As we have had a dire shortage of internet connections, I will be up-loading a few blog entries at a time. If you haven’t done so already, scroll down the page to get the previous entry that you will not already have seen – that way you will not miss any of the exciting episodes on Grand Slam’s journey to the sun!
..... Well we have arrived in Sicily, just over a month after leaving Lagos. It’s been a long hard slog and now time to slow down and have a rest. I guess we will do at least 4 weeks here before we head off for Greece.
We left Marina de Capitana on Tuesday morning and headed south for the southern tip of Sardinia to anchor or use the marina at Villasimius. It was another windless day so we motored the 12 miles or so after a busy morning of re-provisioning the boat and topping up with fuel (and Martin scrubbing the water line of the boat to get rid of the green stuff that is now growing with wild abandon). On arrival at Villasimius, we decided to anchor in an exposed bay (exposed to the west) but with a glassy sea, this didn’t seem to matter. We went ashore in the dinghy to look at the marina but it was very much as the doom and gloom book had said, big and empty with not a lot there. It had obviously been a good project but not enough boats have come to fill the 700 berths and a lot of the services have vanished. There was a chandlers and a supermarket but both looked expensive.
We ate on the boat (too expensive on shore!!) and then held the world championship of shooting star spotting. Only Pam, myself and Martin turned up for this and Pam didn’t want to play. I won 1-0 and then we finished giving me the world title. It turned out to be a great anchorage – given good wind direction. Some excellent beaches (where people wear some clothing – unlike a couple of beaches on Menorca where they didn’t – and got up to things that cant be described – I digress....) and a hotel set up like a concentration camp. We can’t decide if this is to keep tourists in or out. We have seen a few like this. 8/10 for this one if the weather is nice. Don’t bother going into the marina with the boat. Easy to get water or dump rubbish.
The forecast for Wednesday and Thursday is almost zero wind so we decided to head off early Wednesday morning – well around 9am – to head for Sicily. 30 hours of motoring later, we arrived. Martin saw 8knts of wind at one stage. I only saw as much as 6knts. Most was on the beam between 2 and 4 knts so gave us some push with both sails set. The sea was glassy most of the way over. Boring!!!
There was not a lot to see in the way of wildlife. Lots of turtles and the odd sunfish and I saw a fin that was some sort of basking shark but need to look that one up. We once again cast a spinner in the water but I think the fish have gone off on holiday with the woolly mammoths as there were none about. I was thinking they may all have gone to the moon as that had disappeared as well although it did rise around 5ish in the morning of my night watch (or at least the tiniest sliver of it did). Martin saw 5 satellites and 2 shooting stars on his night watch – but I saw 4 or 5 shooting stars – the satellites having buggered off by then. I changed direction once to avoid what I thought was a yacht tricolor (or more specifically the red part – turning to white). It turned out to be Venus!
The plan was to get to Palermo by the weekend so we decided to aim for just west of Palermo into the harbour of Casttellamare del gulfo. The doom and gloom book painted a poor view of this place and it was right. The harbour is in the throws of major reconstruction so is very empty. 30 Euros a day for water and lecky with no showers – but they do have fuel despite what the book says. It does look a nice town. I will report back.
Still a total lack of wifi so will try to upload this in town tonight. It looks like the harbour is quite exposed to easterlies and there is a lot of construction to improve the sea wall. No need to radio in to get a berth. The marinier came out in his mobo to guide us in and give us a hand with the ropes. Nice and friendly but looks a reasonable stop in good weather.
More soon – if I can find another connection.
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