This could be a long post. A lot has happened in the past couple of days! 200 feet of floating line wrapped round the prop and an engine pumping sea water into the bilge. Both happened as we motored into Palermo harbour on Saturday night but fortunately are now well on the way to being fixed.
Let me go back a few days to when we were in Castellammare del Golfo and describe the mooring arrangements here for anyone following. The harbour is undergoing a big change with major reconstruction work on the sea wall. Don't let this put you off - it's not too noisy! The most norther pontoon is run by one organisation - but I am not sure of the name. The guy will come out and meet you in his rib and guide you in. If he doesn't show then just go and pick up a berth (bow/stern too with lazy line). There were only a couple of visiting boats when we were there with space for at least 20.
The doom and gloom book also quotes a club - Lega Navale - with a phone number that doesnt work. Their pontoon is the 3rd from the north end and was completely empty. I managed to catch their office open once and asked if they had berths. They do and only wanted 20 Euros a night. I would be very tempted if I went back to just tie up on their pontoon but dont expect anyone to take ropes. Most of the pontoons had the feel of the harbour being emptied while the work on the wall was taking place so there is stacks of room here.
We paid 30 Euros for the first night and 25 for the second. I think we could have negotiated a much better rate for 3 nights at the start. Worth negotiating! Overall it was a nice town with a nice feel to it. The meal we had out was the cheapest and nicest since Lagos - although there are no nearby supermarkets. The two "hole in the wall" I tried to get cash from didnt work! Internet was just possible by going to various bars, although in one, I was able to register with "free-hotspot.com" which is meant to function all over Sicily (....oh yeah?) and the other I was able to register with another free via an sms message. Whether we will see these networks again is another matter. In Sicily though it seem important to register for any free wi-fi and that meant a photocopy of a driving license or passport. I got 5 made in case we have to register with more services.
Finally about Castellammare there were no showers or toilets - so I will give it 7/10 !!!!!!!!!! I really did like the place even though facilities were limited.
We left on Saturday morning to head east, potentially to anchor for the night and then into Palermo to drop Martin off for his flight Monday. We motored for a while and then tried to sail, beating into 10-12knots of wind - the most for days. We ended up motorsailing but unfortunately the marine reserve that usually means good anchoring looked pretty naff so we pushed on for Palermo. Round the final headland and the wind died completely giving a few good anchoring options but on what looked like very crowded beaches. I decided to push on and see if we could get into Palermo so Pam and I had a chance to see around the city.
Now earlier in the day I had tested the engine to see if our Gori 3 blade prop was functioning correctly (blades opening) and found it wasnt (only one speed instead of two). That meant something was fouling the prop, maybe a few barnacles stopping it opening properly. As we got near to Palermo, we accelerated to follow another yacht in and with half a mile to go, Pam started shouting that the holding tank was gushing water. A quick check revealed water coming out of the engine header tank and filling the bilge. This had happened a few years back when the engine was almost new, so I knew the cause. We slowed down a bit and the problem stopped. Turning into the area where all the club berths are, we were surprised to find plenty of space and a nice guy calling us in. Great - we can stay here - and then put the engine into reverse and ......thud, thud, thud etc. Into forward and no forward drive. Oh Really! We were lucky there was a guy on a boat next to where we were going who jumped into his tender and rushed over to rescue us. We managed to park ok and tied up. Pam almost walked off the boat to go to a hotel. Relations were very strained!!
The club here is Club Florio (use channel 71) and they have a number of transit berths but most of the boats are very big (60ft+). There pricing is based on big boats with 12m the smallest they give a price and that was 50 Euro per night. I managed to get them to agree to 45 per night if we stayed 3! The guy who runs the place (Alex) is very helpful though and organised a mechanic to come and sort the engine and a diver to do the prop. As I write this, the diver has just come up with a handfull of floating rope so the prop is done (and the anodes are fine!!!). The mechanic came at 9am and stripped down the top heat exchanger and took it away to clean out. He also suspects the thermostat is a bit dodgey. My guess is the rope was around the prop all day and when we accelerated coming in, the engine was doing too much work with the rope around the prop, coupled with a few blocked tubes in the heat exchanger and allowed sea water to flow into the fresh. The diver only charged 50 Euros. I was too chicken to do it myself as it was a bit dark under the boat - and I didnt have enough weight to take me down. That's now sorted - I found the other weight I had mislaid and got another off the diver.
There may well be other club moorings further down the dock. The club meditteranian were very helpful giving me this wifi connection but club Salpancore (mentioned in the doom and gloom book) had no berths available and were not helpful at all.
We should be ready to go tomorrow but think we will hang on for another day to have a good look around town. There are no showers or toilets (60 foot boats have their own) and the internet for the club is down - as usual.It's a bit of a trek into town but restaurants seem to be reasonably cheap.
Martin left this morning to fly back to the UK, so its now Pam and I on our own. Pam is now gloating that I have not heeded her words about lines in the water although it is a mystery to me where we picked this one up. In future I should be able to sort it out myself.
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