I'm sitting in the waiting room of the local gas plant in Ragusa. The objective is to have our French butane gas bottles - "les cubes" - filled. If successful, it would be a first outside France. But I was here this morning and was being told to come back at 3. "Esta preparando" is a good sign but ....

Italy so far has been frustrating. I had told the yard to have all work done when I arrived but they had started none. They hadn't ordered the bottom paint that's on the boat notwithstanding my explicit instructions so it was not available. Good news because I got "superior" (???) paint for the same price! They lost a package with $2000 worth of parts. And so on, and so on. Did I mention that they tried to remove me from the boat with the help of the local coast guard? While I was unpacking my suitcases on the boat someone knocked and said "it's very dangerous to be on the boat in the yard and we need you to leave." I said no thank you and continued unpacking until a nice fully uniformed Coast Guard man arrived reinforcing the "request." Well, this being Italy the situation was resolved by a nice "chat" with the Coast Guard and the yard manager and I had permission to be on the boat 9-5 except weekends. If I had not obtained express permission to do various things on the boat before launch, they would have told me "sorry" like they did the owner of the Oyster 575 that's just been hauled.
But on the good side, Kincsem is now in the water, back at M dock in the marina. All work the yard had agreed to do miraculously got done before the weekend and so Alexander and I get to enjoy the comforts of having a heater (there was none in our shore apartment). Not an insubstantial advantage given 9C at night!! Further on the good side, I successfully serviced the "Amel drive" for the first time. That's the "Z" drive that let's the prop shaft come out at the back of the keel and servicing it requires pulling off the prop and pulling out a bronze bushing and 3 big seals - all stuck from 3 years of running. With patience, WD40, a big hammer and a massive pair of pliers, the bushing and seals came out after one day of trying. With the help of a locally sourced plastic tube, I was able to push the new bushing and seals back in and so far, it's not leaking water! Now the mystery of the drive is solved and I look forward to doing it again after 800 more hours on the engine!

Ah, the nice Italians from the gas company just informed me (using Google translate) that they can't fill the bottles after all. Apparently, the special connector Amel sold me to connect standard gas tubing to "les cubes" only works to let gas out, not to let gas in. So I can run them down but never fill them again. Great job, Amel.