Back to Sicily
Sunday AM



After being serenaded until the small hours by a man with a microphone about 2 miles away and rocked and rolls by the swell we struggled up at 5.00 am to start our trip back to Sicily. We had decided that the wind looked good enough to head straight for Sciacca rather than Licarta and then another 50 M hop northwards against the prevailing winds.
So a long motor and then some wind and sails up and then no wind so sails down we went through the day. But the clouds were building and we had seen rain forcast in Malts so the sunshade came down and the spray hood went up - just in time for a real down pour - the first real rain since we left England. We did have a visit by a pod of dolphins to cheer us up. As we looked back with darkness falling we saw amazing lightening - luckily a long way in the distance - great horizontal streaks - sometimes straight and sometimes jagged. We struggled on through the night again sails up and sails down until we approached Sciacca where we had planned to anchor off before going into the harbour in the morning. It was now around 2.00 am. We anchored fine - but the wind had ended up onshore and quite a swell had built up - we were going up and down and side to side. I had to wedge myself in the bunk - everything was flying around and we could barely stand up. After half an hour Bob said "fuel berth". So up anchor and we managed to get ourselves parked up despite an attempt by a trawler to run us down. It is now about 3.00 am. Just a few more problems - the quay was home to a dozen youths riding up and down doing tricks on their motorinos and shouting.... We decided to sleep in the bow cabin to avoid noise and wash from the fishing vessels. After 15 minutes we had a mosquito alert and moved to the stern cabin (which features a mosquito net!) and eventually got to sleep..... Up early to talk to the fuel man (1.80 euro per litre!) and then park up at Lega Marine. Bob cheered up when he got to watch the (fit) Maltese family (especially Mum) do their early morning gymnastic routines..... So it's not all sun and fun!