THE START TO A NEW CRUISING SEASON 2012
Hello to you all again
Having left New Zealand on 16th March we stopped
off in Brisbane for the weekend staying with Alec’s brother Richard and his
wife ‘Kayleen. Then it was on to Dubai where we spent time with Brigitte
and Dan, caught up with friends, then flew on to Malta, then ferry to Sicily to
re-join SHAMAL on 4th April.
We have had a slow start to this cruising season. In
fact as I start this email we are still in Marina di Ragusa in southern Sicily
where we left SHAMAL at the end of the last sailing season. We have been
told April is a little early to head on out as the weather is still very
unsettled, and yes they are right about that. The sun is out at the
moment, but big black clouds are passing over with rain, it is still only
between 18-22deg dropping to about 10-13deg at night, sometimes cooler.
And the winds seem to blow every day getting up to 30kts at times. BUT all is
well and we are making progress at getting SHAMAL in order to leave here –
hopefully by the end of the month. We arrived back to find all was well
with her – stilled tied up with no damage from the winter storms that passed
through. Unlike one of the Marinas up the coast from here and across in
Malta where boats were lost in the Marinas when mooring lines broke as 2mt
swells crashed in. We did have some fine black volcanic ash on board from
Mt. Etna, which is only about 50 miles away.
We have already had our first lot of visitors. Paul
and Sandra Jacobs, from Christchurch New Zealand, were with us for a week after
they had visited Israel and Jordan. We now have Alec’s sister Anne with
us till the beginning of June, and Brigitte and Dan will be joining us in a
couple of days to spend a week with us. We hope to be able to sail them
back to Malta so they can get their plane back to Dubai.
With Sandra and Paul we took the bus inland about 20ks to
the old Medieval city of Ragusa which has been declared a UNESCO world heritage
site, with stunning old churches and palaces and other historical sites.
The old city is Ragusa Ibla and was founded in the 8th
century. It sits on the Hyblaean Mountains between two vast concave
valleys – quite stunning. We also took a bus around the coast to
Syracuse, another really old city founded in 734 B.C. It is situated on the
small Isle of Ortigia which is joined to the mainland by a bridge. Again very
interesting and very pretty.
Thursday 26th April.
Brigitte and Dan have now been and gone. Was wonderful
to have them with us for a few days. Unfortunately we were not able to
sail them across to Malta as we have a small problem with our hot water heater
which we would like to sort out before we leave here as the system is made here
in Italy. The guy has had a couple of goes at it already, so we will just keep
our fingers crossed.
We visited the old town of Ragusa again with Anne Brigitte
and Dan.
This last Sunday the Marina held an open day for the locals
to see the ‘working’ marina’. Some of us opened our boats to the public
to see through. Alec and I made the local paper. The locals had
stalls selling local produce including some wonderful cheeses and olive
oils. Also the wines here are REALLY REALLY good and so are the prices.
We can get good wines for about 2 euros, sometimes less when on special !!
This afternoon we had a collective lunch among the boaties
out on the main pontoon ( see the attached photo as the pontoon look more like
a runway )as the winter season finishes on 1st May and people are
starting to head on out to different parts of the Med for the cruising
season. It was a stunning day – one where we could all make a start on
our suntans !!
May 2nd.
The hot water cylinder now has a new element, thermostat and
stove pipe, the latter was never installed so not sure how the thing lasted for
five years without one!! And we have hot water again. They were
fitted early this evening. We will give it 24 hours to make sure all is
working which will also give us time to make ready to leave here, so all going
well we will untie our lines first thing Friday morning and head on out for
Malta. Can’t wait to get moving again. We have spent this time
while waiting for the hot water cylinder to be fixed doing boat jobs.
Today was another big cleaning day. I got into the kayak and washed all
the dirty marks off the hulls. Alec and Anne washed and polished the
decks and cleaned all the stainless steel. We will be lifting SHAMAL out
in either Tunisia or Crete where she will be given a good polish plus other
jobs, but we have been able to reduce the work list in the last few days.
Saturday 5th May
We are now in Malta. Departed Ragusa yesterday morning
at 06.10 with only 4.6kts wind. By 08.00 we had enough wind to hoist the jib
and then by 13.00 we were able to hoist the main. Did washing, made water
and had my fishing line out, but not jot with the latter. Was a slow
crossing. We arrived here at 17.30. So now it is time to explore this
gorgeous little Island. Can’t wait
Will sign out for this letter
Love to you all
The Commander and The Admiral
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