there's still space for more!

Our return to the UK provided us with another excellent PSA result - that's four tests and four very positive results. However, over the last few weeks a strange looking bulge has developed in Bruce's pants... a bulge that really shouldn't be there! After a bit of poking around the consultant confirmed it to be an inguinal hernia and went on to say that the bulge was his bladder slipping into one of the keyhole voids created during the RALP surgery. A further minor operation is now required so we return to the UK late September. In the meantime, we're back in Marina di Ragusa to find summer in full swing.

The atmosphere is buzzing with most hotels and apartments now full. Cars and mopeds line every inch of the grid-like structure of the resort though the preferred form of transport is the bicycle, they're everywhere. For as far as the eye can see the beach is now a kaleidoscope of colour lined with umbrellas to shelter from the intense heat.



The local market has trebled in size with additional fruit and vegetable stalls, clothes and bric-a-brac. Summer stalls line the promenade all trying to tempt you to purchase their goods - jewellery, soap, arts, crafts and local produce and there's an entertainment schedule to suite all from fitness classes to art and cultural events.



As for the marina it has a steady flow of cruising sailors, mainly Maltese and Italian with just the occasional English, Swiss, French, German, Belgium and New Zealander flagged vessels. The noticeable change is the increase of additional sports boats and ribs berthed either side of the runway along three pontoons. The marina has laid on an extended golf buggy that offers a shuttle service around the marina grounds - to and from the beach, the office, the local bars and I'm pretty sure if we asked they'd take us to the shower block too! We're thoroughly enjoying our summer in Marina di Ragusa and despite the additional volumes of holidaymakers it's still very pleasant and relatively quiet in the marina.


daily swim with fellow cruisers Di and John