Todd wasted no time getting the water maker installation underway after Dom and I left for Malta. There were a couple of parts he was expecting to be included with the kit that seemed to be missing, but after a consultation with the Spectra water maker rep, he found a work-around. For a boat job, it went pretty smoothly!
Meanwhile some of the boats that left on Saturday had encountered 9 foot swell when crossing the strait of Messina, and turned back to Porto Palo where our friends Sandy and Doug had holed up. (We also find it a good transition from dockside to cruising mode to spend a few night’s anchored out before making the first passage. It gives us time to check systems and get our heads into cruising mode when you don’t have shore side power, water, or stores to nip off too).
I flew back to Catania with Dom on a 5.50 am flight, then caught a bus back to Marina Di Ragusa (MDR) as it was the most direct way back. We decided to leave the dock Thursday so I could get laundry done and re-provision the fresh produce. Another Catana down the dock with Jim and Kate aboard, were looking for a buddy boat on their first passage together without crew. They had picked up their boat and crew at the Catana factory in the Fall, and motored 5 days straight to MDR with a couple of fueling stops, as they were still working at the time. We were happy to have another boat to travel with as well.
We left MDR Thursday May second in light breeze, and motor sailed to the anchorage at Porto Palo. It was nice to go back to a place we had been before (this doesn’t usually happen!) Todd checked weather again at 3 am for the passage to Preveza Greece, a 48 hour sail away. It looked like the winds had dropped some from 20’s and 30’s to 15 to 20 knots which seemed favorable, and we planned for a sun-up departure. Unfortunately, after the 9 am weather check, the stronger winds were back so we made the decision to change course to the big bay at Siracusa. There was a blow coming from a Mistral up North and we were needing a place to hole up until the next weather window opened. We hadn’t been to Siracusa yet and we had heard it was an interesting place.
