Sailing Duet

We found a place with a better price to get Duet’s bottom painted. It turned out to be the best experience! Navalire Scala boat yard in Pozzallo. Giovanni and his father operate a very professional family business. 

We left Marina di Ragusa on June 1 bound for Pozzalo with Deb and Dan on board. Fernanda was completely out of commission. She had the headache of the century and was in her berth the whole time, so it was fortunate for us that Dan and Debbie ( both full on Captains in their own right with tons of experience) were able to help us get there. We entered the slipway with no problems and Duet was lifted with a 300 Ton Travel Lift. Duet’s bottom was pressure washed, sanded, a couple of areas were faired, painted with (3) coats of International Extra bottom paint. This all took 3 days, so we rented a flat in Pozallo with Dan and Deb. Going out for dinner, we found a place that was one of those “come back again and again” places. Fabulous food and service! Daniel our waiter took care of us as we dined on “Coze en Crusta” (Mussles with a crust). This is a traditional Sicilian dish that is super deliciouso! Fresh caught mussels are steamed with white wine, garlic, special spices, tomatos and baked in the pizza oven with pizza dough on the top! When you cut into it, the smell drives you crazy and you can’t stop eating the crusty pizza bread and mussles together! We even saved the sauce from the dish to have later with Spagetti (another Sicilian trick that we were advised of). MMMMMMMM!!!! We fell in love with the food of the region those days.

We arrived to Catalonia, Sicily, on May 14, 2019. We had a car reserved to take us to Marina di Ragusa and used it for about a week to run around and get parts, supplies and provisions for the season. The drive down from Catalonia was wonderful! The GPS took us on all these back roads and we had a chance to see some of the Sicilian countryside.
Brad Waddington of S/V Korsar (the person who looked after Duet) was still in the marina and briefed us on how the winter went. A lot of strong winds and rain. Duet faired well though, we didn't have any problems other than the toilet we were still wating for and one of the throttle controls for the Ocean Volt engines still needed to be replaced and tested. Ohh.. and the bottom and propellors were full of foul sea creatures about 4" thick!

Dan and Debbie Orlando arrived a couple of days later and it was a fantastic experience to welcome them aboard Duet! Dan's family was originally from Sicily (Palermo) and he seemed super happy to trace his roots back in time and see the country from his ancestors. They also rented a car and left a couple of days later (afer helping us a lot with the boat!)

There are so many things that need to be done in order to raise a boat from storage to working condition. Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. Duet was filty from all of the "red rain" dust from the winds that blast over from the coast of Africa. All of the lines needed to be cleaned and re-installed, sails too. We needed to (at least) clean the bottom a bit and hired a diver to clean the props so that we would be able to move her.

After a great tour around Sicily, the Orlandos came back to Duet and helped with the final preparations to sail.