We have spent over 6months in Porto Touristico Marina di Ragusa (MDR) preparing for summer 2021, making repairs and making some amazing friends. Friends we will definitely meet or bump into in an anchorage somewhere in the Med, Caribbean or even back in the UK......maybe! Our only regret, which was totally out of our hands is that we have not been able to see any of our family, Covid restrictions did not allow it.
Having got over the realisation of how much different life is going to be now we are out of Europe, the next battle was Covid. How we were going to get a vaccine, could we get a vaccine and where we were allowed to sail. As with the rest of the world, countries were changing rules and criteria by the week. Keeping up with it all is a nightmare.
Finally, a small group of berth holders managed to get the Astra Zenica vaccine as they were over 60. Steve and I travelled to Ragusa main town 3 times but each time we were told NO, only if we had an ailment or were over 60. The crazy thing is Sicily was struggling to get their own people vaccinated. They were scared due to someone dying 2 days after their jab and 3 people being arrested over his death. He may have died for any number of reasons but as he'd recently had the vaccine, they blamed that. There was hardly ever a queue to get a vaccine, maximum 20 people. The whole situation was frustrating. They even threw out 250,000 vaccines because they went out of date. If we were taking from someone who needed and deserved it, then it would never have been an issue. Never have I wished we were over 60 but now I did haha!!
Our berthing contract finished on April 30th. We had to make a decision on what we were going to do. Should we stay until they country bought down the age eligibility (this they were slowly doing). The marina offered us a very good price until the end of May but we decided that we would leave and attempt to get the vaccine in Syracusa, which was on our plan to visit again.
We left the marina on May 10th heading for Syracusa. The weather was stunning, the sea a bit confused outside of the marina and Gus was sick a few times but we had started our Summer 2021 cruising journey.
We have no idea what the summer is going to hit us with but whatever happens, we took the decision that we would face it when and if it happened.
We arrived in Syracusa Bay and there was another berth holder Safari from MDR there too, who also was after the vaccine. We decided we would go together early the following morning. When we arrived, again there was hardly anyone in the queue. A very polite policeman realised we weren't Italian and helped us with some paperwork and where to go. At last, someone was helping us.
We waited about an hour and the only reason for this was that we had come from Ragusa. There was strictly no movement allowed between provinces and they couldn't understand why we weren't having it done in Ragusa. Eventually they decided to allow us the Pfizer vaccine. I can't explain the feeling of pure joy at being able to have a vaccination. We were the only people in the queue who were smiling and laughing. We were also given a date for our 2nd jab there and then. We will return on 18th June to complete this vaccination.
There is also a green-card system within Europe, that once you've had both jabs you can apply for the card and use this to cross borders. Quite how easy this will be remains to be seen and only certain countries are a part of the scheme.
We are now in the Aoelian Islands as we have 4 weeks before our 2nd jab. The weather is lovely, the water cold but life is good again. We are almost fully vaccinated and whilst I realise we could have another wave of this awful pandemic, life is for living and we will do that as safely as we can. What would make our summer is if our family can come out and visit us this year but whatever happens, we will enjoy it and make the most of it 😀
