September 26 2013. In many ways this is a typical central Mediterranean day. We are on our way from Porto Palo, an anchorage on the southeastern tip of Sicily, heading west to Licata. We have leaks in our newly installed windows and to get them fixed it’s a 3 day time investment and a 90 mile trip.

I will try and paint a picture for you. The coast here is predominantly light brown farmland with a spattering of dark green trees giving it a mottled look. There are also lots of plastic covered green-houses, full of tomatoes and other market vegetables, I suspect. The Romans called Sicily their bread basket for good reason. We are just passing Marina di Ragusa, our winter home, and can clearly see the rising elevation that takes you to Ragusa town itself. It is quite mountainous here, though the “mountains” are soft-topped and undulating. The shoreline has small villages every few miles, with their white and sand colored houses and tile roofs. In between them, the shoreline is sometimes short cliffs and other times long beautiful and empty beaches of light brown sand. The sky is a light blue with puffy and wispy white clouds over the coast. The sea is a mercury-like, mirrored silver and dark blue. Shearwaters glide beside the boat, disappear and then reappear. There are draggers dotting the seascape, pulling their heavy nets. Further out, there is the never ending parade of tankers, freighters and cruise ships heading either east or west. This channel we are in, south of Sicily and north of Africa, is one of the major shipping routes in the Med. There is no wind to speak of; the flag makes various attempts to fly but can only seem to move about 4-5 inches from its long droopy state. The wind generator has stopped and there is a low rolling swell coming in from the south. There must be weather happening in Libya and Tunisia and we see the remnants of that in this swell. I have the main up to try and steady us but no wind means no steadying. The boat is doing a pitching and rolling combo that has driven Bonnie to bed. She does not like this motion. Oh, and though it was cool this morning, necessitating a sweater, it’s hot, hot hot right now. No shirts or shoes on in this heat.

It’s a good time to reflect, although not as easy to type as I had hoped. Our season is starting to wind down. I feel like we have just rounded third at a walking pace and are heading for home (Halifax). We have a little less than a month to go, though that could change because we still do not have our return tickets yet.

In many ways this season feels like a bit of a let-down to me. Although, we did get to visit quite a few islands, another continent and other favourite spots, we really did not pass many miles under the keel. It was a conscious decision to stay in Marina di Ragusa one more winter, but that meant, given our time constraints, that we did not feel like putting on the miles like last year. Don’t misunderstand, I still really enjoyed myself, but it seemed like we lacked focus in our travel this year as a result. I think Bonnie felt the same. This feeling has now translated into the strong possibility that we will start to make our way west again and get Aisling closer to home, with a transatlantic crossing in our future next year. I am conflicted about this prospect. On the one hand it feels like the right thing to do. We have had 7 wonderful seasons here. On the other hand, I fear this might be the end of cruising and exploring these exotic locales, which I just love.

This year we had some close friends, Hans and Dani Himmelman (CCA Bras D’Or) as well as Nancy Lewis, (our science officer from previous passages) and Bob Pottie come to visit and had a great time with them exploring the island. There were a few other highlights that I look upon fondly. The return to Tunisia after the Arab Spring, where we didn’t notice any material changes. The visit to Pantelleria, that reminded us so much of the Azores. Gozo, which is like a little country unto itself even though it is part of Malta and only a stone’s throw from the main island. Going back to Valletta to visit the Cathedral of St John, steeped in the history of the Knights of St John. (It has 2 of Caravaggio's paintings, which we missed on a previous visit.) The re-visit of Sciacca with its unique ceramic artists and of course the obligatory meal at La Vela.

Revisiting Siracusa on the East coast, confirmed for us both that it may well be our most favourite spot in the Med. Siracusa has so many facets. There is something very special about Siracusa. It has a cool vibe, if you know what I mean, and it’s steeped in history, being 2700 years young.The wonder of the cathedral and its piazza, the large Caravaggio in the church of Santa Lucia, the Greek theater and roman ruins...all the above as well as the market, the restaurants and the wine...but don’t get me started on them :-) Suffice to say the eating and wining here is a fabulous combo and hard to beat. At the market, when I walk into Gaetano’s cheese shop , Gaetano always somehow remembers me and takes me aside to shake my hand and say in a low voice ”thank you for coming back, it is so good to see you” then proceeds to feed us sandwiches and wine as his little gifts. Mind you, we always part with a few euros there because he has without a doubt, the best smoke mozzarella cheese in the world and his pecorino is a close second!

The other beauty of Siracusa is the anchorage, which is large and protected from all sides but the East. We have made so many new friends over the years here. This year we spent many nights going back and forth from boat to boat having snacks and sundowners each evening. There were lots of laughs and stories. First we met Mark and Jennifer on Starlet, a Nordhaven 46 from Florida and Steven and Shawn, two young just-married guys from Seattle, on the 49’cat (Amaris) which they recently purchased in the south of France and will take across the Atlantic to the Caribbean with the ARC this November. Then Guy Martin from Montreal sailed in, single handing his Hallberg Rassy 42 (Blue Tang). Then there were old friends like John Walsh on Brigantia -sorry John, that we never did get over to tea!

We were especially happy to wake up one morning and see Sangaris in the anchorage, with friends Craig and Katherine Briggs onboard. Craig and Katherine had invited us to dinner at their home in Florida two years ago, while mutual friends Chris and Sandra Mennem (Deep Blue) were visiting them. Although at that point we had never met them, they even graciously included our friends from Halifax, Erwin and Dianne Wanderer, who were in Miami to go to the boat show. Craig and Katherine arrived in Siracusa on Tuesday morning after an uncomfortable 3-day passage from Methoni on the southern Peloponnese. We were planning to leave that morning, but decided to stay when we saw their boat at anchor. We spent a fun evening with them on Aisling, having pasta with chicken and getting caught up on our stories.

As I said at the start, this is a reflecting piece, and I’m so glad I did it because you know, we had a another great summer!

P.S…….But as it now turns out, 10 days and 90 miles later, the window still has a leak.....