Wellllll.... we left Malta to head back to Sicily to try to get this insurance thing settled . We got back to Portopalo because it’s the nearest anchorage .
While we were there and after a lot of thought,Cam said let’s just forget it, the Italian insurance company was next to impossible to deal with. We were thinking, we could be waiting who knows how long.

So, we decided to go back to Malta and then head towards North Africa, Tunis and then Morocco. Getting us closer to Gilbralter where Cam will start out his Atlantic crossing.

So we were back in Malta again! I was thrilled of course! Malta has great marine supplies and groceries!
We took advantage of both.

While we were there we heard more from the insurance company! So after all that we decided to go back again to Sicily and deal with the boat repair. Off we went again!

When Cam and I first arrived we stayed at the Olive tree ranch. We went on and on about it to Penny and Fred.

We were determined to go have dinner at the ranch! Cam remembered a road right to the beach that the girl at the reception talked about. I remembered seeing people at a beach .( all close to where the boat was on the hard when we came to get it).
We headed off in the dinghy to shore, I told Penny that it may be a beach landing, so, she changed her leather sandals! Wellll uh ya!! It was a beach landing alright!
We were trying to scope the best landing area with our head lamp !
All I could see was Rock walls with big surf hitting them!!😳.
We went for the beach area ... as we got closer a very large wave filled the dinghy and soaked us!! Plus a bunch more behind it.

We were walking to the restaurant squishing as we stepped! Cam and Fred has seaweed all over their legs as they squished along the road!

We arrived at the restaurant a soaking mess! The way back wasn’t as bad ! It didn’t matter we were already drenched.

Next day we headed to Catania a large city in Sicily and where we originally flew in to.
This was after talking back and forth with George to arrange for the boat repair.

We had to go to the commercial docking area. Big transport trucks all around, fishing boats, ferries and huge cruise ships!

We are still here! Our neighbours are large fishing boats who leave about 8:30 at night and return early in the morning. Fred managed to go and get some fresh shrimp.

We have walked around the city quite a bit now. It’s an incredibly historic place! It’s also very sad in that it’s covered with graffiti! Beautiful historic buildings with horrible graffiti on them!

It’s also sad to see the amount of plastic garbage in the harbour. We’ve noticed this fishing boat next to us just dumps it’s plastic bags and other stuff over the side of the boat each day! Awful!

It hasn’t been the most ideal place to be, but we’ve made the best of it. We have two local cats that come regularly for fish handouts. At night we see that they’ve been boarding the boat, little black paw prints everywhere.

Today was really hot! Thankfully later in the day we had a big downpour and a breeze.

Penny and Fred leave in a couple of days. We will head back to Taormina if the paint on the fix is ready.
We miss swimming! You can’t swim in this harbour that’s for sure.

We have A sailor friend Brian arriving early October and he will be sailing across the Atlantic with Cam and another friend, Cory.

Not sure what will go on between then and now!

Bye for now!