messina and heading into the Ionian Sea |
What a trip just to get here...
Departing rainy Vancouver Island with time to spare...spending an overnight in a motel near Sidney Airport to catch a dawn flight directly to Toronto, meals for purchase...one cup of soup later (cold) and another cup of soup to replace the inedible first one (lukewarm) later one arrives dead on schedule in sunny and warm TO.
There a few hours with a horsey friend of days gone by in a Terminal 1 cafe.
Back aboard for more airtime - meals are gratis this time: wine and food. One tries to sleep, which is difficult if not impossible in the last row where seats don't incline much. After nearly 9 hours of intermittent dozes and uninterrupted bent knees (with 5'2" height I could not straighten my leg) one flies over Civitaveccia's port, where a bunch of cruise ships line the dock. Monster vessels all, and Prinsendam looks like a dinghy in between all these behemoths, at least as seen from several thousand feet in the air.
In Fumicino, Rome's airport in dire need of a face lift, Holland America 'greeters' herd the Prinsendamians to luggage drop off (oh just as well one does not need to lug that around anymore) and transfer buses. All pretty routine, new no newbies to cruising around either.
Aboard, all efficiency, hospitality, welcome home kind of thing. Then the Life Boat drill...
Well, the fall out of COSTA!!! 30 minutes of disciplined drill on the deck (WE NEED SILENCE ON THE DECK), with DETAILED instructions about what to do in an emergency. Dead serious roll call, dead serious the whole works. (I heard that Holland America is putting all staff through at least one full week of land based emergency training, AND and additional 10 hour per week at sea emergency training and review. On those ships the life boat commanders will not only be proficient in English, but proficient in everything else including maneuvering and driving the life boats.
Pretty commendable progress - except staff now works an additional 10 hours a week on top of their regular work.
My table for 8 at dinner: a lucky draw. And I won the grand prize this time.
A couple from Perth in Australia, who have lived and worked in Zimbabwe until it's demise, then stints in London, New Zealand...
A couple from Silicon Valley making fortunes in high rises which are constructed using their glass products - and into heavy duty personal training fitness.
Another couple from Quebec, husband being an ex kidnap victim in the Middle East and listening to Spy radio up in the furthermost Arctic during the cold war, both in their mid eighties and entertaining as can be.
Sure lots to chat about on this table.
First announcement from the best captain in the fleet, Halle Thor Gunderson, an advice of change in itinerary. No Tunisia (travel advisory, I guess there are too many Americans aboard to venture into the Ambassador shooting nation), so it is Sicily instead to visit some of the Cosa Nostra bunch in Catania. Well, Taormina is only a short bus ride away - almost as exotic as Roman mosaics in Sousse in Tunesia.
We are passing through the Messina Strait, which is the body of water between Sicily and the sole of the boot of Italy. Crazy wind surfers play 'catch me if you can' with the ship in winds that make a large ship heel. The Italian pilot guides the ship between head lands, ferries, ship traffic, wind surfers and kite surfers...all of 15 minutes between the entry of the narrows and the exit to the Ionian Sea.
So far, so good!
Wish the wine tasting would not be on the first afternoon at sea...still half asleep from the trip.
Dubrovnik tomorrow...see you then.
