The list of jobs has finally been completed (in truth some items have just gone onto the new list!!!), but the major ones are done, the painting 99% finished, the haulout successfully undergone, the lockers jammed packed with goodies, the lines from Msida Marina in Malta released and we have embarked on another cruising season.
We have started later than we expected but the weather is still not feeling too much like long hot summer days just yet so we were happy with our timing. We had a fabulous 80mile day sail from Valletta straight through to Siracusa in Sicily. Downwind for once, about 12knots breeze the whole way, sailing can just be so lovely in the right conditions. Our newly installed Wind Generator was even producing power in the light downwind conditions so all was good. As we rounded the last headland approaching the harbour entrance the wind picked up to over 20 knots so we flew in just as daylight was fading, dropped sails and then in the dark motored over to the western side of the bay to seek the most shelter. There are not too many things better when cruising than arriving in an anchorage, especially in the dark, and hearing friends yelling out welcomes. It was great to meet up again with English friends Peter and Bridget on White Rose, last seen in Preveza, Greece last year, and Australians Andrew and Clare on Eye Candy who we met briefly in Bozburun, Turkey 2 years ago.
It was great to return to a familiar port, something we don't often do. We moved over to the town anchorage the following morning, there was a fair chop coming across the bay but it is so much more convenient for dinghying ashore. We revisited familiar haunts, most importantly the WIND shop to top up the dongle and get us back into action with onboard internet access. (More on this in cruising notes below). The morning market was excellent yet again, with free tastings of all manner of local specialities - leading to purchases of some interesting goodies, in particular 'ricotta al forno' - all very yummy.
We stayed 4 nights in Siracusa and this time even managed to fit in the locally famous Opra dei Pupi. This is a 45 minute performance of life sized Aretusi puppets made of paper-mache and wood. It is all in Italian but an English translation was handed out, the movement of the puppets really was excellent and for 7.50Euro was a worthwhile afternoon outing.
June had arrived and it was time to start heading north up the Sicilian east coast. We left Siracusa at 8am expecting to motor the 47 miles north to the double ended bay of Naxos/Taormina Roads in no wind, but once out of the harbour we picked up a reasonable breeze to sail which was a bonus. It died away by midday so the motor came on, water was made, drinks were cooled and we had a relaxing afternoon while passing Mt Etna.
Cruising info on Siracusa -
previously posted on 30 September 2009 - Exploring the Mafias Homeland.
Additional info below:
Internet...the continuing saga - There are NO unlocked wifi signals in Italy. Our Simcard from last year was still active so another 15Euros was paid to allow 100 hours access for a month, plus 5Euros to get credit back on the Sim (still have no idea why this is needed!). We waited until the next morning before using it and all was well. What we have since learnt is that it did not activate 30 days from this new date, it was from our "anniversary" date of when we first topped up last year so we only ended up getting about 8 days for our 15Euro, oh well. The other thing that is a good idea to do to speed the activation up is once you have paid your 15Euro, put your Sim in a phone and text 100 SI to 4033 or if you have bought the 50 hours for 9Euro text ORE SI to 4033. You will receive a confirmation back immediately advising it is being processed and will take up to 48 hours. Do not use it until you receive the next text which reads Gentile cliente, La informiamo che la promozione è già attiva. Per maggiori informazioni visiti il sito www.155.it then you can dongle away to your hearts content. WIND does not have great coverage but it seems the best plan for your money. We have been told that the cheaper Vodafone plan allows a maximum of one hours internet access per day, if you go over this it uses up your balance very quickly, but the more expensive plan allows 5 hours per day. I am not sure if they have other plan options.
