Bon Voyage Old Girl

It seemed like Sicily had not realised that it was the first day of spring this week as the weather here deteriorated, we had some storms and high winds which certainly didn’t feel like the first sight of summer.

Thankfully it only lasted a few days and has now improved again!

We are fast approaching the start of the sailing season and our time to hopefully leave Marina di Ragusa, so we needed to make arrangements for the car. We looked into driving her home, this would require multiple covid tests and 10 days quarantine when we arrive in the UK, followed by further tests and 14 days quarantine on our return to Italy. The cost of tests, ferries, hotels, quarantine and a flight back to Italy (assuming that it doesn’t get cancelled) worked out very expensive. Also the fact that the UK would still have restrictions in place with regards to meeting up with family and friends, we decided that it was not the best time for us to make this trip.

It was looking increasingly likely that the old girl would be going to the car graveyard, until speaking to some friends of ours who were planning to go home to the UK, and as they have a dog they wanted to drive. We discussed the options over several bottles of wine and everyone agreed that it would be best if they took the old girl.

We had one day before handover so decided to make the most of having transport and had a very busy day. We did a big shopping trip to stock up on heavy items (mainly beer and wine), we just need to find somewhere out of temptations way to store it all!

Another visit to Bricoman (Paul’s favourite store) for more electrical and plumbing parts that we need to finish off some jobs.

We also managed to get a last minute appointment to visit the dentist while we still had the car. Having recently managed to chip a tooth we were recommended a good dentist in nearby Comiso. She was really good, trained in New York so thankfully spoke excellent English, the chipped tooth was repaired straight away.

The following morning the car was handed over to her new owners. We were sad to see her go and slightly jealous that she gets to complete the tour of Europe without us, but happy that she was going to a good home.

In true marina liveaboard style, we had to have a leaving party for our departing friends and a brunch with croissants, panettone, scones, pancakes and of course Prosecco was arranged on the pontoon to wish them farewell.

Sicily has changed back to ‘orange’ so tighter restrictions are in place, but as we can still travel within the local area, we did a challenging hike starting from the reservoir at Ragusa, Lago di Santa Rosalia.

The walks that we have done so far have generally been on well maintained paths but not this one! The trail was difficult to find in many parts and as you can see on the map, we took several wrong turnings. We found ourselves fighting through fields of grass and reeds, walking on very uneven ground with hidden holes below the grass, up and down rocky paths and walls, through blackberry bushes, over barbed wire, electric fences and streams.

However when not dealing with all of the obstacles, it was a very scenic walk, we had great views of the reservoir with Ragusa town and Ibla in the distance, fields full of spring flowers, cows and donkeys.

Certainly an adventure and definitely earned a few glasses of wine when we returned…..where did we hide those bottles?!?