Well we are still here. We have decided to wait until Trevor and Lesley catch us up. We spent a couple of nights at anchor on Vulcano to ride out the strong south easterlies that never appeared and then when the wind switched westerly we headed for the "marina" in Salina so we could have a good look around the island. The costs here are reasonable - only 30 Euros a night having finally convinced them that we were just under 12 meters.
On Monday then we had a bit of a tour of the island on the bus. We went over to Malfa, the largest town on the Island - but that is not saying much! Had lunch there and then back to Santa Marina. We met a young British couple on the bus to Malfa - and I had to laugh. We were talking generally about stuff - the way one does - and the girl must have said "Oh Really" at least a dozen times. It was difficult to keep a straight face! I must tell you that joke sometime.
The town here is small with some reasonable bars and shops and one internet cafe that we will try and post this one from. We also were able to order some provisions and get them delivered to the boat! There was one deli advertising the service. We went up this morning. It is the deli right at the top of the main street with a sign high up on the wall saying "English spoken & deliver to your house". We went in and the owner just about spoke some English. We ordered 24 bottles of water and the same of beer, plus fruit juice and some other bulky stuff. It wasn't as expensive as I had imagined and it was put in one of the 3 wheel trucks and driven down to the marina (with me in the front!). Pam walked!!!!! As it was a small van, it was able to drive right down the pier and up to the boat. That's the boat stocked up again for a while. For anyone coming here, definitely worth doing. We had imagined ordering it and then having to wait on the boat for hours (as we had to do in La Coruna). No instead when I asked when it would be delivered, I was told "five minutes" and then he offered for me to go down in the van. Great!!
In the evening we had a meal in a posh restaurant. Very nice food if a bit expensive. It did however teach me a lesson on tracking down wi-fi. We had put the PC on in the marina to find a strong(ish) signal for Portobello - the name of the restaurant. When I asked there if I could get a connection, they explained the wifi was for their Palm (type) pilots that they use to order the food hence no internet - Duh!!!
Overall Salina is a very nice place .....until last night. It got very over krauted!! A charter boat of 8 German blokes came in next to us with another charter catamaran three down. The noise of the partying was loud. Despite 3 requests to cool it after midnight it continued to the early hours. This is only happening with German crews. We had it in Majorca and it has happened a couple of times here. The Brits, the French and the various other Europeans tend to be much quieter but the odd lot of Germans have been awful. Thank god they have gone this morning. Let's hope they don't come back. They must be the equivalent of the British Chavs. Despite the Germans, I'd give this place a good 7/10 for a place to stop, helped a lot by the relatively cheap price.
Today we are off for another trip on the bus (white knuckle ride - Alton Towers, eat your heart out!) round the island and then tomorrow probably off to Lipari or Vulcano to hook up with Kishorn and then think about getting over to Greece. I wonder is there are many German charter boats in Greece! I think I know the answer.
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