At the moment we are sitting at anchor back in Taormina, Sicily.
Janice Joplin is on the Bose Bluetooth stereo ( listening live to CKUA online - what a great station from Alberta)!! There’s a full moon and... it’s a wonderful evening!

We spent last night in the Marina in Riposto, we had to be there for the mechanic to come and install the new Alternator. Now... this is totally something Cam could do- but it’s s whole different story here. It’s just difficult to order etc etc!! And... August everything just shuts down.

We have a great agent that has been indispensable with helping us sort through all of the things we need!

We did our first “ stern” tie - mostly what they do here in Europe. We had to book two slips because of the boat width. It went very well! Cam had no problem steering her! We were told that a bunch of dingy’s would come out to guide us in ... uh nope! One guy with limited English. Nevertheless after a game of Charades .... we figured it all out!

The next morning the Bimini maker and the mechanics arrived.
It was hotter than I’ve ever experienced!!
Later, we walked to town to try to find some hinges for one of the hatches ( they were all broken off)
We were sent to a little shop- no luck! Looks like we will have to order them in line !

We stopped for a few groceries- always an experience here lol!
You don’t get your own veggies - there’s a “ person” who does that for you!
We got some things and headed back to the boat- I was drenched- and I mean I never perspire.... different story here.

Eventually we set off back to Taormina. We are now anchoring.. we had a problem with the Windless - beeping endlessly.Cam stopped it but we are still not sure why!

This boat has SO many things!! It’s quite amazing.
We are learning all kinds of things!

We still can’t get into the computer- it holds a lot of valuable information that we need!

The night feels like the first night we’ve just chilled ! We are getting closer to sailing off !

One last funny story - we set off to dingy into “ town” our electric motor has not been cooperating! We took a chance and headed off ...very slowly albeit... we made it it to town. I had a big problem with my latest SIM card carrier - I needed to go back there to figure it out. Long story short ( ish) huge line up at the “ Wind store... I was politely waiting and people just jumped in front of me! Finally ... I was helped and after much Google Translator... we figured it out- the guy motioned he would be right back with my phone... he left the store.... I though, hmmm ok ? ( this was after he said my problem was my phones fault- I said it’s an IPHONE ? Hello! )Anyway he returned problem solved. Oh and the night before I tried calling the UK branch of the company plus chatting on line - I mean it went on and on! So when this guy returned to the store with it fixed .., I was almost in tears with joy!!! Lol
Oh ya and after that, we thought we should eat something- decided to share a hamburger- the server asked what we wanted on it . So said “ lettuce, tomato,onion- we’ll eventually it arrived - with just those things ... no burger part lol... goodness you have to just laugh!! We didn’t say burger too- even though we were ordering a hamburger .

Oh and... we had our first photo op today lol - a guy on a Seadoo come up to us and asked if was ok if he could ride in front of us and take a video because he thought the boat was pretty 😎

Well more soon as the adventures continue. To my cousins Malta we will get there eventually ❤️