Saturday 30 May 2015 - Crotone

We set out from Le Castella just after 8 this morning and found a glassy sea with no wind.  So we motored all the way to Crotone.  Crotone is an interesting town and much better resourced than La Castella.  We fill up with fuel on the way in.  With all the motoring, especially the leg from Riposto, we had used up nearly half a tank of fuel.  The weather forecast makes it look like the trip to Cephalonia will also mainly be on motor, so I am glad we could fill up.

The berth we have is part of the local yacht club.  We are on new pontoons and have all the facilities we need.  There are two washing machines here, which the office is keen for me to use, but there is no tumble dryer and despite the fact that it is a lovely hot sunny day, I do not fancy trying to hang out two sets of linens, six towels and three weeks of underwear all over the rigging.  So we go to the laundrette in the town.

The launderette is on the very opposite side of town and is quite a walk with two heavy bags of dirty clothes!  But worse than that, when we get there we find they are closed for lunch!  We don’t want to drag the washing back and for to the boat again, so despite the fact that we had planned to have a fasting day today, we decide to try to find somewhere for a bite of lunch to kill the 90 minutes until the place re-opens.  We have no luck finding a restaurant or even a lunch bar.  All we do find is a very nice café which sells ice cream and pastries.  So instead of dieting we wind up having cappuccinos and canola (a Sicilian specialty of crisp ginger snap type pastry filled with sweet ricotta cheese).  But it was very nice and we did get to the launderette where the lady helped me do all the washing despite her not speaking a word of English and me having about three useful words of Italian!

So we are now ready to make the journey to Greece tomorrow.  We have decided that as it can take up to 36 hours (though R hopes it will be more like 30 hours)  we need to start very early, say 6am.  So I will have to do all the food preparation as we go.  I have put on a sea sickness patch and hope that gets over any nasty water. 

I will be in touch when we make landfall.

Friday 29 May 2015 - Le Castella, Calabria

Well, dear readers (a la Charlotte Bronte) we have finally made it out of Sicily!  But it has been a very frustrating experience.  As I said before the boatyard said that they would have the part on Monday or Tuesday.  But this is Sicily and of course it did not turn up on Monday.  In fact, it did not turn up until Tuesday afternoon when it was too late to fit it! 

With all this delay we are desperate to get away.  The next leg of the trip was supposed to be to the first port in Calabria, a trip of 70 miles.  That will take at best 12 hours and probably 14.  So the original plan was to leave the marina just before daybreak so at to get in to the next port in daylight.  However with all the delays we made a plan B.  That was to do an overnighter leaving after dinner and arriving at breakfast time the next morning. 

But I remind you again, we are in Sicily, so nothing works out as planned.  As promised the engineer, Francesco, arrived just after 9am with the part.  I was rather surprised to see this so important part.  It is a small piece of curved rubber pipe, about 7 inches long.  Nothing else, no ends, nothing.  How it could take that long to get to us I cannot imagine.  Anyway, it is fitted and the engine is ticking over and seems fine.  However, Francesco does say that we should have a test of the engine before setting out.  So we decide to have lunch first and then just motor out of the marina for half an hour’s trip around to see that all is well.  And that is what we did, BUT, after 15 minutes the overheating alarm came on again.  So we limp back into port, calling the men to manoeuvre us into a space by the office.  We call the mechanics and they come on board.  They cannot understand what is wrong.  They come out with us again to see for themselves and again the alarm goes off within 15 minutes.

After a lot of conflabbing they say the only thing left that can be wrong is that the pipes inside the engine are clogged up.  They have a special machine that cleans the engine (the heat exchanger) out and will take and hour or so.  We may then be able to leave tonight as planned.  So we get towed to a berth at the boatyard and the cleaning begins.  It is now getting very late but at last the cleaning is done.  So again we motor out and yes, again, the alarm goes after 15 minutes!  Francesco is completely stumped.  He has checked the water intake and the impeller and they seem fine.  But changing the impeller is just about all that is left.  There is no use trying to do it now.  It is very difficult to get at and the engine is very hot.  So we agree that he should come back in the morning to change the impeller.  In the meantime we are stuck in the boatyard with no access to the outside or to toilets and showers.  It is all very miserable.  I am convinced that the boatyard doesn’t have a clue and I cannot see this getting better soon. Oh as an aside with all this going on the rev counter has miraculously started to work again!  Why??

So in despair I insist that Richard phones the local agent from the Cruising Association who we met last year and who said that if we ever needed help we should contact him.  He is very kind.  He says that the boatyard are not the best.  If they can’t sort us out tomorrow he knows a specialist Yanmar engineer who should be able to help.  He contacts the engineer and tells him we might be in touch.

On Wednesday morning Francesco turns up just before 8am.  He struggles like mad to get to the impeller (a problem everyone who has ever worked on our engine complains about).  The impeller he takes out is in perfect condition and cannot possibly be the cause of the problem.  So we are now all in despair, when suddenly Richard has an idea.  No one has checked the freshwater cooling system.  All the trouble has been with the seawater part and it was assumed the freshwater was fine.  I mentioned this to Richard yesterday and asked why that wasn’t being checked, but he said it was not touched by the other problems, so shouldn’t be the source.  Well, they were all wrong!  The whole problem was that the freshwater system was nearly empty, having been drained by Francesco.  Richard filled it with at least 4 pints of water in.  Now Francesco is certain it will work.  But we must take it for yet another test out.  The weather is not being kind to us and it starts to rain quite hard.  So we go to turn on the engine to leave for the test and…nothing.  The damned thing will not start.  It isn’t making any noise as if it had electricity going to it.  We are at the end of our tether we cannot believe this is happening. 

So Francesco goes off to find an electrician.  But then he comes back with a volt meter to test the battery.  We know that is not the problem.  We have all this new equipment for the solar panels which tell us the batteries are full of charge, as his meter confirms.  It is clear that when working on the engine Francesco has dislodged a wire and he finally finds that is the case.  The wire is put back in place and off we go in the rain to test the engine yet again.  I am certain the marina are right fed up with rescuing us every time we go out!  But way hay!  It all works.  Only would you believe it the rev counter has given up the ghost again!  Clearly a loose connection.  That will have to be dealt with at another time.

It is now about 10am, too late to go to the next port in Calabria.  I suggest to Richard that maybe we should just get on to a berth and go out for a nice lunch, finish the shopping a go tonight.  But Richard has a different idea.  He wants to go right away.  I don’t understand, that means we would get to a new marina in the dark late at night.  But no, that isn’t what he has in mind, he is suggesting we go on to the next port, 120 miles away.  That means a 20-24 hour journey, but the weather is improving and he wants to make up some lost time.  So I agree.  I have not been able to prepare and shop as I would have wanted, but I can make do. We will stop at a harbour which the book says has a good supermarket and a launderette.  The latter is getting desperate.  Both of us we are running out of underwear and I only have one set of linens left!

So we prepare to go, but just before find yet another problem.  The engine is not heating up the domestic hot water supply.  We have no idea if all this fooling around is the cause.  Since we set out we have been on shore power every night, so we have had hot water without considering how it was made.  We have no interest in waiting around to get that fixed.  It will have to wait, but we will need it in Greece, so not for too long.  Maybe the next port can help.

We set off at 11am.  The rain has stopped, although it is quite cloudy and it is cold!  We both need to wear layers and fleeces.  Not what we expected.  The wind starts off very light and we put up the sails, but only to push the engine on a bit.  But after a couple of hours, as we approach the Messina Straight, the wind starts to build and it is a force 5.  So the engine can be switched off.  The only problem is that we are running close to the wind and healing a lot.  I nearly slip from one side of the cockpit to the other.  I persuade R to take in a reef even though it isn’t blowing a constant 20knots, just occasionally.  She then is sailing much more upright without any real loss of speed.  In fact for a couple of hours we are averaging 7-8knots!  But all good things must come to any end.  As we approach Capo Sportivento the wind dies and starts to jump in every direction.  Just before this started I made us tea, so we take the opportunity to heave to and have our tea before going back on engine.

But it gets worse; as soon as we turn past the Cape, the wind shifts and it is now on the nose!  But at least the wind is very light, only a force 2 and the sea is not bad.  It stays that way for a couple of hours.  In the meantime the radio is broadcasting what they call a gale warning, but which is only a strong wind warning.  The whole of the Med is apparently liable to thunderstorms with a force 7 under those storms.  So we must be on the look out for dark clouds and prepare if necessary.  But no such clouds appear.  Just before the sun sets the sky clears.  We have been cold all day, but now there is lovely late afternoon sun in the cockpit and I am relaxing in a smooth sea before considering what to make for supper.

So after the heat of the sun goes and I go below to prepare a simple pasta dish, cheating and using readymade sauce.  But would you believe it, just as I start to cook the wind picks up to a 5 and the sea becomes very lumpy.  Nonetheless we manage our bowl of pasta each in the cockpit and settle down to an uncomfortable slog into a headwind.  This is also slowing us down, so the journey will take 24 hours, not 20.

At 10pm we start to do watches.  Richard starts with a two hour watch, and we continue like that through the night.  I wind up doing the 4-6am watch which is dawn and I love that.  I try to get a photo, but I am not adept at using R’s camera, so it really doesn’t show up as lovely as it was.

At 11am we arrive at La Castella, a small seaside resort named after a large ancient castle at its entrance.  The harbour is very small and is run down.  We are berthed safely, but are very disappointed with the facilities.  The showers don’t have hot water, the toilets have no paper and worst of all there are no laundry facilities (the main reason we chose to come here).  The launderette referred to in the pilot has closed down.  We later discover that there is a washing machine, but it is very small and it is broken and does not spin.  There is no way I can use that to do the ton of washing I have.  So Richard phones the next port up, Crotone.  They confirm that there is a launderette in the town, and they have a washing machine, (but no dryer); they can give us a berth for tomorrow night, so we will move in the morning.

Other that that the town is sweet.  The supermarket isn’t bad and I do stock up on food which we will need.  The plan now is to try to make up the week we lost.  So after I have got the laundry done, instead of working our way up the heel of Italy and over to Corfu, we will sail direct to Cephalonia, 170 miles, which should take about 36 hours.  Wish me luck!

Friday 22 May 2015 - Riposto

Well, we are still here.  Not written much because there is not too much to say.  After two days the engineers told us that the part we need was not available anywhere in Italy and they have to send to the UK for it!  At first they said it would take 8 days!  After a bit of persuading them that there must be a faster way to getting it here, they said it should arrive next Monday or Tuesday.  We tried to source the part from the firm in the Hamble that used to do all the work on the engine, but they cannot get one here any quicker.  It does not help that the bank holiday intervenes.  So being stuck here on a two week Sicilian holiday we did not plan for, we hired a car and went away for one night.  We really have toured most of Sicily before, but we found a few hill towns we did not know including Enna and Scicli.  All quite cute.  Then we went back to Noto, which we didn’t see very well last year.

Back on the boat we tried to find a launderette.  Richard scoured the internet and found two places that were a bit far away, but perhaps we could manage by taking the car there and a taxi back.  However, it all turned into a wild goose chase and we never found anywhere.  So I have put one set of linens and towels into the marina laundry service at more or less hotel prices and horror of horror I did hand washing!  That is my real bugbear.  I hate it.  But I needed some underwear, so needs must.  If we ever get out of here, the next two places we plan to get to are supposed to have laundry facilities, but I suspect that will be washing machines only, meaning I will have to drape the boat in wet linens!

Tomorrow we are going to go to Catania by train to do a bit more sightseeing.  I will resume again when we have any more interesting sailing news.

Tuesday 19 May 2015 - Riposto

We do wake up literally at the crack of dawn- 5:00am.  The sky is just beginning to get light. We have made all our preparations for a quick get away.  The only slight delay is finding one of the marina staff to take our lock fob and get our 10 Euro deposit back.  But we manage that at the fuel pontoon and we are on our way.  The weather forecast is good, we check again before we leave.  The only problem is that there is likely to be little or no wind.  So it will be a long motor trip.  We slip mooring at about 5:30 and get out of the marina before 6.  We put up the mainsail just in case some wind shows up and put up the revs on the engine when disaster hits.  As we start to accelerate there is a loud screeching noise from the engine!  It is overheating.  We quickly turn the engine off and R goes below to see if there is something stuck in the filter to stop the water circulating and cooling the engine.  He can’t see anything obviously wrong.  We put the engine on again momentarily and it is still sounding the alarm, but there is water coming out of the exhaust (as there should be).  We can’t risk using the engine.  So we have no choice, we have to turn around and return to the marina.  There is only less than 3 knots of wind (even going to zero at one stage) but we will have to sail back. It is only about half a mile, but even with all the sails up it takes us over half an hour to get to the harbour entrance.  Richard does a grand job of taking the boat in under sail despite having what little wind there is nearly on the nose and pushing us towards the breakwater.  I call up the marina and warn them that we have no engine and will need help to come in.  They say to stand by, but nothing happens.  As we get further into the harbour and approach the control tower they finally send a rib which helps us to tie up to the fuel pontoon.  By the time we tie up it is still only 7am, so it will take some time to try and call an engineer to see what is the matter.

So with nothing to do, I go back to bed for an hour and Richard reads the downloaded newspaper.  At about 9am they tell us that they can’t get an engineer to us until 2:30 this afternoon.  So we just have to sit around and wait.  As we are not on a proper berth, Richard is unhappy to leave the boat at all.

We hope that there is just some blockage in the water cooling system that can be cleared by the mechanic.  If so we might try to make the passage overnight tonight and make up for some lost time.  To this end I make a big lunch so that if necessary we can eat just sandwiches for supper under way.

As we start our lunch Ren and Angela on Tantrum of Hamble come in.  We tell them the sad story.

Finally only 10 minutes late, the mechanic turns up.  He finds the fault without too much trouble.  It is a broken hose.  That is fairly easily fixed, BUT, they do not have the part and it can take up to three days to get it!  I am really fed up now.  They are going to try their local stockist.  If he has a hose, then they can fix it tomorrow afternoon.  But if not we are stuck here for at least another three days!  We keep our fingers crossed.

In the meantime we are just wasting another day.  Finally at 4:30pm the marina men come with a couple of ribs and tow us back to our proper berth.  At least this is more comfortable and we have electricity.  If there is not going to be a repair tomorrow, we shall hire a car for a few days and travel about.  We will keep you informed.

Monday 18 May 2015 - Riposto

Well, we have been stuck here in Riposto for four days due to bad weather.  We knew there might be poor conditions coming.  However the only alternative was to start out at 5:30am on Saturday to do a 70 mile crossing to Calabria.  But after 7 hours at sea on Friday neither or us wanted to do that.  We really needed one day at least in port to recover and provision the boat.

So we stayed on Saturday and hoped for the best.  The town is very pleasant.  It is not a tourist place, but a real working town.  It has excellent food outlets to provision the boat.  Right across from the marina is a street made up entirely of fishmongers ending in a fish and fruit and veg market.  There are a number of nice delicatessens selling all sorts like local cheese, salamis and local wines.  So I get to buy some nice things for us to eat over the next few days.

However, on Saturday R suggests that we have what will probably be our last slap up meal.  So we taxi into Taormina and go to the restaurant in the top hotel- the Belmond  Grand Hotel Timeo.  We didn’t have much time to walk around Taormina, but we did have a lovely view over the sea.  The only disappointment is that we cannot see any eruptions on Etna.  Our waiter says that it has stopped.  However, as there is a heavy layer of cloud over the mountain, that could be the problem.

When we got back to the boat we looked at the forecast again, just to make sure it was suitable to go first thing tomorrow.  It is bad.  The wind is forecast to be on the nose, up to force 5 and the wave height is predicted at nearly 2 meters!  So we are staying in port.  In fact, the weather does not look good until Tuesday.

So we are here on Sunday and Monday.  Sunday was rotten weather.  Cloudy, cool and finally raining.  We have just been lazing about.  I am reading one Montalbano mystery each day!  On Monday we do have a longish walk up the hill to the next town where we find a Vodafone shop to recharge our internet device.  We also finally buy some fresh fish in the market and have a very nice dinner of grilled bream with asparagus.

So now we are preparing for the long crossing to Calabria (70+ miles) starting at the crack of dawn tomorrow.  The forecast is good.

Friday 15 May 2015 - Porto dell' Etna, Riposto, Sicily

I did not sleep well.  I was attacked all night by mosquitoes.  I could hear them buzz and dive bomb at me continuously.  I am covered in bites.  That is after putting on repellent.  I shall have to buy something different.  Despite the bad night, we get up really early as planned and have a meagre breakfast.  The weather is very nice.  Just a bit of light cloud.  Richard says the forecast is for 30C!  So we manage to slip our mooring by 8:00am and we are off, but not very fast.  The water is like glass and there is virtually no wind.  We put the mainsail up, but there is no purpose trying to sail especially as we have over 40 miles to go.  So the engine is on and we assume will be for the whole day.  After about 3 hours I suddenly notice that the wind is building.  Again within minutes is goes from nothing to a force 4.  So we hurriedly put up the genoa and off we go.  It does not take long for the wind to built to a force 5, gusting 6.  But it is on the beam and we are going a bomb.  Richard is really pleased.  The only problem is, I am cold!  The wind is giving me goose bumps and I have to put a long sleeved tee shirt on.  So much for a scorching hot day!

We continue to sail doing 6-7 knots for several hours until we are about 4 or 5 miles from our destination when the strangest thing happens.  First the wind just dies away.  Then the sea flattens out to glass and then the wind goes on the nose!  All within about 10 minutes.  So we have to finish the trip on engine.  But it was a good sail.

So at about 3:30pm we start in to Porto dell’ Etna in Riposto.  We are directed to a berth as usual.  All seems fine, except we cannot fit the passarelle properly.  You may remember my near catastrophe with the passerelle last year in Amalfi, when it flipped up leaving me hanging over the water by the lines which hold it up.  Well, when we try the thing here it begins to do the same thing.  After much fiddling about we decide that it is a case of the pontoon being too low for the way it is rigged.  So instead of securing the boat end into the hole in the deck, we have to leave is loose on the deck secured by ropes to the binnacle.  That way it can’t flip out of the hole and go vertical as it did before.  Anyway we have been up and down on it a few times and it is OK.

Richard books us in to the marina.  All seems fine except that the weather is definitely turning for the worse.  The sky is now almost completely overcast and the barometer has fallen 12 points in the last 24 hours.  We get a weather report from the office and it shows rain coming in.  The marina staff say that the rain will be local and we should be able to avoid it by sailing east.  It is not due to come in here until Sunday evening.  So the plan is to set off from Sicily at the crack of dawn on Sunday and hopefully make it to Calabria in daylight and without rain.  But we will have to keep an eye on the weather and that might make us change our plans.

We use the very good facilities here and after our shower we have a walk into town.  It is a nice old town, and not at all touristy.  There is an old market hall where we hope to be able to buy fruit and veg tomorrow.  But I have been cooking on board for days, so I am due a dinner out tomorrow.  We find a pharmacy in town and buy some different mosquito repellent.  We are unwilling to use deet.  It is terrible stuff and we really save that for malarial areas, but nothing else seems to have been effective.  We will see if the new stuff works.

As you might have guessed from the name of the marina, Riposto sits right under Mt Etna.  We are told that the mountain is particularly active at the moment and gives a great show after dark.  So with the night falling we watch the mountain.  Yes, it is spectacular.  There is a huge red lava flow zig-zagging across the whole mountain, perhaps a mile long.  Richard has tried to get a photo, but as with Stromboli last year, it is poor because you really need a tripod and a long exposure.  

The view would be idyllic if it weren’t for the fact that some boat across the harbour is playing disco music so loud that we cannot hear ourselves think!  We hope they will stop soon.  We both need the sleep!

Thursday 14 May 2015 - Syracuse

We hoped to get away by 8:30 this morning, but it went to 8:45.  I guess that was not too bad.  The weather is lovely, but we do notice that the barometer is going down.  We are not sure how we will be able to proceed after today.

We start out with the sails up and the genoa poled out.  The wind is blowing a 4 almost directly behind us, but we are hardly moving.  After two hours of going at just under 4 knots we decide that if we are to get to Syracuse by lunch time, we will have to put the engine on.  So on it goes (which meant taking in the fishing line).  For a while we are motor sailing, but eventually the wind drops more and the sails are contributing nothing.  So to make our timetable we press on just using the engine.  One more problem has arisen.  The rev counter on the engine has packed up.  It isn’t crucial, but we will have to have it seen to.  We hope it is just a loose wire.

We come into Syracuse and it is a lovely sight.  It is my favourite city in Sicily.  So I am looking forward to our stay.  I won’t mind if we get weather bound here.  We get to the Marina called Marina Yachting where we stayed last year.  They start to direct us to a berth on the outside of the wind break and we ask to go inside, which they are happy for us to do.  Not only that, but we get an alongside berth.  It’s a long time since we moored this way.  But that is the end of the good news.  The marina has been devastated by something.  Half of the pontoons are broken and not connected to anything and are in effect islands.  We are not on one of those, but the connection of our pontoon to the next is two fender boards roped together and bridging a two meter gap.  But there is worse that that.  The three meter gap between the main outer pontoon and the office has no bridge and they have rigged what looks like a passerelle that is between three and four meters long!  That is what you have to walk over every time you want to go to the office or toilet block.  But the worst is that the bridge to the land has gone!  Instead you have to climb down into an old and fairly unstable fibre glass boat, pull yourself over the water with a rope and climb out again!  My sojourn in Syracuse has just lost all its lustre.  I am really distraught.  I was hoping to go out to a nice dinner, but I am unwilling to do the boat bit across to the land at night.  Also I really can’t see staying here tomorrow to go to the market, which I was so looking forward to.  This is particularly so as the weather may deteriorate on Saturday or Sunday and I don’t want to be stuck here with these access problems in bad weather.  So we will leave tomorrow.

We do try to salvage something of the trip.  I make it over to the land on the boat, with some difficulty and we find a supermarket to buy a few things to keep us going for the next few days.  To cheer ourselves up we stop at a café we went to several times last year and I have a coffee granita and R has an ice cream.  As we are walking back to the boat R decides that he would like to try to buy a new summer jumper at the shop where he bought his very bright wool one ten years ago.  And guess what, he finds one he really likes, so at great extravagance he buys it.  Now I feel like looking at a very snazzy white blouse I saw in one of the windows.  So we go back to the shop and I buy that one.  Not as extravagant as R, but a little splurge.  So we are feeling a bit better as we get back to the boat, managing without mishap to navigate the boat and plank with all our shopping.  At least it is a pretty spot.

Back on board we contact the other English boat that is across the way from us.  It is a Najad from Hamble. The owners are Ren (for Renold) and Angela and they have a friend, Lisa with them.  We invite them aboard for drinks and have a pleasant hour or so with them.  They too are headed for the Ionian in the next week or two, so we might see them again.  While they are on board an Austrian couple come by.  We find out that they are the owners of the Southerly 35RS which is here and which we saw when we were last here in October. 

Dinner on board.  Not one of my successes.  I tried to make a dried mushroom sauce to go with mushroom ravioli, but the mushrooms are very tough despite soaking them for over an hour!  Also the pasta is old and although technically in date, I find some spots of mould on some.  I throw those out, but I am unconvinced about eating it.  So far no ill effects, but…

We hope to get away early tomorrow to go to Riposto.  That is just a big marina in a small town.  Its only real advantage is that it is right under Etna, which we could visit again.  We will probably get some volcanic ash falling on the boat.  We may get stuck there for a few days because some wet weather is supposed to be coming in and the next hop is 70 miles, a good 12-14 hour journey.  So we shall see.

Wednesday 13 May 2015 - Marzamemi

We are off!  Really we have got everything done and a little later than we wanted, at 10:30 we slip our mooring to make our way to Marzamemi.  Richard told me it was a short hop, but it turns out to be 35 miles!  The day is lovely.  Sunny, but not too hot.  In fact, on the boat under the shade of the bimini and in the breeze I am cold! I wind up having to sail in long trousers a tee shirt and a Breton top, and I’m still not warm.

We start out in a force 2, but Richard really wants to sail.  It is a following wind, so he poles out the genoa and we proceed at a gentle 3knots.  But as usual, the wind is fluky.  It was forecast to be a four, and for most of the morning that is what it is.  But of course it starts to gust.  The problem is that we have the genoa poled out and the wind shifts so we need to gybe.  That means Richard going up to the bows to move the pole.  Not a problem in a force 4, but when it starts to blow a steady 5 gusting 6, it is a bit more dicey.  After lunch the wind really gets up and we a on a steady force 6 for about an hour.

Finally the wind settles down again to the top of a 4 and bottom of a 5.  We are going along nicely and suddenly I am very sleepy.  The fresh air has got to me and I keep dozing off.

With the late start and the light winds to start we are taking rather longer than we hoped.  But when the wind picks up we get back on to target.  On the way we see three Italian naval vessels.  We wonder if this has anything to do with the immigrant boats.  But luckily we see nothing of that.

The wind is continuing to build and has gone around a bit, so R goes forward to take down the whisker pole.  But guess what, it won’t go down!  In the end he has to take it off altogether and pass it to me.  We store it below, but it takes up all the saloon.  Hopefully, R can sort it out when we get to port.

As we approach the last 3-4 miles the wind really gets up.  At first it is just 19-20 knots, but then as we approach the harbour it is up to 25 knots!  Not what I wanted on my first trip out of the season.  But Richard is having great fun and is really pleased that we have sailed all the way here.

We arrive at our mooring at 5:30pm which is not bad going.  The fees are a bit higher than I remember, but it does include water, electricity, wifi and toilets and showers.  I have a great shower, but apparently the showers in the gents are rubbish.

Richard does manage to free up the runner for the whisker pole and gets it mounted back on the mast.  Silicon spray is wonderful!

We have decided to eat out.  We remember when we were last here that there was a little restaurant that served very good fresh fish.  However, when we walk there it seems to have changed into a cafeteria and is closed.  So we find another (the only other) place.  It at first appears to be just a pizza place, but we find it does have a proper restaurant menu as well and we have a pleasant enough meal.  We try Botarga, something I’ve meant to eat for some time.  It is dried and salted tuna roe.  They made a spaghetti dish of it and it is very tasty.  We have also drunk too much of their house white wine.  Not good, but it went down well, nonetheless.

So now Richard is falling asleep in his seat and I can hardly keep my eyes open.  So that is all.  We hope to get to Syracuse tomorrow.

Tuesday 12 May 2015 - Marina di Ragusa

I didn’t bother to post yesterday, because not much happened.  We made a bit of progress in preparing the boat, but not as much as necessary.  Richard went to put the genoa on and had problems.  It was rolling up the wrong way so that the U/V strip was on the inside.  So in a panic we got the rigger back in to sort it out.  We had hoped that he could also help with the broken mouse line, but he said he couldn’t.  Richard obviously doesn’t trust me to put him up the mast in the bosun’s chair and he won’t ask anyone else to help.  So the solution of the marina is for us to take the boat over to the yard and get a forklift to take someone up the mast.

The diver turned up just before lunch.  He said the bottom is very dirty with a lot of barnacles and the like.  He couldn’t scrub it with a brush, and had to use a paint scraper.  At the end he said there wasn’t much antifoul left on the hull, so we will have to arrange to come out of the water and be antifouled later in the season.

Richard went to the chandlery.  They don’t sell new gas bottles, they refill your old one.  So we left it with them and they will get it back to us tomorrow.  At the chandlery R also bought a spare valve for the toilet, but he is not going to fix it himself.  I had my doubts that would work out, but Pepe from the yard did turn up to fix it and though it is still a bit stiff, it does work.

The man with the bimini never turned up.  So we are chasing.  We waited in for most of the afternoon and then gave up.  So we went in to town to get a bit more shopping.  We went into the little discount supermarket and did manage to get most of what we needed.  On the way back we stopped for a cocktail at a seafront bar.  The drinks were expensive, but came with a great selection of nibbles.  That is good, because my dinner is pretty simple, breaded veal chops and corgettes.

Despite not getting much done we were exhausted by the evening and struggled to stay up past 10pm.

Today was much more productive.  The first thing was that Richard insisted on my going to the toilet block on the bicycle.  I have been dreading it.  I have no confidence in my ability to balance.  It was dodgy to start, but I did make it there and back without incident.  However, I decide to walk for the rest of the day!

It was not long before lunchtime that Massimo turned up with the bimini.  He installed the two panels, in double Velcro, which he says is very secure.  However before it is properly installed they go away for lunch!  The lunch hour ends, and it is 2:30 and there is still no sign of Massimo and his lot to finish off.  They have to connect the panels to the wires and the regulator.  In the meantime the office has sent over the man to direct us to the yard to sort the lazyjack line out.  We wait around there for a while too.  Then the man with a huge machine, rather like things used to clean windows, comes and it is Pepe again who goes up to the mast on the platform and puts the new mouse line down the mast.  And it works! 

Richard rigs the lazy jack lines and all seems well.  That is until we find out that it is Pepe who is supposed to be completing the work on the solar panels and he says he can’t do that until tomorrow!  Richard pleads with him saying we are leaving tomorrow.  So he promises to come late this afternoon.

We go back to our berth and finish off the outstanding jobs.  Richard puts the mainsail on and I finally can get to the forward cabin and clean that.  It is now getting very late and still no sign of Pepe.  Maybe we can’t go anywhere tomorrow!  But at about 6:30 or 7pm he turns and gets to work.  By 8pm it seems to be fully installed.  Our problem is that Pepe speaks very little English and all the instruction books are in Italian.  So we hope we will be able to cope.

But our first problem arises almost immediately.  After dark we decide to re-connect to shore power.  We have paid for it and it means we will get hot water and it is easier to charge up all the toys at once.  But right away there is a problem.  We can get the ring main and immersion heater to work, but the charger for the battery won’t come on and keeps tripping the circuit breaker.  I can only guess that the batter is overcharged with the solar panels, but as it is night now, we really don’t understand.  This means we will be later in starting tomorrow so we can find out what we have to do.  We hope that won’t delay us.

Otherwise we seem ready to go!  We shall see.

Sunday 10 May 2015

Well, we arrived in Sicily on Friday evening.  The flight was OK, despite being run by Ryanair.  We got out of the airport in good time and found our hire car.  They didn’t have what we ordered, but instead we were given a Fiat 500!  Talk about being small.  We barely got two of our bags in the boot.  Well, we have brought too much, but isn’t that always the way with me?

We got to the boat by 10:30pm.  There wasn’t much to do at that time of night, so we just unpacked and made up the bed.  It is warm and balmy, so we just flaked out.

On Saturday we began to take stock of the situation.  It is not good.  A great deal of the work we expected to have been finished has not been done.  For instance, the new solar panels are not installed.  The wiring has been done, but there is no sign of the bimini, on which the panels are to be mounted, or of the panels themselves.  We think that nothing has been done to the furling mechanism for the genoa (for non-sailors that is a barrel with ropes that lets the foresail in and out).  We have also found another problem.  The toilet isn’t working properly.  It does not take water in from the sea.  For the moment, in harbour where we can get fresh water to use to flush it, it does not matter, but it must be put right before we go.

As we have nothing to eat on the boat we go down to the café for an Italian breakfast.  On the way we speak to the marina staff.  They are very nice, friendly and try to help, but it is chaotic.  They have arranged for the diver to come on Monday to clean the hull, the propeller and the bow thruster and check up on what is going on below (for those in the know, looking at skin fittings and anodes).  But we can’t make contact with the man who is supposed to be doing the other work.

Another thing we have noticed is that most of the boats that were over wintering here and whose occupants we knew have left.  So we are one of the last to get away, if and when that happens.

On Saturday we had hoped to keep our hire car until evening, but on enquiry we find that there is only one bus back to the marina from the airport and it leaves at 2:15pm.  So that means a mad dash to a local supermarket to try to provision the boat for the next few weeks.  I really didn’t have time to do a full inventory and find that I have failed to buy a number of essentials.  As I unpack the shopping Richard rushes back to the airport with the car to return and get the bus back.

The boat doesn’t look too bad, but the Sahara sand has got to it.  The gunwales (sides of the decks) are full of red sand and the whole boat in and out is a bit gritty.  The pilot books don’t warn you about this but we were warned by the local representative of the Cruising Association.  So we have lots of cleaning to do.  While waiting for Richard to get back to the boat, I manage to have a very thorough clean of our cabin and the heads (bathroom and toilet to you landlubbers).   There is usually some mould around after a winter in the water, but it is not too bad.

Richard gets back at about 4:00pm.  He was the only one on the bus, which was due to leave just 15 minutes after a flight from Rome arrived.  The flight was half an hour late and despite the bus waiting 15 minutes after the flight arrived, no one turned up!  Not surprising really.  Only passengers with hand luggage would have stood a chance of catching that bus.  So, Richard said it was more or less like a taxi and it took him right to the marina entrance. 

When he gets back we decide to take a walk into town.  I am too nervous to try the bicycle.  The weather is lovely.  Clear blue sky and quite warm - about 25-26 Centigrade.  On the way there we stop in the phone shop that has opened in the marina and get our internet hub charged up.  It is only for one week, because of the strange charging system, but it does mean we will be in touch for the next seven days.  With a great deal of luck we may get to Greece by then, but I wouldn’t count on it!

In town we look into the local shops.  Not much there.  We still need to do more shopping.  We might have to use taxis.  We stop at my favourite ice cream parlour and I have my first coffee granita with cream!  Divine!  We decide to go out to dinner and book at a local restaurant that R tried when he was down here on his own in March.  So we shower and go to the restaurant at 8:30pm.  We are nearly the first there!  We have a nice fish dinner and then get back and collapse in to bed.

I slept fitfully having dreams of all sorts of disasters and spent most of the night in a panic.  I wonder if it was in anticipation for today’s horrors.  We have got down to doing the real work on the boat.  I have been below most of the day cleaning.  I have done it all except the forward cabin, which I can’t do until we clear out the ropes and sails.  Richard has spent a great deal of the day washing the outside and trying to get rid of all the red sand.  He has also taken all the tape and bags off the winches etc, which we covered to protect them against the sand.  But that has left sticky marks of its own, so maybe it was not a complete success.  One small brighter note: the wrapping around the winch on the mast seems to have been removed and then put back again, suggesting that the furler may have been serviced after all.

By afternoon the problems started to arise.  First, Richard tried to fix the toilet.  He took the whole thing apart and stunk out the newly cleaned heads.  He thinks one of the valves needs replacing, but he does not have that spare part.  He therefore had to put the whole lot back and hopes to get the right part at the chandlery tomorrow.  I think it might be best just to get the man who is doing the other work to do that job too.

Then Richard decides that he will start to put the mainsail on (the genoa waiting for the furler to be serviced).  He proudly tells me that the main halyard (the rope that pulls the main sail up to mast) went on like a dream.  But I am a bit confused.  Before we left he took our good new dynema halyard off to protect it from the Saharan sand and put on the old one to hold the passarelle up.  But the passarelle is still up and the old rope is attached to it and goes to the top of the mast.  Then Richard realises that he has attached to halyard to the wrong bit of the mast.  It takes him some time to work it out, but he has put it where the lazy jacks should go!  This is where real disaster struck.  It taking down the halyard he broke the small line that takes the rope up the mast!  So he cannot put up the lazy jacks.  He thinks the only way to put it right is to go up the mast and try to drop another line down the hole.  I am unconvinced.  I think we need a rigger to put it right.  That is yet another job that will have to be done before we can get away.

So we are fed up.  We hoped to leave here by Tuesday, but that seems almost impossible in the light of the new problems and the lack of activity on the work that should have been done before we got here.  Oh, the joys of sailing!

We should have been on a virtuous diet day today.  But with all the traumas, we have opened a bottle of local red and are drowning our sorrows.  We shall see what we can organise tomorrow, but I can’t see us leaving before Wednesday at the earliest!