A time to decide
17 May 2019
Paul Barker | Wet & cold
On Tuesday I decided that on Wednesday I would take a tour around Syracuse, so I told the skipper my plan, then about 4 hours later he says that he has decided to sail east along the coast, now I would much rather be sailing ⛵️ than wandering around or stuck at anchor. So we make the plans for the early start. When I got up I knew that the weather was not good, we had no wind and plenty of miserable rain 🌧. So engine on and away we go. For over 10 hours we motored (I don't like using the motor)along the coast, it was rather boring and always wet and cold 🥶 (not normal for Sicily) we were supposed to take on fuel at Agusta but because the skipper thought the marina weren't answering him as he would have liked he swore a little and made disparaging remarks about them, so we motored right past them with out passing go or collecting £200 or any fuel. We passed mount Etna, which was shrouded in cloud, I did see her at one point and could see the snow covered summit but it was only a glimpse. We moved in close to shore and dropped the anchor just near to Taormina, a lovely little town, at this time we now have to get the dinghy ⛵️ down and take 3 empty fuel cans to shore, the only option we had was to drive the dinghy ⛵️ up onto the beach 🏖 I voiced my opinion and told him that I couldn't get my leg wet by stepping into the sea, anyway we eventually managed to get the fuel ⛽️ without me getting wet, unlike the skipper who plunged in up to his chest, which I found very amusing, simply because he didn't go into the very easy tie up alongside the fuel dock in Agusta 😂😂.
On Thursday morning the decision is to motor back the way we came yesterday and stop in a marina we had passed about 10 miles back, when we got there we went in so slowly I could have put a rope on the dinghy ⛵️ and paddled us in faster. So I have never parked a boat in backwards before, on our approach I ask questions about how we will achieve this manoeuvre, next thing I know the skipper is told to tie up alongside (easy for me now) so now he is telling me to do 3 different things at the same time tie a rope at the front, tie a rope at the back and run around with a large fender buoy to prevent the boat hitting anything, even with my great skills and powers I can't do all 3 at the same time, so he comes in at the wrong angle and has to reverse away and try again, with many people looking on and shaking their heads, I thought it was quite amusing because only an hour before he was telling me how good he was at sailing all on his own, now here he can't even do a simple manoeuvre with the two of us it was such a simple thing to do.
Now we are tied up to the jetty, at this time he says that I can go and have a look round and he will do the squaring away, so I gets all ready with shore shoes 👠 on and my bag packed, as I'm walking away he now tells me that he wants to move the boat, so I shakes my head in frustration and comes back, change my shoes 👞 again. Two hours later he starts to get aggressive, so I tell him how I feel and that I don't like his unnecessary rules and funny attitude, and that I have decided to leave, this he didn't like, I packed my kit and left the boat in the pouring rain 🌧