Leaving Marina di Ragusa 6/18/21

Yesterday we left Marina di Ragusa to finally start making our way to Greece and then Turkey. Our contract there was actually finished at the end of May, but because of dredging we couldn’t get back in (hence the previous trip to Syracuse) so they gave us 7 free days in June. We had to go back because I had a few packages to pick up. Then the bilge pump began running longer than normal…..and we are supposed to clean out the bilge every few months which we hadn’t started since it is supposed to be a gross job….so we did it and it was super gross. Wish I could describe the smell 😉 All the boat’s grey water drains through the biilge, so the sinks and showers all drain through here. This was good to do, but still didn’t fix the bilge pump issue so I took it apart and discovered a tear in one of the joker valves (one way rubber valves) so I glued it and ordered the service kit (I thought I had one already but it was for the Jabsco toilet not the Jabsco bilge pump) so we needed to wait again at the marina for something to arrive (I also ordered a better bilge pump which we also ended up waiting for). Moral of the story here is that cruisers are always talking about having spares for everything on board and now I know why. It is annoying to be stuck somewhere waiting for a part. Very gratifying though to fix something and see it work properly again! (Almost everything is meant to be serviced and is easy to do so don’t be too impressed. You just need to be brave enough to take it apart 😉
We ended up being in Marina di Ragusa for exactly 6 months. We made some boat friends who I’m sure we will bump into cruising around but this is definitely a nomadic lifestyle.
We did a 33 nm trip yesterday to just around the south-east corner of Sicily (Portopaulo) and we picked a perfect place to anchor. Protected from the wind and swells and we are in a postcard perfect location. We are in front of a castle. Tour boats are going around because it is so pretty.

It took us about 8 hours to sail the 33nm with some motoring at the end. The boat is amazing but it is heavy and needs lots of wind to go 8 knots…..yesterday we were doing 4 knots for much of the time in 10 knots of wind…..but I don’t like running the engine. We will spend the day anchored here and head off back to Syracuse tomorrow (or maybe a bit further north).