We had our initial Coronavirus innoculation early May and had to return to Siracusa in mid June for our 2nd jab. Also, after some toing and froing with the water maker company Osmosea about why our water maker was not producing anywhere near the correct amount of water, it was decided that it needed to go back to Osmosea's workshop in Tormina, Sicily.
With all this happening and the fact that we were due to leave Sicily as soon as our 2nd jabs were done, we decided that we should hire a car and take the water maker back to Osmosea, have our jabs and then wait for the water maker to be returned.
Matt & Anna our friends who were sailing down from La Coruna were due to arrive and we wanted to spend some time with them before we departed for Greece.
The water maker was returned and to add insult to injury, even though it has only been used for 1 season, it cost us another €700. Unfortunately, we were not able to get a answer as to what was wrong with the unit and when tested, although it was 100% better than it was, this was still only 50% of the actual production levels we should expect. We ended up replacing a valve that Steve found was broken. We told Osmosea who wanted another €120, but we ended up going to Schenker (competitors), who sold us the same part for 60% less.
Unfortunately, all of this work and money did not solve the problem completely. We are producing just over 50% of the expected volume, which is enough to keep us going this summer, but obviously not good. We now think we need to replace the membrane- another €300!
The initial cost of the machine was £4250, so with this additional unexpected expense we are well over £5000. All rather annoying when we originally wanted a Rainman, but were talked out of it by the dealer and pushed towards the Osmosea.
So far water can be produced at a cost of €44 per litre 🤣
We found a fantastic new launderette in Ortigia and made sure everything large, like bed sheets and sofa covers were washed before we left. I had ordered an Adler washing machine, which turned up whilst we were in Siracusa, but this is only good for up to 3lb of washing.
Our 2nd jab made us a bit poorly for 24hours, but nothing too major.
After sorting the water maker out, making a repair to the engine, provisioning on essentials and fresh foods we were ready to leave for Greece.
Our final night was spent with Matt & Anna. We were hoping they would be able to come with us to Greece, but Nomad their yacht needs a lot of work before they can embark on a holiday-like period with us. I know we will see them again someday. We are travelling fairly freely and they have jobs that enable them to travel. We will meet again soon, I know it.
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The Aeolian Islands are located just north of Sicily and with a light wind can be sailed to in a few hours. The islands poke up out of the water like pyramids and although in the main they are made up of volcanic rock there are also large parts of each island that is very green with vegetation.
This was the beginning of the holiday season in a covid relaxed Sicily. There were only a few people about, however each of the islands were shaping themselves up for what they hoped would be a booming post covid summer to remember.
Our first stop was Lipari. Anchoring just outside of Lipari town can be a bit rolly because you are rather exposed to the easterly winds but mainly to the many ferries, tourist boats and fishing boats that come and go out of the harbour. We very nearly gave going ashore a miss because of the many ferry boats but decided that as leaving the dinghy was easy in the small fishing harbour, we may as well go and have a look. What an amazingly pretty place it is. The harbour entrance overlooked by a few restaurants was so picturesque and the little winding roads and narrow lanes with their shrubbery at both ground level and hanging from balaconies gave it a real mediterranean feel. We were so pleased we had decided to go ashore.
We moved up the coast a couple of miles and visited a derelict pumice factory. The coastal weather conditions has eroded it so that it looks like it had closed 100years ago, but in fact finally closed in 2007 due to the islands becoming a Unesco Heritage Site.
Our next island was Selina. The waters were so crystal clear even though they were very deep. With each island having sheer and high slopes, these dropped into the water several hundred feet just metres away from the shore in many places. Out anchorage in Selina looked up a very steep hill and once again taking the dinghy ashore was easy with a small marina that had a slip for fishing boats and a small beach next door. It's amazing how much better it makes you feel when you can easily tie up your tender in a place that you're not worried about. Selina main town was very small but quaint. There are more actual houses here than in Lipari and each one was either covered in all colours of bourgainvillea flowers or lemon trees and vegetables. Almost all of the houses also had a magnificent uninterrupted view of the sea looking towards the other islands.
Our third island was Panarea. This is one of the smaller islands with very few anchorages. The west side of the island being very steep & rocky but extremely beautiful. We anchored in a small bay where there was a beach and we could go for a hike. We didn't go to the town, deciding that we were quite happy with the stunning scenery that Panarea had to offer. Our hike didn't disappoint with views into the bay and across to Selina and Lipari.
Our final island was Stromboli. We couldn't get here last year due to engine troubles but this year we were determined to see the erupting volcano. We sailed during the day so that it was almost night when we arrived. We arrived thinking that perhaps all the hype about the eruptions was just that...hype. It was 8.30pm, we could see the peak of the volcano but nothing was happening, what an anti-climax! Then just as we thought we may just turn round and motor-sail back to Panarea the slightly darkened sky brightened with a glow of shooting lava and orange hot rocks and the volcanic show had started. We estimated it must have reached 100ft high above the lip of the crater. It seemed to breathe for a few moments and then roar so loud, we couldn't believe we could hear it from just outside of the exclusion zone in the water. Its a sight that makes you feel very vulnerable and insignificant but so exceptionally lucky to witness something that ultimately created these beautiful islands. Amazingly on the other side of the volcano there is a small village where about 300 people live. Why someone would live so close to such danger is beyond me.
Our time in the Aeolian Islands is nearly over. There are 2 smaller islands we did not visit and if the water had been slightly warmer we would have snorkelled the many rocky outcrops. We are struggling with the watermaker, which has to be returned to the manufacturers in mainland Sicily and we also have our 2nd vaccine due in 10days. I'm not sure if we will ever return by boat but these islands are definitely somewhere we could visit again. If you get the chance to visit...GO!
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 😀
Life is so very different when you are berthed in a marina especially when you know its going to be for some time. Whilst you start to relax knowing that shopping, washing and day-to-day living can be easier, there is also the feeling of being restricted to that one position. The main reason we love our life so much is the ability to sail on and see new places and experience new things.
We made friends very quickly with several other sailing couples. Ragusa marina is so very different to La Linea. There is a real community here that know they are going to be here for months, whereas in La Linea the majority of people were transiting onto either the Med or the Canaries on route to the Caribbean.
The marina is part of a small holiday resort with few shops but situated between a stunning sandy beach to one side and a pebbly beach on the other side. There are a couple of coffee shops within the marina and a taverna type bar in the road above, which the marina community use for their twice weekly get-togethers.
Steve and I had a list of boat jobs that had to be started. We remembered from last year that although you are booked for 6 months winter berth, it all of sudden starts to go very quickly and some of the jobs were quite big and like we all know, there is not one boat job that doesn't turn into 30 jobs! First on the list was the solar panels. We'd realised during the summer that 2 of our 4 solar panels had died. Not surprising when they are quite possibly 15years old so have served us very well. The other major jobs are the steering cabling needs to be replaced, both heads needs a refurb and the forward berth headlining must be replaced.
We were planning to return to the UK in the new year, but due to Covid it become clear very quickly that this was not going to happen. So damned annoying because we had purchased things in the UK that we were going to bring back with us. With Brexit looming too, it was going to be very expensive to get it couriered over.
Christmas loomed and we agreed that Christmas Day would be spent with 2 other couples, sharing the costs. Steve and I decided that we wanted to hire a car to go sightseeing and Christmas shopping. We hired the car for 2 weeks sharing the cost and days with Kim and Jonathan from GrAce. This turned out to be a great idea and at a cost of £30-50 for a week, was ideal.
We visited a few towns within the municipality and we were still not allowed to travel too far because of Covid. We went to Noto and Modica, both stunningly beautiful places but quiet due to no tourists and Covid.
Christmas Day was great fun, spent on GrAce with Kim, Jonathan, Steve and Mags. Dinner was as good as roast in the UK with turkey and pork. A brilliant time was had by everyone.
Christmas Day aboard GrAce
Steve drinking
Annette working
New Year bought a new set of problems with Brexit. We had started our Italian Resdiency process, that gave us permission to stay here longer than the 90 days. Now Britain has left Europe, we are only allowed 90 days in every 180 days in a Schengan country and there are only 5 countries in Europe that are not part of Schengan and 2 of these are war zones. Whilst the residency gives us more time, this is short unless you want to become a tax resident. So although this helps us initially, we now we have to make a bigger decision before our winter berthing period is up - do we stay in Europe or head west and cross the Atlantic, where there are more countries that we are able to visit without these restrictions.
The 50nm sail from Taormina to Siracusa was a long day and we reached bay of Siracusa about 9.30pm. We had read in both the pilot book and online that we had to call the harbour master for permission to anchor. This was not only because of Covid-19 but also for allocation of a berth or anchor spot. We did what we thought was right and called them. They gave us permission to anchor but asked us where we had come from, our boat registration and informed us that we needed to complete some forms online for permission to go ashore. We ate and went to bed saying we would sort it the following day.
At 8.30am the following morning the harbour master was calling us very loudly from their launch boat, passing us forms for us to complete and email to the 7 addresses on the form. We explained that we had already done this but they weren't interested and told us we had to do it. This was Monday morning and although we filled in the forms and emailed them, it took another 4 days of pestering by phoning and emailing 3-4 times a day before we were eventually given permission to go ashore. The most annoying part of the saga was that other boats had anchored in the bay and gone ashore. When we contacted them via Navily they had not called the harbour master and therefore did not need to complete the documents 🙉, how we wished we had not towed the line on this occasion.
In the midst of all this our friends came in their rib to visit us on the boat bringing with them the most delicious Sicilian delicacy Aracini. Being that theres were parents of one of our best friends, they were amazing. We had never met them before but they were truly wonderful people and we make friends for life very quickly.
When finally we had been given permission to go ashore the weather was fabulous and we took a dinghy ride into the old town of Ortigia. I cannot express enough how beautiful Ortigia is. It is an island that is reached either by boat or by a small bridge from the mainland. It has so many little lanes, that in fact are roads as we saw cars drive up them. The buildings were baroque style, high and tightly packed with many different ornate balconies. Although a lot of the facia of the buildings is missing, this just adds to the antiquated feel and look of them. The flowers overhanging the balconies and collections of pots and plants outside the very old ornate doors was stunning.
The colourful market in the Ortigia is also a place that must be visited. With fresh fruit, veg and fish stalls nestled within the small lanes and singing stall holders selling their wares, it really is a must-see place. It's opened every morning from 9am - 1pm and busy every day too.
We left Ortigia at 5pm th 12th October on our last sail of the 2020 season. It was a 54nm overnight sail. We were sad. Although this summer has been relatively short due to Covid-19, we'd had a wonderful summer. We had nothing to complain about. We had a summer that many people would have been very envious of and would loved to have had. This last sail was going to take us to our winter berth in Porto Touristico Marina di Ragusa.
It's amazing how time flies. Its been a while since I have written anything. I have created our vlogs and we've been busy making the most of the end of what is going to be our 2nd year of sailing this wonderful journey.
Sicily is an island of 2 dimensions. On the one hand it is beautiful with its tiny lanes, high buildings to keep out the sun, stunning beaches, crystal clear waters, magnificent cathedrals and churches and fabulous towns. Then there's the other side of overflowing bins with rubbish everywhere, run-down buildings, stray street dogs and bureaucracy.
We left Arunella heading for Cefalu with a great wind behind us. Cordelia and the weather had other things in mind for us though and with the wind picking up and 2-3mtr seas and a broken steering cable we decided to sail overnight to the Aeolian Islands. We arrived at the island of Vulcana, slept and was woken up with a braying donkey, who we realised was grazing on the hillside just 200mtrs from us. We relaxed in the warm sun, had coffee and decided we would overnight in the next anchorage north of the island. We sailed up the coast of Vulcana with its blackened volcanic scenery until we reached the anchorage where we would spend a few days. This overlooked the volcano and a very small fishing village.
The island of Vulcana is wondefully magical. An island that seems to be stuck in time with its one-story houses (most of them unoccupied), very tiny roads but with all facilities within walking distance. The small shop that sold everything from meat and cheese to hiking boots. This is a place that we could have easily spent weeks just relaxing and pondering our wonderful life.
We hiked the volcano, which has not erupted since 1888 so we felt safe enough. Its 1000mtrs high and took us about 90mins to climb. We've never experienced anything quite like it. When we reached the top it really took your breath away, we felt like we were on top of the world. The crater was enormous with steaming sulphur escaping through the gravelly ground. The view over the island and towards the other Aeolian Islands was magnificent.
The local fishermen also sell their fish direct from their boats, so as we had travelled nearly 3000nm and only caught one fish, we decided to buy a couple. What started off as 2 small fish for €5 each ended up being 2 large fish for €15 each. With the language barrier we could not complain, we laughed and thoroughly enjoyed the fish, even though we didn't know what we were eating.
After our week exploring we decided it was time to head toward the Messina Strait. We were on our way to Siracusa, which is half way to our winter berth in Ragusa.
On route we visited the coastal town of Milazzo. A fairly protected anchorage where we stocked up on provisions for the next few days and visited Milazzo castle. We saw dolphins in the anchorage that visited the 3 nights we were there. A pretty town with the traditional colourful small fishing boats pulled up on to the beach. It was here that we bought the best pork chops we had had in ages, a real 'to die for' taste.
Our sail through the Messina Strait was uneventful. Steve had researched and researched again the best time to go through and obviously he had been keeping an eye on the weather. The weather was perfect, the sea was calm, we motor-sailed through with ease. It is 1.25miles across with mainland Italy on one side and Sicily the other. We overnight sailed to Taormina, where we spent 2 nights before our passage to Siracusa. We were looking forward to Siracusa, not only because of visiting the famous old town of Ortigia but we were also meeting friends.
Have you ever had a time in your life when no matter what you do everything seems dead set against you achieving your goal? At this moment in time, this is how we feel.
Three weeks ago we were in a beautiful Cala in Menorca, with crystal clear water, awesome sea caves with a fabulous beach cafe/restaurant. It was getting towards the end of the summer season so there weren't too many boats in the anchorage and life was great.
We knew we had to make the decision on where we were to spend winter. The Mediterranean can be a beast in winter, the winds kick up something crazy so most people opt to spend a few months in a marina and this was something we were quite happy to do as we also had a couple of major boat jobs to sort out and life would be easier in a marina environment.
Our options were to go back to Spain either Cartegena or Almerimar, go on to Sicily, head back to Gibraltar or further still to Lagos in Portugal. Our preferred destination was Sicily. This would be an excellent starting point for our summer 2021 season in the Greek Islands. Our reason for going back to any of the other places was that next summer we would continue to sail west in preparation for our Atlantic crossing.
Issue 1: Brexit is playing a big part in our decision. We are British and with the UK leaving the EU this means as of 1st Jan 2021 we are only able to stay in a Schengan area (Schengan being almost all of the EU, of which the Med is surrounded) for 90 days in any 180, whereas at the moment we have free movement as long as our stay in one country does not exceed 90 days, that's my understanding anyway. As of 1st Jan 2021 we will not be able to move around freely. There are only 5 countries in the Med that are non-schengan and 2 could be dangerous, 1 is at loggerheads with another Schengan country, 2 are in Covid lockdown and that leaves Croatia.
Weighing everything up and looking at our loose plan for 2021 we decide we are going to winter in Ragusa, Sicily.
Issue 2: We arrived in Sardinia, completed several online and offline forms knowing we would have to have a Covid test before we were allowed ashore. We booked into Sifredi Marina in Carloforte, who told us they could arrange our test. We arrived in the marina and waited for a date & time. The marina fee was £55 per night; however we were not allowed ashore, not allowed to use the marina facilities so after 1 night we told the marina we were going to anchor in the bay. They apologised, which was very good as it was hardly their fault, they were just following government guidelines. We just weren't prepared to spend £55 per night and not be able to use the facilities.
Issue 3: Day 3 at anchor and we were caught in the worst storm we have experienced. It only last an hour but the winds were +50knots with lightening, thunder, torrential rain, on a lee shore and we lost all electronics. It scared and stunned both of us. We moved anchorage to Calsetta and continued to wait for our Covid test date. 10 days after we left the marina they contacted us to say our tests would take place in the car park at Calsetta Port.
Test's done we then had to wait for the results. All this time apart from going ashore for the test we were still not allowed on land. No matter, we had enough food & drink so we were fine for a few more days. Another 6 days past, no amount of contacting the ATS by phone or email was getting us our Covid results so we decided to sail on to Cagliari. We had now been in Sardinia over 2 weeks and not seen any of the beauty of the island we had been told about.
Issue 4: On arrival in Cagliari we only needed fuel. We found the fuel dock, as directed by someone on Navily (an anchorage and marina app) within the harbour but it looked derelict. However, all of a sudden from nowhere a guy appeared and we topped us with fuel. More fool us as the fuel was the most expensive in the world at £1.89 per litre and cost us over £423.
We moved just round the headland to Poetta an anchorage, and settled there for a couple of days waiting for a good weather window to cross to Sicily. We will come back and explore Sardinia on our way out of the Med. Two days later and the winds were in our favour so we set off.
Issue 5: Wind....what wind? We ended up motoring for 50hrs going to Sicily. The water was like glass most of the way, so 70% of the 'most expensive fuel in the world' had been used in one 2-day trip!!
Issue 6: We arrived in San Vito Lo Capo, the northern tip of Sicily and dropped anchor in a lovely bay. We'd been contacted via email from ATS, who informed us we were negative so we were allowed ashore. Great, we had a scrummy meal in a restaurant and couldn't believe how many people there were about in the little fishing village.
Day 2 and at 7am in the morning we were woken with rain splattering on our heads (we sleep with the overhead hatch open), within 5 minutes the heavens had opened, the wind was hitting 30knots with thunder and lightening. Not again surely? Then all of a sudden Steve started calling to me that we were going to be hit. I looked forward out the cockpit and coming towards us at about 5knots was a catamaran side on. I called to Steve 'brace yourself its going to hit' and BANG! it hit us and slid all down the port side of Cordelia. We watched the catamaran drag another 100mtrs and then come to a halt. At this time the rain, thunder and lightening stopped. What had just happened? The skipper of the catamaran came over and after asking 'did you hit us' and we explained 'no you hit us' he bought over a bottle of wine as an apology - he'd picked up the cat 3 days previously and was on charter. Luckily the only damage to Cordelia was a 6cm scratch but Cordelia had ripped out their middle cleat and damaged the port side hull.
Issue 7: We could see another storm on the wind apps so decided to move anchorage to a more sheltered bay near Palermo. This was a wise decision because the storm lasted 4 days with winds gusting up to 38knots. It meant we had to do night watches even whilst being at anchor, just to make sure we were safe and we didn't drag. Two other boats in the anchorage did drag at 1.30am on the first night, both at the same time too. Lucky for us they were dragging out of the bay away from us. We were exhausted after 4 days but decided to use the last of the wind on day 5 to sail along the coast to Cefalu.
Issue 8: It was a fabulous sail. Although the waves were still fairly large the wind stayed with us and we made great time reaching Cefalu. Cefalu has a small entrance and by the time we arrived it was dark, although the moon was almost full so we did have some light. On turning the boat head to wind so that Steve could take the mainsail down, we realised we had a serious problem with the steering. The helm would not move and though we were facing the wind so Steve could take down the sail, we were unable to turn back towards land. This was a blessing though as Steve then had to go and reattach the steering cables. That done, we decided to carry on and sail through the night to Vulcano in the Aeolian Islands.
Issue 9: We started our night watches and whilst I was asleep Steve came and woke me asking me to watch the helm - he could smell diesel. After investigation he found the diesel leak, a compression fitting had worked its way loose. We think this may have happened when we motored our 50hours on tick-over form Sardinia.
CAN THIS ALL REALLY BE HAPPENING?
On a funny note - on our sail from Palermo to Cefalu we saw an owl, not once but twice he flew out, rounded Cordelia and then flew off.
We are Covid-free and we are still living a wonderful life 💙, so all is not bad in our world.
