Once we had a week in our slip doing some of the decommissioning tasks like polishing all the stainless, waxing the fiberglass, removing the jib, exterior shades, and cushions, securing the main sail in the bag (too big to take off and nowhere to store it aboard easily), we decided to haul the boat for its bottom job and zinc changes. There were also a few repairs that needed to be done and we hoped the yard would be able to tackle these.
In the meantime, we heard from our friends Scotty and Layla, that they were looking for delivery crew from Canet to the Canary Islands. The 62 foot catamaran that they were running would be crossing the Atlantic in November. The timing was good for us as we couldn’t stay aboard our boat while it was out of the water, and it would be great to see Scotty, Layla, and Isla before they headed off to the Caribbean and points beyond.
Doug and Sandy graciously hosted us aboard their boat once ours was on the hard on Friday Oct 12, and we rented a car to reconnoiter hardware , home goods, and grocery stores in the town of Ragusa. On the drive inland, there were vineyards and dairy farms, and ancient stone walls as far as you could see. The unsettled weather persisted with thunder storms and heavy rain on and off that afternoon, and on our return there was significant flooding on the roads.
We were back in time for a pot of oxtail stew I had premade, before meeting up with some of the other cruisers at the Friday happy hour. There were a couple of fellas who entertained the crowd playing guitars and singing hits from the 60’s and 70’s, which made for a fun night.
Departure day, Doug and Sandy drove us up to the airport at Catania for our flight to Barcelona. The countryside was initially pastures and rock walls again, but this changed to mountainous with citrus orchards, and there was a high pass with snow warning signs. We had time to swing through the IKEA store (which was only 10 minutes from the airport), to pick up a few extra salon cushions and check out replacement mattresses for our bed. Doug and Sandy found a few must-have items too, and dropped us off with plenty of time for the flight at 2.30 pm.
Meanwhile up in Canet, the weather was no good for an immediate departure, so Scotty and Layla took the chance to get off the boat for a few days and drive down to meet us in Barcelona.
Needless to say we had a great time enjoying 2 days of walking the Ramblas, eating tapas, checking out the architecture of Antoni Gaudi, and spending quality time with good mates. (Little Isla turned 7 months old while we were there and was very smiley and animated). It was also the sunniest spot in the Med that weekend.
We didn’t think we would ever be back in Canet, but never say never right! The Lagoon 62 had pulled in a week before so they could get a bunch of warranty items fixed before leaving the Med, and when we arrived the power was off for unknown reasons. The first concern was for all the provisioning in the fridges and freezer’s, but thankfully that was still fine, so it hadn’t been off for too long. The rain and high winds persisted, but the 2 day delay allowed the guys to trouble-shoot a few more issues, pick up more spare parts and figure out the power issue (failing master switch). The electrician from the service team luckily had 1 switch left and he replaced it the morning of the 17th before we left the dock. (This was a show stopper as all the power for electronics, pumps, lights, etc had been randomly shutting off so we weren’t leaving the dock until it had been corrected). We downloaded the latest weather, made a last stop to fuel up for the 3-4 day passage to Gibraltar, (our next refueling stop), and then we headed off just before noon.