TO SIRACUSA THEN REST DAYS - Days 55 - 57

TO SIRACUSA THEN REST DAYS 18 – 20 June, Days 55 - 57

It was a calm night at Portopalo di Capo Passera. We awoke to small swell from the East which left mono-hull neighbours rolling, whilst our stable catamaran base was comfortable.

My first job was to don snorkel mask and fins and scrub and scrape the underwater surfaces of the hulls which have been in the water for a year. It was tiring work and much head down and after an hour I came up having only completed one hull. My balance felt affected so I slept for an hour. Around midday we weighed anchor under sail and headed slowly north in the light winds. After an hour and a half it was necessary to put the motor on and motor sail or we would not have reached Siracusa before dark. George, the autopilot was again not functioning properly but I managed to get him to steer for a couple of hours with my close attention to sail trim and balance to keep the course.

We arrived at 18.00 to clouds and anchored in the huge natural harbour away from the lovely town. As the sun drop low it fell below the clouds giving us a magical sunset, as fish were jumping and old fishermen motored slow past us trolling a line, as we have seen before here.

Monday was a rest day. We really needed it and didn’t even leave the boat. I cleaned more of the hull bottom but with less energy. More can be done tomorrow.

Our Tuesday plan was to go ashore to the excellent market to buy fresh fruit and vegetables but as we prepared to leave the wind piped up, and thunder, heavy rain and lighting passed over the area. We took an early siesta and went ashore about 16.30. Not finding the “dinghy dock” we tied to steps between two large Lagoon catamarans and soon we speaking with Andreas the owner, and his “crewfinder.com” crew of Jono (NZ) and Rebecca (England). They kindly took our computer to charge it while we were ashore, and asked us to buy milk for them. First we bought 21.5 litres of petrol (1.67 euros per litre) and put it into the dinghy which we had padlocked to the steps.

Old Siracusa is such a beautiful place so we revisited the small garden of ancient ficus trees, and strolled through some atmospheric streets before taking a snack in a café near to the Temple of Apollo then walking some distance to but a few special items from Lidl and ARD supermarkets.

Back at the quay we had tea with Andreas and crew and a good chat. His RIB dinghy and 15hp Honda outboard had been stolen the night before from the anchored boat. He reported it to the Police and a fisherman had found it so boat and dinghy were reunited. It is important to secure the dinghy at night, and even at daytime.